Has de humoribus theses

MEDICAL THESES.
I.

Since the theory of the humors is proper to the elegant physician and very useful for correctly performing the tasks of the art, as Galen correctly established against Erasistratus, I thought I would be doing something worthwhile if I proposed certain things that pertain to the understanding of their nature for discussion.

2. Their consideration pertains to that part of Medicine which they call Physiological: Although, from a different respect, it can also be referred to Aetiology the study of the causes of disease.

3. Among the medical principles of human nature, the Humors occupy not only, as some object, a place, but by no means the last one: And for that reason, they are encompassed by the divine Galen under that celebrated ternary of Containing, Contained, and Impetus-making the causes that initiate movement or change.

4. For, when considered in general, they are fluid bodies, contained within the spaces of the human body.

5. It was necessary for them to be fluid, both so that they could be carried and attracted to the parts to be nourished through the paths destined by nature for this task, and also so that they could be expelled outside the body.

6. They are of a various kind, whether you look at the matter, the form, or the efficient cause: But especially with respect to the end, they are distinguished into useful and useless.

7. From the useful ones, we shall deal for the present primarily with those that contribute to the nutrition of the individual, and which, failing in quality or quantity, become useless and are rendered as excrements.