Physiologia Medica

MEDICAL PROSCENIA

through therapeutikēn therapeutics. Or so that what is imminent may be prevented through prophylaktikēn prophylactics.

It can be established from the preceding discussion that Medicine is not of one single kind, but is divided into many and indeed clearly diverse species. To accommodate this to our purpose, we have set aside the other ways of healing. We judge that only the medicine concerning Man pertains to us at present. But since even this medicine extends far and wide, we leave the Medicine of the Human

Soul to sacred Theologians and to secular Legislators, Magistrates, and Judges, who can compel by the authority of punishment and reward. We also leave it to Ethical Philosophers, who persuade by reason.

The medicine of the human body that must be considered. We establish that the Medicine of the Body is proper to Doctors. We shall begin to explain it entirely according to the nature of our duty, with a few exceptions. Following the custom of our ancestors, these exceptions were not without reason separated from the profession of the elegant doctor and entrusted to specific craftsmen. This will be clear from the review of individual causes. Therefore:

If we weigh the Medicine of the human body in respect of the Subject, as a whole, we shall profess the medicine of the individual parts also, namely the internal and external. But those medications must be removed from this account which, because of their scale, frequency, or excellence, require specialized doctors in the manner of the Egyptians. Such are Lithomia stone-cutting, Ocularia eye-care, and Vulneraria wound-healing.

In respect of Form, we shall primarily and by itself consider those things which pertain to the Health of the body. Secondarily, we will consider those things which make for the integrity of actions and the honest elegance of Form. In this we are different from Gymnasts, who weigh the integrity of actions by itself and health only by accident. We are also different from slave-dealers (Mangonibus), hair-dressers (Comtoribus), and bath-attendants (Balneatoribus), who look at form by itself and health only by the outcome.

If we weigh medicine by reason of the Agent, it is either principal or instrumental. By reason of the Principal, regarding Nature herself: the elegant Physician begins where the Physicist natural philosopher ends. The Philosopher stops at the theoretical consideration of natural things. The Doctor brings them back to practical use. We shall profess that medicine which is natural and depends on nature as the internal principle of motion and rest for natural things. Galen everywhere professes that the Doctor is the servant of nature. If some things happen above nature by the help of good spirits, we leave those to divine men, namely Apostles and Prophets. What happens by the help of evil spirits, we banish as goēteias sorcery, along with the Magi who follow them. The theory of these things belongs to Metaphysicians, not to Physicists, whose colonists the Doctors are. Regarding Art, whose soul is Method as it is taught, we shall profess methodical medicine, both in the arrangement of the whole art and in the explanation of the individual parts. This is by reason of the principal agent. By reason of the Instrumental agent, we shall follow those things which can be comprehended by human reason,