Aphorisms of Hippocrates

prescribing. But, that he may rightly do those things which are appropriate to the disease, it is first necessary that he possess the medical art, then that he act according to art. And whoever acts according to art, acts according to nature: for art imitates nature. But nature does those things which are necessary: for indeed, says Hippocrates in book 2 of Epidemics, section 5, the natures of diseases are the physicians. Nature itself finds for itself its own assaults, not by premeditation, partly as is blinking, but partly also those things which the tongue provides, and whatsoever other things of this kind, [the] nature [not being] taught, and using no teacher, does those things which are necessary. And in his book On Art, he writes: nature, stimulated and impelled by those skilled in art, shows what must be done. [Nature] compels the heat grown together in us to diffuse phlegm partly through the acrimony of foods and drinks, so that it may understand what its opinion is concerning those things which it itself has devised in order to be seen; partly, however, it compels [the body] to hasten with the spirit as if as a messenger through arduous paths and courses, and to betray [the cause]. Whence nature teaches art, which afterwards imitates it, and the craftsman is the minister and imitator of nature. Whoever, therefore, wishes to cure a sick person rightly, it is necessary that he have the knowledge and art of curing them. We have knowledge of some disease when we know its causes. But there are four causes of diseases: the efficient, the formal, the material, and the final: but the efficient is divided into the confulent, the preparing, or disposing, the aiding, the perfecting, and the conserving. Nature and the physician consult and demonstrate what are opportune for expelling the disease. The instruments of nature and the physician prepare what we have said are three. Those things which surround, such as place, time, and the remaining circumstances, aid. Also, non-natural and natural things aid, such as the parts of the patient's body while they are strong; indeed, they perform the work of the physician and finally restore health