About external influences on drugs

It happens that drugs experience effects depending on circumstances that are created artificially, such as when boiling, grinding, burning with fire, washing, cooling in the cold or when placed next to other drugs.

There are medicines whose properties change depending on what happens to them due to these circumstances, and there are also medicines that change their properties when mixed with other medicines, although the reasoning about this is more like the reasoning about the composition of complex medicines.

So, let's say that among medicines there are medicines with a dense mass, the properties of which are not released when cooked, unless they are boiled. These are, for example, caper root, aristolochia, wild ginger and similar remedies.

There are also balanced medicines, for which moderate cooking is sufficient. If you cook them persistently, then their forces will dissolve and be carried upward. These are, for example, diuretics, as well as Greek lavender and the like.

There are medicines that should not be brought to even moderate boiling. It is enough to cook them just a little, and if you let them boil even once, their powers will dissolve and, having separated during cooking, disappear without a trace. This is, for example, dodder: if you boil it well, its strength will be destroyed.

There are also medicines whose properties are completely destroyed by rubbing. Such is, for example, scammonium, which must be ground so that the rubbing does not generate heat in it, which is detrimental to its properties. Most gums have this quality and are best diluted in liquid rather than ground.

All medicines subjected to excessive rubbing lose their effect, for not always, when the particles of a body are small, its properties are retained in full force or are reduced according to the small size of its particles.

On the contrary, the decrease can reach such a limit when the body does not exhibit its inherent action at all. For if, for example, the force of a body causes a certain movement, then it is not at all necessary that the force of half of this body be capable of moving any part of what it moves.

So, for example, if ten people carry a load a distance of one farsakh in one day, it does not follow that five people can carry it any distance, much less a distance of half a farsakh. It also does not follow from this that half of this burden can be separated so that these five, having received it separately, can carry it. On the contrary, it is possible that what needs to be endured will not at all submit to the influence of half the force, for this burden is something whole, and half of it does not yield to the influence of half the force to the same extent as it would succumb if it existed separately, since it connected to the other half of the burden and unable to move separately. Therefore, not every time the mass of the medicine decreases and its strength decreases, you see that its effect becomes less by the same amount. It is also not at all necessary that the medicine itself should have an effect corresponding to its small magnitude on something that is susceptible to the influence of a larger quantity of the medicine.

Some physicians, however, believe that crushing completely destroys the form and strength of the medicine, and their opinion regarding complex medicines is that such medicines should not be greatly crushed.

If complex medicines have some inherent effect, then when they are greatly crushed, their effect can go into another category.

Let's say, for example, that before grinding the medicine increased the emptying of juice or feces. After grinding, it becomes incapable of this and, due to a decrease in its strength, can only remove watery water. In addition, when the medicine is small, it becomes more penetrating and quickly responds in another organ, not where it stops when its particles are large, and exerts its effect. Galen says that he once happened to over-grind the constituent parts of kammuni, and kammuni turned into a diuretic, whereas previously it was characterized by the release of nature. Therefore, there is no need to overstep the limit when grinding medicines that have a rarefied substance. Only medicines with a dense substance should be rubbed vigorously, especially if you want to force them to penetrate very far, but they are dense and difficult to move. These are medicines for the lungs, prepared from coral, pearls, red coral, bloodstone and the like.

Regarding the effect of burning, it should be said that there are medicines that are burned in order to somewhat reduce their strength, and there are medicines that are burned in order to increase their strength. In all acute medicines that have a rarefied or balanced substance, the warmth and pungency from burning are reduced, since part of the fiery substance hidden in them dissolves. Example: vitriol and kalkatar.

As for medicines with a dense substance, the power of which is not sharp and not hot, then burning gives them the property of pungency. This is, for example, lime: while it is a stone, it is not sharp, but when it is burned, it becomes sharp. The medicine is burned for one of the following five purposes: either to break its sharpness or to give it some spice or to make its too dense substance rarefied or to prepare it for grinding into powder or to destroy the harmful principle in its substance. An example of the first is vitriol and kalkatar, an example of the second is lime, an example of the third is crayfish, burnt deer antler. An example of the fourth is raw silk, which is used to strengthen the heart. It is better to use it finely chopped than burnt, but when cutting it is possible to achieve sufficient grinding only with great difficulty. Example five - burning a scorpion in order to use it for kidney stones.

Washing deprives any medicine of the impurity of a sharp and rarefied substance, softens it and partially weakens it, and also cools the medicine if it is excessively warm. This applies to any earthy medicine that acquires fiery properties from burning washing frees him from this. This is, for example, washed lime, which becomes balanced and its burning effect disappears. The medicine is washed not only for the purpose of cooling, but also so that its particles can be crushed and polished to the extreme, as for example when tutia is ground in water. There are also drugs that are washed so that some undesirable property leaves them. So, for example, the “Armenian stone” and lapis lazuli are intensively washed until their ability to cause nausea leaves them.

As for solidification, in any medicine that has frozen, the property of volatility disappears, and it becomes colder if its substance was initially cold.

As for the proximity to other drugs, thanks to such proximity the drugs acquire extraneous qualities, and their effect even changes. Thus, many cold medicines become hot in their action, acquiring the quality of warmth, due to the proximity of ferula gum, furbilun, beaver stream or musk, and many hot medicines become cold in their action, acquiring the quality of coldness from the proximity of camphor and sandalwood.

Therefore, it is necessary to know about this property of drugs and avoid the proximity of their different genera to each other.

Regarding the effect of mixing, we can say that as a result of mixing, the strengths of drugs sometimes increase, and sometimes these forces disappear after mixing. Sometimes the properties of drugs from mixing improve and their harmfulness disappears.

An example of the first is this: some medicines have a laxative property, but need an assistant, since there is no strong assistant for them in their nature when the assistant combines with him, they act strongly. This is, for example, a turbit. This medicine has a laxative effect, but it is not sharp enough and sometimes is not capable of causing strong dissolution and ejection of the liquid mucus present in the stomach. And if you add ginger to the turbit, then the turbit, with the help of the pungency of ginger, which will accelerate its laxative effect, expels a lot of viscous, cold, glassy juice.

Also, dodder laxes slowly, but if you combine it with pepper and diluted medicines, it laxes quickly, because they help it with resorption.

So is rhubarb. It has a strong astringent property, along with which it also has an opening power, reducing the strength of its main action. Therefore, when rhubarb is mixed with Armenian clay or acacia, it becomes highly astringent.

And sometimes medications are mixed so that they penetrate deeply into the body and accompany other medications. For example, saffron is mixed with rose, camphor and coral so that it leads them to the very heart.

Sometimes drugs are mixed for the opposite effect, as for example when radish seeds are mixed with emollient, penetrating drugs in order to retain them in the liver until the required effect is fully realized in it, because when these drugs penetrate into the liver due to their rarefaction, then they rush to get out of there before their action is completed. And radish seeds cause the urge to vomit and, due to the opposite effect, retain in place the juices moving towards the vessels.

As for drugs whose effects are destroyed by mixing, let us assume, for example, that two drugs have the same effect, but this is achieved by two opposing forces or by the drugs themselves being opposite to each other. And so, when they combine, then if one of them acts faster than the other, it produces its effect, and if one of the drugs does not precede the other, then they mutually interfere with each other. These are, for example, violet and myrobalans. Violet loosens by softening, and myrobalans loosen by squeezing and thickening. And when the effects of these drugs reach matter simultaneously, they are mutually destroyed. If the myrobalans get ahead and squeeze out, and the violet follows them, then none of the medicines will have any effect either. If the violet gets ahead and produces softening, and the myrobalans come after it and perform squeezing, then the effect will intensify.

The third case is exemplified by sabur, tragacanth and bdellium. Sabur loosens and cleanses the intestines, but causes abrasions and opens the mouths of blood vessels, while tragacanth glues and bdellium binds and if the sabur is accompanied by tragacanth and bdellius, then the tragacanth glues together what the sabur exposes, and the bdellius strengthens the mouths of the vessels, and everything is fine.