See, this first teaches Alexander, king...
through nature even unto death of the wretched.
Furthermore, also to be, you might be able to sense better. Marginal note referencing Alexander the Great and the nature of mortality.

we constrict them to their own mode and induce rest, or if less, the contrary. In the wide ones, however, we similarly add the contrary of the cause from which the vice occurred, and constrict the openings according to their mode. If it happens from the faculty of the constituent faculty, we soften them with fomentations and a poultice. But if it is from a defect of the expulsive faculty, we use sudorifics and restoratives; if from a constricting cause, we soften it; if from a dry cause, we moisten it; if from a constriction, we resolve it. Those things, however, that were changed from their natural position, we restore to their own place; if from an abscess, we cure the abscess by maturing it; if from a natural joint, we either open it with medicinal remedy or loosen it with surgery; if from any growth, we destroy it; if from roughness, we apply smoothness; if from smoothness, we apply roughness.

Concerning the ablation of superfluity.

We take away superfluity in number either in part, as in scrofula, or in whole, as in a cancer. We cure the separation in number if it happens from an abundance of blood; we remove it in every age. If it is from semen, we cure it only in childhood. We increase the smallness of members by movements and fomentations, but we change and diminish the magnitude by compressing and resting. We return a changed member from its location to its proper place in two ways: for we either join what is separated, or we separate what is joined. Four things are necessary for the separation of a joint: to join what is separated, to guard the joint lest it recede, to defend it, and to guard the nature of the location.

Concerning the sufficiency and division of medicine.

All medicine is either the tempered exhibition of those things we said above, or it is food, or surgery. The operation of medicine has a triple effect: internal, as that which we introduce through the mouth, nostrils, ears, or anus or vagina; external, as epithems, poultices, plasters, and the like, which work from the outside. The operation of internal medicine is divided into three: for it either dissolves, like a purgative; or it compresses, like astringents; or it changes the quality, like cold water in fevers. Its effect, moreover, is fourfold: for it either diminishes abundance, like a purgative; or it replenishes lack, like meat or blood; or it constricts what is loosened, like an astringent; or it changes the quality, like cold water in fevers.

Concerning surgery.

Surgery is twofold: in flesh and in bone. In flesh, such as to cut, sew, or cook; in bone, such as to solidify, reconnect, or restore. The cognition of species happens in five ways: the discretion of quality, quantity, time, order, and good or bad.

THE BOOK OF PULSES OF PHILARETUS BEGINS.

We have the intention in the present writing to expose a summary tradition concerning the business of pulses, and to say first what a pulse is, what the utility of the pulse is, what an artery is, why it is called an artery, and from where it arises. It must be started, therefore, from the first: what a pulse is.

The pulse is a motion of the heart and the arteries which occurs according to diastole and systole for the cooling of the innate heat, and the excretion or ejection of smoky superfluities. How many are...

the things effecting the pulse are three: the faculty doing the motion, the utility inducing it, and the instrument obeying it. What is an artery? An artery is an oblong, round body like a canal, consisting of two tunics, starting from the heart and divided throughout the whole body, containing air and vital spirit. Whence is it called an artery? From paratopyr to preserve vital air. Whence arises the artery? This indeed arises from the left auricle of the heart, which is called the aorta, which splits in two ways. And this, indeed, is carried downward through the interiors, and it divides to the right and left to the hips and even to the feet and toes. The other, however, is carried upward again, and divides likewise to the right and left, into the hands and head. And that which is carried to the head makes the arteries which are called potide carotids; that which is carried to the right and left internally tends to the arms and elbows and even to the tips of the fingers of the hands. The present writing has the intention to expose the motions, cognitions, and causes of pulses. How often is the pulse changed? In three ways: from those things that are according to nature, and those that are against nature, and those that are not nature, such as the crasis temperament/constitution of men and women, and ages, and other coupled things. For these are the masters: these, indeed, are males, these are females; and of these themselves, these are warmer according to constitution, these are colder; these are slender by nature, these are fat and fleshy. And men, indeed, are altogether warmer and stronger than women according to nature. Therefore, by merit, the pulses in them are faster and more vehement; in women, as they are colder, they are slower and softer. In both of these, however—I speak of men and women—an intense constitution increases the pulse. In the warmer, indeed, they are larger and faster; for heat is quickly mobile. In the colder, however, they are smaller and slower; for cold is slowly mobile. The habits, however, are found in both, such as slender and fleshy. For in the slender, the pulse is subjected much to the touch; in the fat and fleshy, however, they are lower. Therefore, one must also consider the coupled things, or regions, and times, and ages, and the excellent constitutions; and it is to say in the four times of the year, these things being: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Two of these are well-tempered: spring and autumn; two are distempered: winter and summer. Therefore, by merit, in spring and autumn, the pulses are large and very strong because of the quality of the tempered state. It is manifest that according to the ages, proportionally in summer, they are not faster and thicker, with each age inducing necessity because of the heat of the air surrounding us; in winter, however, the pulses become rarer and slower because of the coldness and constriction of the surrounding air. Likewise, however, in each region, according to that constitution, the pulses are changed. The warmer, indeed, makes large and fast pulses; the colder is the contrary. We shall say, however, concerning the ages. If, therefore, the ages are different, the pulses of them will move differently. The pulse of children, indeed, is fast and soft and thick; according to magnitude and strength, however, it is in the middle. Fast, indeed, because according to substance, natural heat abounds in them; thick, because of the abundance in them according to quantity of heat; soft, however, because their faculties are imperfect. It is said, indeed, that soft pulses are made from the weakness of the faculties. The pulse of the old, however, is conversely slower and rarer compared to children because of the weakness and coldness that is in them. Those who are in the age of growth, however, have pulses that are large and very strong because the faculties in them are stronger. Likewise, also, according to the qualities of the time, the constitutions and pulses are changed. Just as, indeed, was said before, that which contains changes the contained to its own constitution. In pregnant women, however, the pulses are thick and fast. Thick, indeed, because the faculty is weighed down by the fetus. Thick and fast, indeed, because of the inducing necessity of the pregnancy and the fetus. In sleep, however, the pulses are smaller and softer; it is manifest that it happens from natural heat entering the deep. In supervening constitutions, however, the pulses are changed toward the supervening things. Likewise, however, in the slender: as because the faculty suffers according to nature, or according to the substance of some principal part, or from something making, or...