Understanding the nature of simple medicines through comparison

As for the knowledge of the powers of medicines by comparison, some of its laws are established by the degree of speed or slowness of the medicine's transition to a fiery state and their heatability, as well as by how quickly or slowly they harden. Some laws are made by the smell of medicines, others by the taste sometimes they are established by color, and sometimes by already known powers and actions of drugs, which give clear indications of powers not yet known.

Regarding the first way, it should be said that among things that are the same in composition, i.e., consistency of substance, that is, in rarefaction and density, the hotter is the one that quickly accepts heat, and the colder is the one that perceives cold faster. One of the reasons for this is that a thing sometimes heats up faster than another, although the active principle is one, since it itself is hotter than this other thing, but it is cooled by the incoming cold. And so, when it is met by warmth coming from outside, and the innate warmth of our body is added to it, then the thing becomes equal to another thing in relation to the external factor, but surpasses it in the warming power inherent in it in essence, and therefore becomes hotter. Based on this, know the state of the thing that cools faster than the other. Further, it should be said that extensive reasoning is given to justify this, but this is the business of the one who interprets the foundations of natural science, and not the doctor. If one of the things is more rarefied and the other more dense, then the more rarefied thing, although it is as cold or hot as the other, is more quickly exposed to external influence due to the weakness of its substance.

As for things that tend to freeze and those that tend to burst into flames, it is also permissible to compare them with each other. If a thing freezes faster, although its composition is similar to the composition of another thing, then it means it is colder, and if a thing lights up faster, although its composition is similar to the composition of another thing, then it is hot for the same reason that we talked about earlier.

We say that this or that thing is colder or hotter, depending on how it is influenced by the innate warmth present in us when a thing is slower to harden and quicker to ignite, we think that such is its quality in relation to the influence of our innate warmth upon it. These foundations are proven, as follows, in natural science.

If two things differ in relation to rarefaction and density, and then it turns out that the denser thing ignites faster and freezes more slowly, consider that it is undoubtedly hotter in substance. But if it turns out that the more rarefied of two things burns faster, this does not give you the right to make a decisive judgment and consider that for this reason it is hotter: sometimes the reason for rapid combustion is precisely rarefaction.

Also, if it turns out that the more rarefied of two things freezes faster, this does not give you the right to make a decisive judgment and consider that this thing is colder: sometimes the reason for rapid solidification is precisely rarefaction due to the weakness of the body of the thing and its rapid reaction to influence. This is the case, for example, with wine, although it is hot from pumpkin oil, but it hardens faster than this oil Moreover, pumpkin oil sometimes thickens without solidifying, whereas wine does. The fact is that there are things that solidify without thickening, and there are things that thicken without solidifying: you can learn about this in the science of natural history. As for things that can thicken, then with the same composition of the substance, the colder is the one that is more susceptible to thickening from the cold.

Many things harden only from heat. All things that are hard in heat liquefy in cold, just as things that harden in cold are all liquefied in heat. According to Galen, heat causes hardening because it dries out, and cold liquefies because it moistens, although the opinion of the First Philosopher differs somewhat from his. An exhaustive discussion of this falls into the realm of another science.

If some medicines are hotter than others, but at the same time thicker, then it is possible that, due to their thickness, they are just as capable of congealing as colder medicines. If some medicines are colder than others, but at the same time thinner, then it is possible that, being liquid, they are just as capable of igniting as hotter medicines. Thickening and hardening do not indicate greater warmth or greater coldness after all, sometimes earthy things thicken because of their earthiness, and watery things because of their wateriness and airiness, if both are rarefied.

It often happens that the airy substance cools and becomes watery, after which the complex body becomes rarefied and cold. Often a cold, watery substance becomes rarefied, because a fiery principle boils in it, which makes it airy and then condenses it. So

sometimes the male seed condenses, and sometimes the fiery steam separates from it, and it becomes liquid again.

Earthiness does not prevent extreme fieryness from occurring, so it is quite possible that the first type of condensed things is very hot, and wateriness does not prevent the presence of airiness, which is unable to suppress its power - then the second type of condensed things it will be very cold or fiery, suppressing its power in this case, the second variety will be very hot. Here!

As for other laws, doctors should know only one thing from them, namely, that a salty, bitter or acrid taste can only be with a hot substance, and astringent, sour and tart - only with a cold substance. Also, odors are sharp and pungent only when the substance is hot, and the white color is characteristic of condensed bodies, in which there is moisture, which occurs only with a cold substance, as well as in bodies that are characterized by dryness and the ability to rub, which occurs only in the presence of a hot substance.

Black color is possible in two cases opposite to these: for cold whitens the wet and blackens the dry, and heat blackens the wet and whitens the dry. This is a necessary truth, but there is also another factor due to which these conclusions sometimes vary, especially with regard to smell and color. Namely, as we have already said, the bodies of drugs are sometimes mixed from opposite elements, and sometimes this is a primary mixing, and sometimes the mixing is not primary on the contrary, it is preferable to call it secondary mixing. With this secondary mixing, it is possible that the second of the two elements has a nature, in the presence of which it should have one or another smell, color or taste, and what it should have actually appears in it. And the other element also develops a nature that is opposite to the nature of the first element and not similar to it Moreover, it is possible that thanks to such a nature he acquires a color, smell or taste that is opposite to the first, but it may be that he does not acquire it.

And so, if an element has acquired a color opposite to the color of the first element, and both elements are quantitatively equal, then during secondary mixing a color appears that is composed of both initial colors, and if their quantity is different, then a color appears that tends to one of the two colors.

If the second element has not acquired any color, smell or taste at all and both elements are quantitatively equal, then they will have the original color, as well as the original

smell. As soon as both colors J have disappeared due to the admixture of colorless particles with particles opposite to them, and the color of the second has no effect, then it also disappears, just as a transparent one disappears when mixed with a colored one, and the body in question seems, for example, white . Moreover, it is possible that its property will not be the property of something white, since it is whiter, but, on the contrary, another property opposite to the original one. After all, if a body that is mixed with a colorless body is equal to it both quantitatively and in strength of property, then the property arising from the mixture is a balanced property, standing, as it were, in the middle between the properties of both elements. And if a colorless body is much stronger than a colored one, then the predominant influence is the property opposite to the property of the colored body mixed with the white body.

Whiteness, for example, requires the complex body to be cold, which is to some extent hot. This happens when the white body is quantitatively equal to the colored one. If, for example, a body that is devoid of color or has a color opposite to the colored one is small in quantity in comparison with another, but strong in quality and property, then it has no effect on the color of this body and strongly suppresses the body with its property, so that the second body seems to have no strength left. Look what happens to ritl of milk if you mix it with two mithqals of furbiyun so that the mixture becomes like a single thing. The resulting composition is not something extremely warming, and the senses cannot detect furbiyun in it either by color or by absence of color if the composition is colorless. We will see only pure whiteness and we will be right in saying that this whiteness occurs, for example, with a cold substance, if we consider milk to be cold, but we will be mistaken if we say that the substance of this drink itself is cold. The point is that white is not the color of this complex drink, because it is a complex drink on the contrary, it is the sensorial color of one of the elements of the drink, victorious in quantity, but inferior in strength.

This is how we should imagine the situation in relation to any white substance of natural mixture, which turns out to be extremely hot, although we expected it to be cold, such as white pepper. This is what it is like to be mixed artificially. In the same way, sometimes substances are mixed naturally, and the situation turns out to be exactly this way, but only among the indicated tangible qualities are there qualities on which the opposite qualities, mixed with them, often have a clear influence.

As long as the qualities of things are true and clearly perceptible, the opposite qualities are not perceptible, and the perceptible qualities are overcome by the opposing forces. This is the case with varieties of taste, not because it is necessary, but because it happens more often. After taste, in this sense, come odors, and after them come colors, but in relation to colors this seems to be unreliable.

One of the reasons why taste is superior to odors in this respect is that taste reaches the senses by contact and best conveys to the body the potency of all parts of the medicine. And smells and colors act in the absence of contact of drug particles with the senses Therefore, it is possible that only the vapor emanating from its rarefied particles reaches the senses from an odorous substance, and the vapor from dense particles resists and does not rise upward. It is also possible that only the color of the obvious, victorious particles of the drug reaches the senses, in contrast to the defeated, hidden particles.

Since smells sometimes indicate taste, such as sweet, sour, pungent or bitter, then smell follows taste. Taste gives the most reliable indication, followed by smell and then color.

Further, if the tastes also did not have the above-mentioned combinations, then opium would probably not be so bitter in the presence of extreme coldness. This mistake about taste occurs more often in relation to coldness than in relation to warmth. What I mean to say is that sometimes a medicine has a taste that indicates warmth when in fact it is cold, and this happens more often than another case where a medicine has a taste that indicates coldness when in fact it is hot, for warmth is the majority. cases manifests itself more strongly, acts more clearly and penetrates faster.

If in natural nature cold meets warmth, the strength of which is such that it breaks the cold opposing it, then it is fitting that as a result of the warmth a taste should appear that interrupts the taste of the cold, for warmth in all circumstances is more penetrating, effective and strong, and is more likely to carry with it of taste and smell. For this reason, you will not find sour or astringent things, the nature of which is not perceived by the senses and which at the same time are hot in their predominant nature, and you will find things that are bitter and burning, which at the same time are cold in their predominant nature. However, this is also by no means necessary, but only predominates in frequency, and the last case is observed more often than the other.

Since you have learned this law, we should now tell you what doctors say about tastes, smells and colors.

They believe that there are only nine simple varieties of taste and that there are necessarily eight varieties, and another is the absence of taste, that is, insipidity and tastelessness, in which the taste of a thing is absent and no taste can be detected in it. Such is water, for example.

Doctors call taste everything that the sense of taste allows one to judge, as a property that exists in reality or exists in potency and has not been affected by anything in the latter case it is a lack of taste.

Lack of taste comes in two ways: a thing is either truly tasteless and has no taste, or it is tasteless and has no taste to the senses. What is truly tasteless is something that actually has no taste, and tasteless to the senses is that thing that in itself has taste, but is so dense that nothing comes out of it that would come into contact with the tongue and be perceptible to it then, when they manage to dissolve the particles of this thing and make them rarefied, its taste becomes perceptible. These are, for example, copper and iron. The tongue does not perceive the taste of these metals, since nothing leaks from their body that would combine with the moisture that covers the upper surface of the tongue and is a mediator in the sensation of taste. If they manage to turn the metal into small particles, then they will certainly develop a strongly pronounced taste. There are many similar things.

As for the eight varieties of taste that doctors mention and which are really varieties of taste and not tastelessness, these are sweetness, bitterness, acridity, saltiness, acidity, astringency, as well as astringent and fatty tastes. They say that the substance that carries the taste is either dense, earthy, or rarefied, or balanced, and its strength is either hot, or cold, or medium. If a dense and earthy substance is hot, then it is bitter, if it is cold, then it is tart, and if it is balanced, then it is sweet. If a rarefied substance is hot, then it is caustic, if it is cold, then it is sour, and if it is balanced, then it is fatty. The substance is average in terms of density and rarefaction if it is hot, it is salty, and if it is cold, it has an astringent taste. If it is balanced, then it is sometimes called tasteless, and a lot is said about what tastelessness is.

A substance that tastes caustic is the hottest, then comes the bitter and then the salty, for the caustic dissolves, breaks off and purifies more strongly than the bitter. And salty is like bitter, diluted with cold moisture. The proof of this is that we talk about the occurrence of saltiness, and also the fact that if something salty is heated in the sun or on fire, or the diluting wateriness leaves it under the influence of heat, then it becomes bitter. The same is true with bavrak. Bitter salt is hotter than salt that is eaten.

The astringent thing is coldest Next comes the astringent, then the sour. Therefore, sweet fruits initially have a very cooling astringency. When the airiness and wateriness spreads in them and they become a little more balanced due to the airiness and heating by the sun, which makes the fruits ripen, they will acquire some acidity, as happens with unripe grapes. In the interim, the fruits are slightly astringent, but not tart, after which they become sweet when heat acts on them, causing ripening. And sometimes fruits go straight from tart to sweet without becoming sour, like olives.

However, sour, although it is not as cold as tart, in most cases cools more due to its rarefaction and ability to penetrate the body. Tart and astringent are close in taste, but astringent binds the upper surface of the tongue, and tart binds and roughens both its upper and lower surfaces. One of the reasons that helps the astringent make the tongue rough is that the astringent does not quickly disintegrate into small particles due to its density, and at the same time its particles do not quickly merge again with one another. As a result of these two circumstances, those places on the tongue that the tart touches are separated in a tangible way. The astringent force of the tart then acts on various parts of the tongue, their position changes, and the tongue becomes rough. This is also facilitated by the dissimilarity of the parts of a given organ in terms of porosity and density Moreover, the tart is more volatile and penetrates deeper.

Acrid and bitter slightly irritates the tongue. However, the bitter only tears at the outer surface of the tongue, while the caustic tears and separates in the depths, for its substance is volatile and strives deeper, while the bitter substance is heavy and dry. Therefore, a purely bitter substance does not undergo decay, due to which living beings could arise in it. For the same reason, purely bitter food does not serve as food for any animal. Due to its dryness, bitter does not cleanse, but makes the tongue somewhat rough.

One of the reasons that makes the warmth of the acrid stronger than the warmth of the bitter is its ability to penetrate deeper thanks to this, the caustic strongly tears off the juices and strongly dissolves, even corroding and causing rotting, and is capable of killing a person.

As for sweet and fatty foods, both straighten the tongue and soften it, causing the flow of substances that the cold has thickened, but not liquefying it, and eliminates roughness. Fatty foods do this without heating, while sweet foods do this with heating, as a result of which the sweet causes greater ripening of the juices. Doctors say: sweets become palatable only because they cleanse coarse juices, and such cleansing corrects them, makes them soft and fluid, and eliminates the harm from their solidification. At the same time, it does not break, does not cause a violation of continuity, and its touch is not rough. Heating from sweets is not irritating, but, on the contrary, pleasant, just as moderately hot water is pleasant if poured on a cold part of the body. The decisive word on this belongs to those doctors who have achieved a high degree of knowledge.

It is not necessary that sweeter things be more nutritious, and that sweeter things taste better nourishing, although, according to doctors, everything that is nutritious must inevitably have some sweetness. This is not necessary, because nutrition requires other conditions besides sweetness. Here!

Fatty corresponds to sweet, but a dense substance, converted into fatty or sweet by the action of appropriate heat, becomes sweet if the basis that makes it rarefied is wateriness and a little airiness, and becomes fatty if its rarefaction is caused by insipid wateriness mixed with abundant airiness, which greatly permeates the wateriness.

Bitter and salty things irritate the tongue, but salty things ripple slightly, wash them and do not make them rough This is facilitated by the fact that salt, due to its volatility, reaches all its particles equally upon contact with the organ. However, salty foods are harmful to the mouth of the stomach.

But the bitter one hurts strongly and even makes it rough this is facilitated, as we have already said, by the dissimilarity of its contact with different places in the language.

Caustic and sour things burn the tongue, and caustic things burn it strongly, with heating, and sour things burn it moderately, without heating.

Saltiness arises from the dissolution of the bitter into the tasteless and watery. When a substance, such as golden water, thickens, it becomes salty.

Sour arises from a certain transformation of sweet due to a lack of heat or from the ripening of tart due to excess moisture and heat.

The substance of sour is generally moist, the same as that of sweet, for the substance of sweet is somewhat moist, while the substance of tart and bitter is rather dry.

Effect of sweet: it causes ripening, softens and increases nutritional value. Sweet things are pleasant to nature, and the attractive force attracts it. The effect of bitterness: it cleanses and roughens. The effect of astringency: it binds if it is weak, and squeezes if it intensifies. Action of a binder: it compacts, hardens and locks. The effect of fat content: it softens, makes the juices flow through and slightly promotes ripening. The action of causticity: it dissolves, tears off juices and causes rotting. The effect of salinity: it cleans, washes, dries and prevents rotting. The action of acid: it cools and strips juices.

Sometimes two types of taste are combined in one body. So, for example, in khudad the bitter taste is combined with an astringent this combination is called “disgusting” or, for example, the combination of bitterness and saltiness in sabkha, which is called “bitter-salty” or a combination of acrid and sweet in boiled honey or the combination of bitter, acrid and astringent in eggplant or the combination of bitterness and sweetness in chicory.

Sometimes what produces two flavors enhances what one flavor produces. Thus, the persistent pungency and acridity of the wine taste makes it more cooling, for the pungency and acridity open the passages and facilitate the passage of vinegar, without, however, reaching such a degree of heating in the vinegar that should be taken into account therefore, the cooling caused by vinegar penetrates deeper.

And sometimes both types of taste “counteract each other”, such as the acidity and astringency of the juice of unripe grapes: the astringency of the juice does not allow the acid to cause a strong piercing cooling.

Sometimes the composition, i.e., the consistency of a substance, contributes to the manifestation of its quality, and sometimes it counteracts it. For example, rarefaction contributes, which combines with the acid in vinegar and makes the cooling from it deeper, and counteracts, for example, density, which combines with the acid in dried sour milk and makes the duration of its cooling effect less significant.

It happens that some kind of taste is initially unclean, but over time it becomes pure. This is the case, for example, with the juice of unripe grapes. After a long time, its acid becomes pure, since many astringent and other substances are released and precipitated.

And it also happens that some kind of taste is initially pure, but time mixes it with another taste. Such is honey, for example: time makes it bitter and caustic, more bitter and caustic than before. The bitterness and acridity of squeezed grape juice also increases with time. Time will first give it a mixed bitterness, and then it becomes clear.

When the tart and bitter are mixed, the medicine becomes cleansing and, moreover, astringent and is suitable for healing ulcers that are somewhat loosened. It is also suitable for any diarrhea, the cause of which is blockage, and is of great benefit to the spleen, unless the bitterness in it is very weak. All substances of this kind are beneficial for the stomach and liver. Absolutely bitter and absolutely astringent substances are harmful, but if an astringent is added to them, they are useful, for bitterness cleanses the insides, and the astringent principle present in the combination preserves the strength of the insides.

Sometimes in an astringent and bitter medicine, or rather in an astringent medicine in which great bitterness does not appear, there is the ability to remove yellow bile and wateriness by squeezing, but there is no ability to remove viscous mucus, especially if the astringent is stronger than the bitterness, as is the case , for example, in bitter wormwood. Everything that is sweet and at the same time binds is also pleasant to the insides, for such a substance delights and strengthens, and at the same time is useful for roughness of the esophagus, since it is similar to balanced substances.

All substances that dry with their astringency and astringent properties, if they contain fat, tastelessness, sweetness and, in general, everything that prevents burning, contribute to the growth of meat. If, along with the astringent property, there is also acridity or bitterness, and this happens in medicines that combine fiery and earthy substances, then such a medicine is suitable for ulcers that have malignant moisture, and is very good for healing wounds. Sometimes the powers of such medicines are combined according to the combination of the powers of their substance, and the taste of these medicines corresponds to what we previously determined.

This is what we would say about the varieties of taste and what is necessary for understanding their basics. As for the reasoning confirming the correctness of these provisions, it falls within the field of natural science, and the given portion of such information borrowed from this science is enough for the doctor.

As for odors, they arise from heat and also arise from cold, but the beginning that makes them olfactory and introduces them into the nose is in most cases warmth, for the factor that brings odors closer to the olfactory power is most often a volatile, vaporous substance , although this can also occur by changing the nature of the air, without separating any particles from the odor carrier. However, the former occurs more often.

Any smell that burns or has a hint of sweetness is always hot. The smell, which smells of acid and damp mold, is always cold. A pleasant odor is generally hot, unless it is accompanied by moistening and cooling from the pneuma and respiration, as happens with camphor and water lily: the bodies of these medicines are not free from the cooling substance which accompanies the odor on its way to the brain. Everything that smells good is hot, just like all spices, which therefore cause headaches.

Regarding colors, we have already spoken and learned that in most cases they change when combined. Colors are not like odors, but in one respect they give an indication of what happens most often, namely: when the varieties of the same color are different, some of them being whitish, and others having a red or black tint, then the whitish tint, if The nature of this variety is cold, colder, and the colors that go into the other two shades are less cold. If the nature of a given variety is hot, the opposite is true. This sometimes varies in individual things, but most often it is as I said. Now let's talk about the effects of simple medications.