Decisiones praecipuorum aliquot aporēmatōn iatrophilosophikōn

in those [ventricles] it is composed of humors: which, being fluid, clog and press the nerves, so that their heat and spirit are overwhelmed, and thus the part, rendered colder, is gripped by stupor.

Therefore, the tobacco of the Gauls is not to be referred to black henbane.

C O R O L L A R Y.

When we wish to elicit oils from herbs by spagyric art through a glass cucurbit in ash or sand (for here there is no fear of burning original: "ἐμπύρευμα", as in distilled liquors which become more pleasant in a water bath), let the herbs be taken not fresh, but somewhat dried. For thus the portion of aqueous humor will be reduced, and that oily essence, which they call the fifth, will be finer (Galen, 4 On the Faculties of Simple Medicines, ch. 8), and the herbs will be reduced to powder by grinding. This is wholly advantageous so that the easier separation of the elements, phlegm, and the remaining dross may occur. For this reason, also, in distilling oils from fats, resins, tears, and other fatty and viscous things, those skilled in chemical matters cast calcined flints, or washed and dried sand, or ivy leaves and a little crushed glass into the alembic, or rather the musa cornuta curved receiver or retort. Otherwise, in the simple expression of oils, and in maceration and sun-steeping, which is usual in our apothecaries, fresh herbs are suitable.

T R I E I N O N.

Whether roasted or boiled foods are more suitable for dinner?

Just as boiling original: "ἑψισις" is accomplished by moist heat, so roasting original: "ὀπτησις" is accomplished by dry heat (4 Meteorology 2). But because in boiling the external heat overcomes the internal, it happens that it draws the humor toward itself. Hence boiled foods, deprived of their own humor, become drier. The opposite happens in roasting. Indeed, with the exterior parts dried out, the paths that protrude outward close up, so that the contained