GALEN ON THE COMPOSITION OF MEDICINES

PAGE 13

Edition of Chartier XIII. [528.] Edition of Basel II. (257.)

...according to other proportions original: "symmetrias." This refers to the balanced ratio of ingredients.. Some authors were satisfied with a medicine composed simply of three or four simple ingredients. Others extended the number of ingredients much further. Some authors, as has been mentioned, made the composition of their windpipe medicines arteriacas from the softest and most soothing materials. Conversely, others made them from materials that are sharp, hot, cleansing, and quite drying.

There are also those who created a third type, which is in the middle of these two extremes. After these, others created medicines in the space between the middle and the softest types. Still others created medicines in the space between the sharpest and the middle types. Following this same logic, some authors moved further from the middle medicines and others moved less, creating various different compositions based on the power of the ingredients.

Only a person who understands the power of each of the simple medicines will use all of these correctly. Such a person will know the rank of the medicine and how far it has moved away from the middle ground. Many authors wrote about such medicines both before and after Mantias Mantias was a famous pharmacologist of the 2nd century BCE known for his work on the preparation of drugs. and Heraclides Likely Heraclides of Tarentum, a leading physician of the Empiricist school around the 1st century BCE.. However, the medicines recorded by these two men are much better, whether they composed the recipes themselves or received them from others through their writings...