Peri tōn periptōmatōn tēs prōtēs pepseōs disputatio

7. After the chyme has been processed in the stomach and perfected in the intestines, its subtler part, suitable for the future nourishment of the body, is seized by the mesenteric veins and carried to the liver; the remaining coarser part, suited to no use of the body, is relegated to the thicker intestines so that it may be cast out of the body through the rectum by the benefit of the rectal muscles with which it is endowed.

8. This part is called by the Greeks xēron perittōma dry residue, diachōrēsis passage, diachōrēma excrement, hypochōrēma sediment, and kopros dung; by the Latins it is called dung, fecal matter, egestions, dejections, etc.

9. The matter, therefore, of which it consists, is the earthy and drier part of the chyme, with a portion of bile regurgitating daily into the intestines.

10. Form is partly external, partly internal. External is that by which the feces receive their sensible qualities. Internal is the temperament of the body itself, clearly contrary to its nature, accommodated for excretion.

11. The principal efficient cause is the faculty both alloiōtikē alterative and diekkritikē excretory, using the instrument of heat and natural spirit.

12. The end of the excrements is merely accidental with respect to nature, but necessary with respect to the matter from which they are formed. For nature institutes its actions for the sake of nutrition. But since everything that is nourished is nourished only by that which is similar to it, and those things which we assume are in many ways dissimilar to our body, it is necessary that those things which are related to nourishing the body be gathered and applied, while those which are dissimilar be separated and excluded from the body, lest their presence interfere with actions both natural, vital, and indeed even animal.

13. There occur, therefore, to excrements: Generation, Excretion, Mode, and Time of excretion.

14. The differences are various, though the principal ones are taken from age, temperature, and lifestyle.

15. From age: The hypochōrēseis sediments/stools of children and the elderly are more liquid; those of adolescents and adults are thicker and more colored.

16. From temperature: Those of the Sanguine are foul-smelling; those of the Bilious are numerous, yellow, and liquid; those of the Phlegmatic are foamy and liquid.