Disputatio de melancholia

VII.
Inconvenient motion of the body not only makes the body cold and dry by dissipating the substance of the spirits and heat, but also irritates the depraved and melancholic humors, which are otherwise tranquil and as if contained, so that they harass the body in various ways, not only by a foul vapor but also by their own substance, and affect the principal parts.

VIII.
Immoderate rest, however, by rendering the heat inert and the spirits sluggish, begets many crudities, obstructions, and a supply of excrements, which can be the causes of this, as well as of many other affections.

X.
Among the perturbations of the mind, sadness seems to be the principal one, as it can weaken digestion, thicken humors, and exaggerate the melancholic juice by cooling and drying our body and extinguishing the innate heat of the spirit.

X.
The motion and rest common to the mind and body is sleep and waking. Of these, sleep obscures the spirits, weakens the forces of the senses and the mind as if by numbness and sluggishness, dulls the heat, and collects various superfluities of humors.

XI.
Waking, however, by dissipating the substance of the spirits and the innate heat, can induce a cold and dry constitution in our body, and thus, with digestion damaged, no less than immoderate sleep or other stagnant things, can generate melancholia.

XII.
There remains the excess and defect of customary evacuations; and first of all, the prohibited effusion of black bile from the spleen into the stomach, or the suppression of hemorrhoids or menses is dangerous, since through these paths the superfluous juice of melancholia is usually most purged.

XIII.
With all these, or even only some, if place, age, and time of year also concur, no one will doubt that they can bring the greatest help to the generation of the melancholic humor.