De causis curatricibus Theses Progymnasticae

LXXV.
There are, however (as we mentioned before), three most powerful causes that concur for motion or actions: the Mover, the Moved, and between these a medium, the Instrument; that is, Form, Subject, and Temperament.

LXXVI.
It is the nature of the instrument and the matter (since they are concreted and produced from elements) only to be affected and to suffer. The Form, however, is impassible, or free from all passions, unless perhaps by accident, insofar as its subject is destroyed. Therefore, actions fail by reason of the instruments and the matter.

LXXVII.
Thus, the Soul and Nature of man, which I have said primarily completes and acts, always does so insofar as its instruments and subject are in a correct state.

LXXVIII.
For as long as these flourish, whether according to temperament, composition, or natural unity, its operations also do not cease to flourish. But as soon as they have suffered weakness or harm, whether at the first moment of birth or later from other injuries, its action is also hindered, so that it acts diminished, depraved, or not at all, according to whether the lesion is great or small.

LXXIX.
Although, according to the assertion made, it perpetually protects and preserves the substance of the instruments and the subject, it can only cure certain diseases of them, and not always even these.

LXXX.
For that supreme Giver of Forms, the informer and propagator God, defined and surrounded its power with certain limits, so that it cannot perform all things, but only some, nor can it perform even these for the subject body perpetually.

LXXXI.
For only those diseases fall under its power which the superfluous, excrementitious, or depraved and corrupted matter of the humors causes. It cures these, specifically, by altering the matter that is causing harm, cooking it, excreting it through various ways, expelling it, and separating it.

LXXXII.
But if the matter is stubborn or untamed, not suffering itself to be subdued in any way, pressing its force more violently or strongly, or if it causes a hectic a long-standing, wasting fever lesion; or if it has introduced significant weakness through excessive quantity or malignant quality; or if it is contained in a passage or cavity from which there is no exit; or if the morbific cause is external and not fixed in the body; or if a spermatic part is lost: then, indeed, little is left for the aids of the local Nature, so that sometimes all its effort becomes ineffective and vain.

LXXXIII.
Moreover, if the magnitude or number of the parts and instruments has decreased or increased beyond a convenient measure, or if the figure is vitiated, or the site changed, or the unity is more gravely afflicted, it can provide much less aid and support.

LXXXIV.
And in this way, it happens that it sometimes entirely drives away the diseases of the subject and its instruments; sometimes it begins to cure, but cannot complete the cure; sometimes, however, it can do nothing at all; although it always desires preservation, and never ceases to strive for it most intently.