Theses hasce

THESIS I.

Decorative drop cap letter F.An exquisite intermittent tertian fever (which Avicenna calls "Pure") is an unequal intemperies imbalance of qualities, hot and dry. It is first heated by the humors of the heart, and then, through the scorched vapors of yellow bile rotting outside the veins, it is diffused through the arteries and veins into the whole body, damaging its functions.

2. The differences of this are taken from two sources primarily: from Matter and Place.

3. The matter is bilious, and indeed it is manifold.

4. For one bile is natural, another unnatural; that is, lacking in some way from nature, or not lacking.

5. Natural bile, which is otherwise called yellow or pale, is again of two differences: namely, Alimentary, by which the parts of the body are nourished—Natural in the strict sense—and Excrementitious.

6. The veins contain the former, mixed with blood, phlegm, and melancholy, and through them it is distributed to nourish the parts akin to its nature along with the blood. It clears passages obstructed by thick and viscous humors, and thus provides a path and passage for blood that is about to flow through the veins in a thicker state.

7. The latter, however, the vesicle of the bile which lies under the liver receives first, and then casts it out through its own duct into the intestines, by the benefit of which they are cleansed of viscous things and purged of thick things.

8. If we believe Galen, there are four species of unnatural bile: namely xanthodes yellowish or vitelline, prasoeides leek-green or porraceous, iodes violet/rust-colored or ferruginous, and finally isatodes woad-colored, otherwise called blue.

9. Therefore, any tertian fever seems to be able to arise from any species of bile, specifically that which is "sincere," that is, not mixed with another humor.

10. For it is of two kinds: some exactly exquisite, some not exactly. The former is generated from yellow bile, the latter from the remaining species, which are much hotter.

11. For vitelline, porraceous, ferruginous, and blue bile are much hotter and drier than natural yellow bile; just as we state, on the authority of Galen, that the pale bile is of a more moderate heat.

12. All other conditions, therefore, must concur with yellow bile, so that an exquisite fever may be produced simply and exactly.