De causis curatricibus Theses Progymnasticae

Decorative initial C

THESIS I.

CURATION is the motion by which a sick body is reduced to its natural state, as far as it is possible for this to occur.

II.

Since every motion proceeds from a certain mover or efficient cause, and since it is most necessary for the understanding and treatment of this matter to know what the curative causes of the human body are, we have decided to inquire into this for the sake of exercise.

III.

Furthermore, an efficient cause does not always incite motion alone, but usually incites it through many, although they concur in a certain order. Of these, one is external, and the same is universal and remote: another is internal, and the same is particular and proximate and principal: whether total, or partial, or essentially subordinate, or instrumental. Each of these seems to require more diligent examination.

IV.

But it is pleasing to observe the rule of the philosophers, who say: "It is necessary in any natural matter to inquire into the proper and proximate causes of effects, and not to wander into remote and improper ones, and thus to stray into superfluous digressions." For the most perfect knowledge of any thing is had only when the most proximate causes of its effects or accidents have been explored and known. And Aristotle also says: Δεῖ δὲ τὸ αἴτιον τὸ ἀκρότατον ζητᾶν One must seek the ultimate cause.

V.

And although it could have been said here about both the first and secondary movers (namely, God, the primary creator, preserver, and governor of all things: as well as the heavens, the stars, and the constellations, by whose motion, light, and influence the motions of our own world are driven): because, however, all these are more common, general, and remote external causes, it will be more advisable to investigate the intrinsic, more proximate, adequate, and subordinate ones, from which these particular effects proximately exist.

VI.

This I hope to obtain without great labor if I first consider certain common phenomena and accidents that occur daily in natural bodies, and especially in human ones. For the hidden causes of things can hardly be investigated better than from their effects or accidents that are obvious to the senses.

VII.

We perceive that perfectly mixed natural bodies, all concreted from the four elements in certain proportions, have this property in both sense and reason: that beyond the actions proper to their species, they protect and propagate themselves according to their strength.

VIII.

For, to speak now only of that common action by which every individual...