THE INTRODUCTION OF JOHANNITIUS TO THE TEGNI OF GALEN, THE FIRST BOOK OF MEDICINE.

A decorative initial 'M' contains a circular diagram representing the four bodily humors divided by a cross.

Medicine is divided into two parts: theory and practice. Theory is divided into three parts: the contemplation of natural things, non-natural things, and those that are against nature i.e., diseases. Through these, the knowledge of sickness, health, and the neutral state—and their causes and signs—proceeds, specifically when the four humors grow beyond their natural course, from which occasion or sign a disease may arise.

Natural things are seven: elements, mixtures, compositions i.e., the humors, members, virtues, operations, and spirits. Others have added four more to these: ages, colors, figures, and the difference between male and female.

Elements are seven.

The elements are four: fire, air, water, and earth. Fire is hot and dry; air is hot and moist; water is cold and moist; earth is cold and dry.

Mixtures are nine: eight unequal and one equal. Of the unequal ones, four are simple: that is, hot, cold, moist, and dry. And four are composed of these: hot and moist, hot and dry, cold and moist, cold and dry. The equal mixture is that which maintains the body in good health with moderation.

Compositions are four: blood, phlegm, red bile, and black bile. Blood is hot and moist; phlegm is cold and moist; red bile is hot and dry; black bile is cold and dry.

Phlegm...

Phlegm also has many modes. Phlegm that is salt is hot and dry, infected by a choleric humor. Phlegm that is sweet pertains to heat and moisture, infected by blood. Phlegm that is sharp pertains to cold and dryness, infected by melancholic humor. There is also vitreous phlegm, which is born from great cold and coagulation, as in the elderly who are deprived of natural heat. There is another phlegm that is cold and moist: this one has no taste but retains its own coldness and moisture.

Red bile...

Cholera rubea red bile consists of many modes. There is red bile that is clear or naturally pure, and substantially hot; its origin is from the liver. There is citrine bile, whose origin is from the composition of watery phlegm and pure red bile; therefore, it is less hot. There is bile similar to the yolks of eggs, which is born from the mixture of coagulated phlegm and clear red bile, which is less hot. Fourthly, there is green bile like leek, whose origin is more from the stomach than from the liver. There is also green bile like green verdigris, and it acts like a poison. It is born from excessive burning, which has its own color and its own malignancy.

Black bile consists of two modes. One way is natural, in the manner of the dregs of blood and its disturbance; it is known to be so from the black colors that flow out either below or above, and this mode is truly cold and dry. There is another mode outside the natural course, and

its origin is from the burning of choleric mixture; this is truly called black, and it is hotter and lighter than the former mode, having within itself a deadly force and a pernicious quality.

There are four modes of members. Some are primary, serving as the matter and foundations: the brain, heart, liver, and testicles. Others serve these primary members, such as the nerves that serve the brain, the arteries that serve the heart, the veins that serve the liver, and the spermatic vessels that provide semen to the testicles. There are other members that have their own virtue by which they are governed and their quality is maintained, such as bones, cartilages, and membranes between the skin and flesh, muscles, fat, and flesh. Others lack their own virtue but receive their beginning and vigor from the primary foundations, such as the stomach, kidneys, intestines, and all ligaments. These, by their own proper virtue, seek food, transform it, and perform their acts according to nature. They also have other virtues flowing from the primary foundations, from which arise sensation and life with voluntary motion.

The partition of virtue is threefold. There is animal virtue, spiritual virtue, and natural virtue. Natural virtue is one that ministers acts as an agent, and another to which it ministers. Natural virtue ministers in several ways: sometimes it generates, sometimes it nourishes, sometimes it feeds. The virtue that ministers and is not ministered to is that which appetizes, retains, digests, and expels, all of which serve the feeding virtue, just as the feeding virtue serves the nourishing one. Two others serve the generating virtue: one that transforms food, and another that informs gives shape/structure to it; these differ from each other. The former virtue transforms food and ministers to the generating virtue without informing it. The second transforms and ministers to the generating virtue with information. The operations of the informative virtue are five: assimilative, concave-making, perforating, rough, and smooth.

From spiritual virtue, two things proceed: one operative, and one operated by this. The operative virtue is that which dilates the heart and arteries, and again constricts them. From the operated virtue, these arise: anger, indignation, victory, domination, cunning, and solicitude.

Animal virtue comprises three things. There is one animal virtue that organizes, composes, and discerns; the second that moves by voluntary motion; the third that is called sensitive. From the organizing, discerning, and composing virtue, these proceed: fantasy in the forehead, thought or reason in the brain, memory in the occiput. The virtue that is voluntarily mobile moves the ligaments by which other members are moved that move by voluntary motion. The sensitive virtue consists of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

Operations are of two kinds. There are operations where each single one performs its own function: such as appetite for food through heat and dryness, digestion through heat and moisture, retention through cold and dryness, expulsion through that which is cold and moist. There are also composite operations formed by two: such as desire and movement. For desire is composed of a double virtue: one that appetizes, another that senses; for the stomach senses its own emptiness. Movement is composed of two virtues or more: one that expels, another that attracts or senses, and another that appetizes.

Spirits are therefore three: the first is natural, which takes its beginning from the liver; the second is vital, from the heart; the third is animal, from the brain. The first of these from the liver is diffused through the veins which do not have a pulse throughout the whole body; the second is directed from the heart through the arteries to the whole body; the third is directed through the nerves to the whole body from the brain, which are known in the seventh part of natural things, i.e., in the spirit.