Theses de corde et eius vitiis

VIII.
And as long as the heart preserves the natural temperament of its similar parts and the convenient conformation of its dissimilar parts, so long does it fully exercise life and pulsation.

IX.
Since, therefore, the integrity of the heart is situated in life and pulsation, its afflictions will be found in the impairment of these.

X.
Syncope fainting encompasses impaired vital action, whereas palpitation of the heart encompasses the impaired pulse. We shall speak briefly of both.

XI.
Syncope is generally taken as a symptom, and it declares almost nothing other than the sudden cessation of vital operations.

XII.
Avicenna rightly calls syncope the destruction of all faculties. For without life, no action is exercised in the body; and other actions can sometimes be taken away while life still remains.

XIII.
eklysis fainting/loss of strength and leipsychia fainting of the soul or leipothymia fainting/swooning mean the same thing to the Greeks, namely an evil near to syncope. For from that state, there is a progression into this one: just as from this state men tend toward death.

XIV.
Since every symptom follows its own disease, syncope must also be reduced to its own disease. However, it follows a depraved diathesis disposition/condition of the heart, which is the cause whereby the functions of life are less able to be carried out.

XV.
I state that it is a diathesis disposition/condition of the heart. For even if all members of the body are deprived of their powers in syncope, the heart is nevertheless the first affected, as the principle of life, while the rest are affected secondarily, insofar as the affliction of the heart is communicated to them, so that there is clearly no member, except for the heart, whose lesion is followed by syncope.