THESIS I.

Galen, On the Method of Medicine, 12, and On the Composition of Medicines according to Places, 8.

The understanding of Anodynes among Galen and other physicians is diverse, for both akopa remedies for weariness, paregorika soothing remedies, and diaphorotika evacuating remedies are generally comprehended under the name of Anodyne.

II.

Galen, On the Simple Faculties, 5, chapter 18.

Otherwise, it properly asserts that the faculty of odynaphaton pain-allaying belongs to those things which, having gained a subtle essence and moderate heat, reconcile the symmetry of the affected part by gently cooking, digesting, rarefying, and evacuating it. Those things, however, which deprive the part of sense by their intense cold are improperly called anodyna pain-killers: such as hemlock, mandrake, the torpedo fish, the salamander, sneezing-wort, dryopteris, pine-caterpillars, thapsia, nightshade, mercury, opium, and some mushrooms; as well as the saliva, bile, and intestines of vipers, etc.

III.

However, since those things mentioned earlier overcome the cause of the disease rather than the sharpness of the pain (for they soothe this only by accident), I do not see why the latter claim the name of Anodyne as if by some prerogative.

IV.

Fernel, On the Method of Medicine, book 6, chapter 4. What an anodyne is.

How much better it would be (with the most learned Fernel) to apply the name and reason of an Anodyne to those medicines which, while the cause persists, either soothe, change, or remove the afflicting pain.

V.

And so that we may follow the order of Nature, it is necessary that we examine what pain is and its causes, so that the reason for an Anodyne and its cause may appear as if placed before our eyes.

Pain