Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
A Treatise on Fevers (Author: [unknown])
Section 10
{TCD 1299 page and line 30b38} Let it be asked here if food causes digestion of the matter of the illness; it seems it does not, for Galenus says in the book De Causis that digestion is simply transmuting the matter of the illness, and food, as such, does not
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transmute thus, but increases the matter it finds in the body, as Hippocrates says in this canon: ‘Non pura ... ’ i.e. that impure bodies are injured by nourishment, so food does not digest the matter of the illness. Then Hippocrates says in the commentary of the Aphorisms these woods: ‘Natura impetitur ... ’ i.e. nature is hindered from digesting the illness through the consumption of food, so the matter of the illness is not digested by food. Then Galenus says in the commentary of Regimenta acutorum these words: ‘Eadem est ... ’ i.e. the physician should have the same intention in giving food to healthy people and to sick people, and food is not given to healthy people to digest the matter, so it should not be given to sick people to digest the matter. Then Galenus says in De ingenio sanitatis that the matter is thickened and the constrictions are increased by the consumption of food, so the matter is not digested hy food. That is opposed according to Haly in the commentary to Techne who says that labour and consumption of food digest the matter of the illness, so food works towards the digestion of the matter of the illness. Then Hippocrates says in the first book of Regimenta acutorum these words ‘Ptisana est... ’ i.e. I have found no food whatever better for sick people than an infusion of barley, for it expels corruption and digests the matter of the illness. Then Hippocrates says in the fourth book of Aphorisms in this canon: ‘Oportet ad ... ’, i.e. the body should be prepared by moderate foods before the purgative called hellebore, and it is for the digestion of the matter Hippocrates orders that, so digestion of the matter is caused by food. Then Avicenna says in the fourth book these words: ‘Cibus moderatus ... ’ i.e. moderate food relieves the energy and natural heat, and since digestion is simply the functioning of the natural heat it is understood that digestion is caused by moderate food. We answer that according to Galenus in the commentary to this canon: ‘ad eliborus’,3 who says there are two ways in which food is given to sick people, i.e. food as food, and food as food and cure; food as food has the property of increasing, fattening and nourishing the substance of the body, and digests the matter
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only incidentally by strengthening the energies and the members. Food as food and cure digests directly and transmutes the offending matter if it be of an opposite kind to it. And note that in every material fever there are initial cause, antecedent cause and connective cause, so that on that account