Spagyric Medicine or the Spagyric Art of Healing

evil. This proverb, unfortunately, daily experience makes more than true enough; for indeed war destroys all good civil order original: Policey; in the early modern period, this referred to the general governance, administration, and moral regulation of a community and regulation, changes all good customs and actions, and devastates houses, villages, cities, and even entire countries. It robs them of their goods, or at the very least prevents their use, and turns everything that should bring joy into a source of vexation.

Illness is now such a war—an internal and therefore all the more harmful war—wherein foreign, harmful properties proprietetenthe specific qualities or essential attributes of a substance or disease and characteristics manifest themselves and rise up. By adopting other qualities that match their own ill nature, they strengthen themselves, oppose Nature, and offer her battle. They thus cause a rebellion, a tumult, and an uprising, such that the natural operations of the body are disrupted, the limbs weakened, and its strength diminished. The delight that follows health is transformed into a burdensome vexation and [abhorrence]...