Disputatio medica, de cibo et potu

THESIS I.
The causes of our decay are twofold by nature: some are internal, others are external.

II.
Internal causes are those which are born with us, and which arise from the very principles of generation, as if from a root.

III.
External causes are those which fall upon us from the outside; these again are twofold.

IIII.
For some change, alter, and affect our bodies necessarily, while others do so not by necessity.

V.
Those that affect us necessarily are those that always alter and change our body, which are called the non-natural things, by the Greeks tà ek physeôs those things which are external to nature, and healthy external causes, and the external causes of our decay, and are often inseparable; Galen, in his Ars Parva Small Art (a summary of medical principles), calls them the conserving causes.

VI.
Those that do not affect us by necessity are those that can be avoided. Such are those things that injure or corrupt health by a wound, a blow, or some similar reason. Galen affirms that these are known to almost everyone.

VII.
Omitting all those that do not affect us by necessity, we shall speak only of food and drink, which is one from that category.