MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY IITH AND 12TH CENTURIES 93 



air, water, earth, but not rocks and metals which, though 

 simple to sight are composite to understanding. The elements 

 are themselves indestructible, and the destruction of all other 

 things consists in their return to the elements of which they 

 were composed. Constantine scouts the idea of a single element, 

 whether atoms or any one of the ordinary four elements, with 

 arguments, ascribed sometimes to Hippocrates, designed to 

 show that it is impossible for a single thing to generate things 

 diverse from itself without commixture with other things. The 

 four elements are the hot, the cold, the dry, and the moist — 

 not the qualities simply, rather heat actually perfect is fire; 

 actual and perfect cold is water; naturally perfect moistness is 

 air; and the perfectly dry is earth. Each element acquires a 

 second quality from the element contiguous to it: from the 

 motion of the circle of the moon which is next to it, fire acquires 

 dryness; air acquires heat from its contiguity to fire; water 

 has dampness from the propinquity of air, and earth coldness 

 from water. The qualities light and heavy are likewise divided 

 among the elements, fire being most light, earth most gross 

 and heavy, air and water falling between the two. 



The compounds of elements from which bodies are formed 

 are called complexions. They may be of varying degrees, and 

 the quality and function of the whole is determined by the 

 preponderant element. Sensation is explained by the temper- 

 ateness of the complexion of the organs. Thus, nothing would 

 be perceived by touch if the organ were not changed into the 

 quality perceived; if the organ of touch were not temperate 

 it would not distinguish between hot and cold, soft and hard, 

 smooth and rough. Man is the most temperate of all animals. 

 Unlike the brute which is possessed of a single function, he can 

 do all things, and he is rational and intellectual because he can 

 understand and distinguish by reason whatever he does. The 

 complexions are instruments of nature or of the soul or of both. 

 Each animal has instruments of the body in agreement with 

 the virtues of the soul, for the government of all bodies is either 

 by the soul and nature or by nature alone, that is, nature rules 



