Prognosticon

If, however, they are in the intestines, we expel them more easily by stool. Nor shall we begin purging with a vehement pharmacy, lest the virtue be suddenly removed and fail, as Avicenna writes, to whom the holy Mesue agrees. Although Galen has denied that diseases of the nerves and joints can be cured unless by a strong agent. But the medicines by which humors are to be evacuated should be astringent, fragrant, and close to the temperament. For by these, the principal members are guarded and natural virtue is fortified. Wherefore medicines of this kind are always to be used, so that we may conserve nature and corroborate it once conserved. For if you have comforted nature, says Damascenus, it helps to cure the disease by medicating. Hence that of Hippocrates in the Epidemics: "Nature is the medicine of diseases." If, however, you have neglected it, and having neglected it allowed it to fail, it profits nothing. Furthermore, it must be noted how a medicine that is sweet and delectable in taste is devised. Whence Mesue: "And you knew," he says, "that good odors render medicine safe." For they settle agitation and nausea, comfort the heart and brain, exhilarate the soul, and generate joy; but a fetid or heavy odor works the contrary. This, likewise, Avicenna asserts in the little book which is inscribed On the Virtues of the Heart, whose words are these: "For the evolution of two medicines in virtue, the sweeter and more aromatic one is of more effective aid." Therefore, the attractive virtue of the members receives it more strongly; the spirit is nourished more quickly from it, if it has the power of nourishing, and suffers more quickly from it insofar as it is a medicine. Laxative medicines, by which nature is greatly afflicted and perturbed, such as turbith, scammony, coloquintida, hermodactyls, hellebore, mezerion, and that kind of pharmacy, we do not willingly administer. Whence Hippocrates: "A purging medicine purges and makes old." Which is often repeated by Avicenna. Hence Mesue: "The common malice of medicines is for the most part to make the body grow old, and to bring harm to those who frequent them in the principal members, and those which are the mines of the virtues." But the medicines which are in more frequent use, as they are most salubrious, which modern physicians call 'blessed', are these: aloes, cassia, fistula, manna, violets, myrobalans, citron, Indian chebuli, emblic, belliric, roses, tamarinds, rhubarb, milk water, and especially that of black goats, fumitory, and that kind of medicine. Nor do I think it should be ignored that syrups should be administered hot, not lukewarm, as Galen is the author in the eighth of Therapeutics, and not undeservedly, since all lukewarm things soften the orifice of the stomach, weaken it, exercise nausea, and cast down virtue. If we have acceded to the opinion of Galen in the eleventh of Therapeutics and Avicenna in the first of the fourth. But which syrups should be used