Endoxa philosophica & medica

...which, just as it is broken by full strength, so it gains power by being restored, and consequently by the digestion of food, which draws away the strength? What of the fact that bodies afflicted by such a disease, having been rendered more impure, are harmed the more they are nourished?

II.
Is a drink made from the decoction of coriander not suspect in epilepsy, as well as in other affections of the head? For since coriander, because of its heat joined with much humidity and vapor, is harmful to the head; indeed, even if seeds are for the most part exempt from that humidity, they not only do not prohibit the ascent of vapors, but even by their own nature seek the head, and are apt to disturb the mind and induce delirium, as Dioscorides original: "Diosc." reports.

III.
Since asthma generally depends on a thick and viscous humor, and therefore requires substances that cut and cleanse powerfully, why is hyssop counted among the first by the ancients and so highly recommended that it is even called the "Cutter"? Is it not to be inferred that our hyssop is not the legitimate one, since it responds to the praise of the ancients neither in strength nor in taste, among other indications? I remember our most gracious Erastus was of this same opinion.

IIII.
Are not very many people mistaken who, thinking that almond milk constipates the bowels, prepare it with bran water, when it acts as a laxative even without such water? This is due both to the cleansing power of almonds, which a slight bitterness in them proves (according to Galen, in the 5th and 6th books On the Faculties of Simple Medicines), and also due to their oily substance. Furthermore, Galen himself confirms this rather than attacking it, in the 2nd book On the Faculties of Foods, where he asserts that they do not assist in moving the bowels because of their dryness. Since the dryness, which perhaps might be able to retard evacuations, consists in the skin, which is dry, they are only suitable for making milk once they have been cleaned of it.