AN EXPLANATION 



OF ' 



THE TEMPERAMENTS OF THE HERBS- 



I. ALL medicines simply considered in themselyes are 

 either hot, cold, moist, dry or temperate. 



The qualities of medicines are considered in respect of 

 man, not of themselves ; for those simples are called hot, 

 ^vhich heat our bodies; those cold, -which cool them; 

 and those temperate, which work no change at all in 

 them, in respect to either heat, cold, dryness, or mois- 

 ture. And these may be temperate, as being neither hot 

 nor cold; yat may be moist or dry; or being neither 

 moist nor dry, yet may be hot or cold : or lastly, being 

 neither hot, cold, moist nor dry. 



IL In temperature there is no degree of difference, 

 the differences of the other qualities are divided into four 

 degrees, beginning at temperature; so that a medicine 

 may be said to be hot, cold, moist or dry, in the first, 

 second, third or fourth degree. 



The use of temperate medicines is in those cases where 

 there is no apparent excess of the first qualities, to pre- 

 serve the body temperate, to conserve strength, and to 

 repair decayed nature. And observe, that those medicines 

 which we call cold, are not so called because that they 

 are really cold in themselves, but because the degree of 

 their heat falls below the heat of our bodies, and so only 

 in respect of our temperature are said to be cold, while 

 they are in themselves really hot ; for without heat there 

 could be no vegetation, springing, nor life. 



III. Such as are hot in the first degree, are of equal 

 heat with our bodies, and they only add a natural heat 

 thereto, if it be cooled by nature or by accident, thereby 

 cherisWng the natural heat when weak, and restoring it 

 ■when it is wanting. 



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