The varieties of medicines are such as assuage pain, or purge the bowels, or cause vomiting. Then there are remedies for flatulence, for anointing the body, embrocations, &c. Against bile, phlebotomy and bathing in cold water; against phlegm, warm applications are prescribed.
The sixth chapter contains recapitulation of subjects contained in the last three chapters.
Carrying on the metaphor of the Indian fig-tree, the two blossoms are, health and longevity; the three fruits, good morals, wealth, and happiness.
B. In the Second Part
four things are considered as to treatment of maladies, namely:—
- 1. What is to be treated?
- 2. What are the proper remedies?
- 3. In what manner the remedies are to be applied?
- 4. By whom are they to be applied?
The means of curing disease are enumerated thus: diet, exercise, medicine, and surgical operations. A chapter on the conception and the growth of the embryo is added, one chapter on bones, and another on nerves. Then the humours are fully considered. And the last chapter describes the requisite qualities of a physician, namely, that he should be well acquainted with the theory and practice of medicine, and be an unselfish, an upright, and a good-hearted man. [[204]]
C. The Third Part
treats on separate diseases, and the following points are considered under each head:—
a. Primary causes; b. accessory causes and effects; c. subdivisions; d. symptoms; e. manner of treating disease.