Theses medicae de medicamentis stomachicis, quae ventriculi medentur imbecillitatib

warm, which external heat, though proportionate, assists.

12. Therefore, this action of the Ventricle is vitiated either by its own defect or by the defect and sympathy of other parts, as if phlegm descends into it from the head, or bile from the liver.

13. Thus the Ventricle, an organic part consisting of similar parts, is harmed either by reason of its matter or by reason of its form.

14. By reason of the affected matter, it is harmed either according to composition or according to unity.

15. According to composition, if, namely, it is obstructed, constricted, relaxed, loosened, everted, etc.

16. According to unity, if it is wounded, ulcerated, bruised, or punctured.

17. By reason of form, it is harmed according to its temperament, manifest in primary qualities, and then according to that which is occult and known only from effects: such as that which undermines the natural faculties in attracting, retaining, concocting, and expelling.

18. Thus, concoction is harmed from the inconvenient use of non-natural things: especially on account of the immoderate quantity of foods and potions, their depraved quality, or because they are ingested untimely or in an incorrect order: to these I add intolerable pains, foulness, and purgative medicines, administered more frequently than is convenient.

19. Having set forth these things which frequently happen to the Ventricle and its orifice, the seat of appetite, the signs must be declared; these partly declare the weakness and the cause from which it arises, and partly contain within themselves a , [regarding] what end such weakness will have: since these are obvious to anyone from Galen’s Method of Medicine (Book 7) and his Art of Medicine, they ought not be repeated here.

20. In general, however, the signs of an affected Ventricle are concoction and appetite that are abolished, slow, weak, depraved, or erroneous, [as well as] nausea, hiccups, vomiting, , , , acidic or smelling burps, the rapid or slow descent of foods, the evacuation of excrements, and the like.

21. Therefore, there are as many kinds of aids as there are of harming agents, and it is established that those may deservedly be called stomachics.

22. Again, since every part borrows the primary reason of its essence from its form, whatever fosters and refreshes the temperament and crasis—whether by a manifest or an occult power—in a way suitable to this action; and whatever cleanses the humors contained within the capacity of the Ventricle or lodged in its membranes, dissipates flatulence, or strengthens the tone of the fibers, deserves to be called stomachic.