A Treatise on the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna
A Treatise on the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna
A classic medical vision of body, balance, diagnosis, and care.
About this book
This treatise opens a window onto Avicenna's medical universe, where health depends on the ordered relation of body, temperament, environment, diet, and treatment. It does not read like modern medicine, but like a comprehensive art of observation and classification. For today's reader, the value lies in seeing how one of the medieval world's great minds tried to make illness intelligible and care systematic.
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- THESIS I, Part 13874 words
i. The Definition of "Medicine"
- THESIS I, Part 2841 words
In the Chinese conception, as Forke explains (p. 271), the fluid of water is yang and its substance yin; the fluid of earth is yang and its substance yin; whereas the fluid of fire is yin and its substance yang. Here yin is understood in a procreative sense, and yang in a destruc
- Chapter 33267 words
The doctrine of matter and form is the foundation of the entire Canon. Yet the world-conception of Avicenna has been so thoroughly superseded by modern scientific teaching that his whole work may be said to stand or fall with it.
- Chapter 43133 words
The passage by St. Thomas in the Contra Gentiles should be studied by all who are inclined to award the last word to scientific theories.
- Chapter 51966 words
However exact his histological knowledge, the physician must hold clearly before him the activities which only the mind can grasp, piece together, and observe. The histological appearance shows us the processes arrested at a particular moment when some group is dominant and anoth
- THESIS III3216 words
i. The Temperaments
- Chapter 71158 words
God the Most Beneficent has given every animal and each of its members a temperament that is entirely the most appropriate and best adapted for the performance of its functions and passive states. The proof of this belongs to philosophy, not to medicine.
- Chapter 8139 words
7W. THE CANON OF MEDICINE
- Chapter 970 words
The period of growth. The prime of life. Elderly life. Decrepit age.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 14166 words
Sub-division Name. First. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth. Infancy. Babyhood. Childhood. Juvenility. Puberty. Youth.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2735 words
The blood may become colder or hotter, but not from admixture with any foreign matter, or because an unhealthy body-fluid is admixed with it. This may happen either by an unhealthy fluid coming to it from without, penetrating it and so causing decomposition in it, or by a putresc
- Chapter 12723 words
Table of Forms of Serous Humour.
- Chapter 13380 words
The Bilious Humour.
- Chapter 142617 words
Group.
- Chapter 151139 words
Nutrition. Inspissation of blood. Nourishment of spleen. Tone to stomach. Aid to appetite.
- V, Part 13793 words
The simple members, or elementary tissues, are the homogeneous, indivisible components from which the body is built.
- V, Part 21194 words
Hence it is possible to see in these structures merely a locus for the various faculties and functions pertaining to the physical, mental, and emotional life of the individual. Compared with his existence in the scheme of things, the anatomical details are mere "moments musicales
- THESIS VI298 words
The Faculties of the Body
- Chapter 191671 words
§ 129. Analysis of certain terms applied to living things: that is, beings endowed with life.
- Chapter 203595 words
The natural faculties are divisible into two groups: dominant or directing, and subservient or obedient. The dominant faculties are twofold: those concerned with the preservation of the life of the individual-the nutritive faculty and the augmentative faculty (power of growth)-an
- THE BREATH686 words
Its Origin, Forms, Sources, and Relation to the Being
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 13908 words
Other philosophers have claimed that the breath acquires all its powers in the heart, emerging from it in a state of perfection; hence the liver and brain do not add to it. However, a careful enquiry into the truth shows that all such views are untenable. The only possible view i
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 22293 words
§ 149. All these changes have been compared to a dance. The breath is the controller of both aspects of the dance. It is the music of the dance that holds the dancers together. When the music ceases, the dance ceases, or degrades into a meaningless disorder. The ceasing of the da
- Chapter 24324 words
The philosopher discusses whether apprehension and memory are to be taken together or separately. Is apprehension merely a treasury of reflection? To the physician, this problem is irrelevant because the same noxa, be it an intemperament or a depraved constitution, would affect b
- Chapter 25260 words
III. (Modern) Sufi
- Chapter 26850 words
Understanding, Intellect, Power of Thought: Supra-sensuous.
- BLOOD (SANGUINEOUS HUMOUR)21 words
The substance passes through the superior vena cava and the liver, then proceeds to the heart and enters the general bloodstream.
- Chapter 28117 words
The residues of the third and fourth stages of digestion, commonly called "wastes," are directed to the following destinations:
- Chapter 29859 words
§ 158. The correlation among the various faculties, together with the interconnections between the visible bodily organs, is usefully indicated by means of a suitable map or chart.
- Chapter 30187 words
H5
- V, Part 14300 words
Latin name: Gaudium, Laetitia, Tristitia, Ira, Timor. Arabic name: Surtir, Lazzat, Gham, Ghadab, Faz. Chinese name: Hsi, Ai, Ai, Nu, Chii. Translation: Joy, Delight, Concupiscence, Sorrow, Anger, Hatred, Fear. Corresponding Element (Sufic/Chinese): Aether, Fire, Air, Earth, Earth
- V, Part 22001 words
Many of these terms also apply to the description of types II and IV. It is worth noting that among these types there are many which are supposed to be evidence of high human aspirations, yet strictly belong to the lower mind. Hence it has been very truly said: "Those sweet affec
- Chapter 331363 words
A condition in which pain is the chief feature, whether general or in some special region, but the pain is presumably not very severe. Subclassification is according to the region or organ: hence the term "complaint."
- Chapter 34322 words
depraved. The term is not used unless the disorder is primarily in these essential parts, and then applies even if composite members are affected secondarily (that is, temperamental disorders are distinguished from compositional ones [205]).
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 13977 words
Group 3. Errors in cavities or sacs. Group 4. Errors of surfaces. Subvarieties: too large (distended), too small (contracted), obstructed and overfull, emptied. The normal roughness replaced by smoothness. The normal smoothness becomes rough. Examples: scrotum; contracted stomach
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2706 words
If the activity of the life-principle takes place in a harmonious and regular manner, unimpeded by any obstacles, such a state is called "health." If its activity is impeded by some cause, and if it acts abnormally or irregularly, such a state is called "disease." (Paracelsus, p.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 13281 words
Essential causes are those like pepper, which warms, or opium, which cools. Accidental causes include cold water, which warms because it closes the pores of the skin and thereby retains heat; hot water, which cools because it opens the pores and releases heat; and scammony, which
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 22995 words
A prolonged season predisposes to many illnesses, especially summer and autumn. Note that the effects of the changing seasons are not due to the season itself, but to the quality which is changed along with them, for this exerts a marked effect upon the states of the body. A chan
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 34307 words
306. Celestial factors. The changes dependent on celestial bodies, such as the stars, are as follows: if many luminous stars rise in one region of the sky, and the sun approaches toward that region, the people living directly or nearly directly under the sun's rays are exposed to
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 41145 words
5. Local factors (trees, mines, cemeteries, dead animals, putrescent pools).
- Chapter 411465 words
Moist humours accumulate in the head in people living in these regions, as that is an effect of the south; they pass downwards and render the intestines loose. The limbs are weak and flabby; the senses are dulled; the appetite for food and drink is enfeebled; and the lack of heat
- Chapter 42703 words
Sleep improves the quality of the blood by concentrating internal heat and relaxing the sensitive faculties, which are suspended during sleep. It does this by making the channels of the mind-breath moist and relaxed. It also makes the substance of the breath turbid and prevents t
- Chapter 43415 words
Movement of the breath.
- DIETETICS1703 words
K, The Influence of Food and Drink.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 14007 words
Or it diminishes in amount until the body wastes away, and the tissues dry up. An increase in the amount of nutriment is always cooling in effect unless decomposition supervenes in it, giving rise to warmth. This warmth, due to putrescent changes, is extraneous; for such changes
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 21217 words
The following are the causes of retention of waste matters: (1) weak expulsive faculty, (2) unduly strong retentive faculty. The latter occurs in (a) weakness of digestive power, so that aliments remain too long in the stomach, the natural retentive faculty holding them back unti
- Chapter 47781 words
19. Baths. Friction. Exposure to the Sun.
- Chapter 481314 words
Rooms in the private baths of the Alhambra Palace: (a) The Sultan's bath. Through the archway on the left is seen (b) the Calidarium. The "rest-room" of the same suite is shown as an "initial" to 751.
- Chapter 49900 words
Baths that stir up bilious humor cause nausea and other ill effects. They drive morbid matters into weakened organs, have a relaxing effect, and harm the nerves. Such baths disperse the innate heat, remove the appetite for solid food, and weaken the power of sexual intercourse.
- Chapter 502009 words
The agents that alter the various qualities of the body are as follows:
- Chapter 51417 words
H5
- Chapter 5292 words
Inflammations often occur in connection with the teeth, as food may collect in them, undergo infusion, and so become putrefied. This may lead to an abscess.
- Chapter 531178 words
Pain is one of the unnatural states to which the animal body, as a sensitive and living thing, is liable. We begin with a general discourse about it.
- Chapter 542068 words
Pricking.
- Chapter 554615 words
The brain, then, is receptive for matters which the stronger members reject or discard or eliminate. The brain would suffer in this way were it not for its position, whereby nothing comes to it which it cannot tolerate; even its virtues cannot persist there.
- Chapter 56496 words
Temperament is shown by other signs, given above, than the hair.
- Chapter 572044 words
One would not expect to find black hair, which denotes a hot temperament, in a black person even if his temperament were equable; nor would one expect to find black hair in a Slav, even if his temperament were hot.
- ACTION AND PASSION249 words
Every expression is the sign of a state of mind; that state is as the hand, and the expression is the instrument. (Mesnavi, 5S p. 29).
- FOUR PRIMARY INTEMPERAMENTS1064 words
Evidence
- Chapter 60283 words
If the plethora of the faculty is unaccompanied by plethora of humours, the veins are not as distended, and the skin is not as tense, nor the pulse as full and large, nor the urine as gross (dense) or as red in colour. There is no lassitude except after undue movement and exercis
- Chapter 61799 words
Chapter 99
- Chapter 62891 words
The Evidences of Solid Swellings
- Chapter 63361 words
(i) Pain: boring, stabbing, tearing.
- THE PULSE1374 words
It is necessary to inquire diligently into the properties of the pulse for diagnosis and for the use of drugs. Duhalde.
- Chapter 65222 words
In pulse diagnosis, the body is examined through different levels of pressure. Superficial pressure reveals the condition from the loin to the ankle; deep pressure, from the heart to the head. Superficial pressure also pertains to the stomach and esophagus; deep pressure, to the
- Chapter 66819 words
Some noteworthy theoretical considerations arising from the Chinese work may be added as applicable to Arabian conceptions, without attempting to outline their full system.
- DETAILS, Part 14335 words
The classification of pulse according to the three dimensions of length, breadth, and thickness yields nine simple varieties, each varying in one dimension alone, and nine compound varieties. Broadbent remarks that this classification is superfluous, arguing that Galen, in desert
- DETAILS, Part 23638 words
539. Gazelle Pulse: [Syn.: goatleap pulse; modern "jerking"; "pulsus bisferiens"]. The expansion is interrupted and occupies a longer time than usual, remaining at a certain height and then succeeded by a swift increase to the full height. Just before the wave begins to subside,
- DETAILS, Part 34367 words
563. Soft pulse. The causes of soft pulse are natural agents with an emollient action, such as aliments (a more abundant diet; liquid food). Morbid states that tend toward an emollient effect: for example, dropsy, sleepy-sickness, coma, and disorders arising from or in a serous h
- DETAILS, Part 42879 words
The pulse becomes stronger if either the invigorating effect or the warming effect is exerted. It becomes weaker if neither occurs. Warming the body increases resistance (that is, blood pressure); cooling the body diminishes resistance. But the usual action is that the pulse beco
- Book vi. Guftar 1, Juz' 2, ch. 3 ; E. G. Browne's translation,' p. 89.)187 words
When the pulse is altered by agents antagonistic to its nature, this occurs in one of three ways. First, it may be due to an intemperament, and you already know how each such imbalance affects the pulse. Second, it may result from confinement of the vital power, which makes the p
- THE URINE3781 words
Chapter 110: On the Inspection of Urine
- TRANSPARENT (LIMPID) URINE333 words
628. Whatever the state, urine of a limpid consistency indicates: (a) deficient digestion (lack of maturation); (b) venous congestion; (c) renal insufficiency (for the kidneys only separate fine matter, or if they attract other matter, they fail to discharge it until it has been
- OPAQUE (THICK) URINE324 words
831. If the urine is very opaque, it indicates that maturation has failed to occur; or, more rarely, it signifies the maturation of "gross" humours, such as those present at the height (status) of humoral fevers, or after the opening of abscesses. In acute fevers, the appearance
- CLEARNESS AND TURBIDITY, Part 14174 words
632. Thick urine, as already stated, is sometimes clear and translucent, sometimes turbid and opaque; yet there is a marked difference between thick and limpid translucent urine. When the former is shaken, it does not easily break into small portions-it only forms large portions;
- CLEARNESS AND TURBIDITY, Part 21344 words
When the sediment is not favorable, it is more acceptable if it is light and rises to the upper layers. Or, if during an acute fever it is black, and the humor is serous or atrabilious, it is better for it to be like a cloud than to sink to the bottom. The fact that it is like a
- Chapter 771925 words
The following table summarizes the preceding section on the stages of digestion and maturation of humours as indicated by urine characteristics.
- Chapter 781377 words
Vitality:
- THE ALVINE DISCHARGE1099 words
675. The following are the characters to note: the quantity; the consistence; the colour; the form or shape; and the time occupied in the passage of food through the bowel.
- THE EXPECTORATION226 words
Expectoration indicates some disorder in the organs of respiration.
- PREFACE1891 words
On the Causes of Health and Disease; the Necessity of Death.
- THESIS I1056 words
ON NUTRITION
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 14278 words
Another illustration may be quoted to show the beautiful spirit in these lullabies. In singing such words over her babe, the mother must surely create an atmosphere around it which is for the benefit of its mind: "Baby mine, light of my eyes, Here in thy cradle bright with flower
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 21742 words
722. The ear. Watery discharge from the ears is due to an undue degree of moisture in the body, especially in the brain. An ointment is prepared with wool-fat, honey, wine, and a little alum, or nitre or saffron. This is then introduced into the ears with a syringe. Or it may suf
- THE REGIMEN PROPER FOR THE PHYSICALLY2542 words
Since the regimen for maintaining health consists essentially in the regulation of exercise, food, and sleep, we may begin our discourse with the subject of exercise. We may define exercise as voluntary movement entailing deep and hurried respiration.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 14340 words
746. Relation to seasons. In spring, the best time for exercise is around midday, and it should be performed in a moderately warm room. In summer, exercise should be done earlier. In winter, it should be delayed until vespers, though there are other objections to doing so. Conseq
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 24250 words
Good food may often be allowed liberally in the case of persons in whom the humours are unhealthy, so long as diarrhoea from intestinal weakness does not supervene in consequence. But if the person be of spare habit and liable to have loose motions, the diet should consist of moi
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 33165 words
We have already spoken about the properties and choice of waters and how to correct them when bad. Adding vinegar rectifies unhealthy waters.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 43908 words
Furthermore, a moderated amount of sleep brings about an equilibrium in regard to quantity and quality of the humours, and therefore it has a humectant and warming action, which is especially advantageous for the aged, who need their moisture preserved and renewed. That is why Ga
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 51471 words
841. When lassitude from superfluities has an external cause and the vessels are unobstructed, it is sufficient to intensify the restorative exercises and regimen we have prescribed for ulcerose lassitude due to exercise. But if the case belongs to the other group, one should not
- THESIS III1749 words
In brief, the regimen appropriate for old people consists in giving those forms of food, drink, and baths which render the body warm and moist: that is, moistening, warming foods, and warm or hot soft water baths. There should be plenty of sleep, and the time spent on the couch s
- THESIS IV2188 words
The Regimen Appropriate for Cases where the Temperament is Not Normal
- THESIS V786 words
The Changes in the Atmosphere
- THESIS VI308 words
The Symptoms Premonitory of Diseases
- Chapter 954120 words
Some special symptoms denote particular conditions. Thus, persistent severe headache and dilation of the pupil warn of cataract. The following are also forerunners of the same disease: imagining that there are bodies like insects in front of the face when one is sitting still and
- END OF PART THREE1034 words
§ 254. When prescribing a regimen, or programme to be followed by the patient, especially where the ailment is chronic or liable to become chronic, the following headings require consideration.
- GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, Part 14086 words
The subject of treatment comprises three main categories: the management of regimen and diet, the use of medicines, and manual or operative intervention. By "regimen" we understand the systematic management of the various factors essential to health, among which diet holds an imp
- GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, Part 22411 words
It may happen that the innate heat is so much reduced by such measures that the digestion of the morbid humours is interfered with. Yet there are some who boldly pursue this wrongful method and ignore the fact that undue reduction of the innate heat means loss of vitality, which
- GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, Part 34412 words
984. Lastly, as long as a given drug eliminates the superfluities, it will cause no restlessness. If it should cause restlessness, one would know that something more than superfluity is being discharged. Moreover, we shall know when the superfluous humours have actually been elim
- GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, Part 43556 words
996. Purgatives act by virtue of five kinds of property: (a) a specific resolvent property (e.g., turbith); (b) power of expression (e.g., myrobalan); (c) lenitive property (e.g., manna); (d) lubricant quality (e.g., mucilage of fleawort, prunes, liquid paraffin); (e) a certain p
- Chapter 1013453 words
Blood-letting is a method of general evacuation. It removes the excessive quantity of humours present in the blood vessels.
- Chapter 102578 words
It is permissible to continue drawing blood as long as it remains black and thick. But if it turns pale and thin, the flow must be quickly arrested, lest dangerous consequences ensue. The blood may be pale and watery at first, so that one might think the operation should be stopp
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 14167 words
If venesection must be repeated subsequently, the other arm may have to be used.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 24322 words
1048. Inflammatory swellings arising from remote causes or from immediate causes associated with plethora occur either in organs that are adjuncts to vital organs (namely, emunctory organs) or not. If they are not present in such organs, one must not at first apply any of the res
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 3650 words
One must not overlook an extrinsic cause of pain by mistake. Thus, external heat, external cold, a faulty posture in bed, falls during epilepsy or during intoxication, and so forth. The search for intrinsic causes must be made otherwise, by looking for the signs of plethora (whic
- Chapter 106723 words
It would be a serious mistake, especially at the beginning of suppurative inflammation, to administer a hot water douche or shower, unless one has first determined that the pain is not due to an inflammation that simulates the pain of flatulence. Such treatment may worsen the con
- BOOK II195 words
Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
- BOOK III118 words
SPECIAL PATHOLOGY (in its modern sense). In this Book, the various systems are examined, and the diseases to which each is subject are discussed, with attention to etiology, symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.
- BOOK IV.'76 words
PART I.: Fever (considered in general terms). One-day, tertian, quartan, septic, and pestilential (that is, epidemic) fevers. The subject of crisis. Symptomatology of fevers. Suppuration. Leprosy.
- BOOK V348 words
The FORMULARY. This is a collection of carefully prepared recipes, with extensive details on the proper way to prepare compounded medicines.
- Chapter 1111605 words
§265. It may be noted that corporeal bodies receive life when they enter into the composition of living matter, whether of protozoa or the like, or of highly organized animals and plants. The author does not say that all corporeal bodies are "forms of life," as some have assumed.
- Chapter 1122395 words
Tabular Summary.
- Chapter 1132846 words
Chapter 154: The Relations between the Various Blood-States and the Several Emotions (1117).
- Chapter 114100 words
This completes the first part of this tractate. The second part presents a classification of the drugs acting on the heart, and a description in detail of their characters, properties, and uses, and shows how to combine them in the best manner appropriate for the varying temperam
- CONCLUDING SURVEY994 words
During the past fifty years, the popular imagination has been stirred by a succession of important discoveries in medicine and surgery. The triumphs of surgery have been spectacular to a degree; those of medicine have been much less conspicuous, chiefly because the mind must inqu
- Chapter 1161966 words
§ 272. The following brief survey of the most important teachings of the Canon reinterprets them under three headings: (1) the general notion of the nature of the human being; (2) the notion of the constitution of any individual when in health; (3) the notion of the nature of the
- Chapter 1171388 words
The freedom of flow through the diffuse canalicular system of the body is disrupted. As superfluities accumulate in the stagnating tissue-juices, they come to exercise a noxious action; they exceed the capacity of the third and fourth digestions (tissue-digestion). With their sta
- Chapter 118554 words
Treatment
- Chapter 1192234 words
Thus, the name of the disease is given according to the condition we face (for example, gastric ulcer, cerebral haemorrhage); the cause, even when known, has done its work and departed.
- THESIS I, Part 13874 words
- THESIS I, Part 1876 words
Medicine is the science by which we learn the various states of the human body, in health and when not in health, and the means by which health is likely to be lost, and when lost, is likely to be restored. In other words, it is the art whereby health is conserved and the art whe
- THESIS I, Part 2172 words
In the Chinese conception, water's fluidity is yang and its substance yin; earth's fluidity is yang and its substance yin; fire's fluidity is yin and its substance yang. Air is hot and moist, rarefying things and enabling breath, stretch, and involuntary movement. Fire is hot and
- Chapter 3765 words
The doctrine of matter and form is the foundation of the entire Canon.
- Chapter 4676 words
The passage by St.
- Chapter 5366 words
The histological appearance is artificial, a product of reagents on dead protoplasm. The permanent substrate is an illusion; the whole structure alters constantly. Matter flows from solid to colloid to fluid to gas and back, becoming perceptible as cell-substance, fluid, or juice
- THESIS III568 words
Temperament results from the mutual interaction of the four primary qualities (heat, cold, moisture, dryness) residing within the imponderable elements. These contrary powers alternately conquer and are conquered until a state of equilibrium is reached, called "the temperament."
- Chapter 7226 words
God has given each animal and its members the most appropriate temperament for their functions. Man receives the most befitting temperament possible, with each organ having the proper balance for its role. The human body is the most noble of lower bodies, most like the heavens in
- Chapter 831 words
Cartilage, ligaments, tendons, serous membranes, arteries, veins, motor nerves, heart, sensory nerves, skin. Motor nerves are colder and drier, in equipoise; sensory nerves are colder but not drier, nearly in equipoise.
- Chapter 915 words
The period of growth, prime, elderly life, and decrepit age. Adolescence, beauty, decline, senescence, senility.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 1903 words
Sub-division Name. Youth.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2158 words
Blood changes not from foreign admixture but from internal decomposition: the rarefied part becomes bilious humour, the denser part becomes atrabilious. Abnormal blood is named by what mixes with it or by its colour, taste, and odour. Blood comprises sanguineous humour, corpuscle
- Chapter 12122 words
Table of Forms of Serous Humour. Normal and abnormal forms are arranged by taste and essential nature. Abnormal serous humour (75) is salty when oxidized earthy matters of dry temperament mix equally with watery moisture; if earths exceed, the taste turns bitter. Attenuated serou
- Chapter 1376 words
The bilious humour is hot and dry, occurring in normal and abnormal forms. Natural bilious humour is the foam of blood, bright red, formed in the liver. It either circulates with blood or passes into the gall-bladder. In blood, it nourishes tissues like the lung and attenuates bl
- Chapter 14549 words
Group. Variety. No. Abnormal by internal change of substance. Description. Hepatic form. Liver. Site. Origin. Leekgreen bile. Gastric type a: mildew or verdigris-green bile. Stomach. Oxidation of attenuated part of blood; denser part separates as atrabilious humour. Quality. Oxid
- Chapter 15242 words
Nutrition. Blood thickens; spleen and stomach are nourished, appetite aided. Heat and cold form humours: balanced heat makes blood, excess makes bile, great excess makes phlegm; balanced cold makes serum, excess makes black bile. Temperaments can indirectly produce opposites-a co
- V, Part 1807 words
The simple members, or elementary tissues, are the homogeneous, indivisible components from which the body is built.
- V, Part 2265 words
Anatomical structures are merely a locus for the faculties of physical, mental, and emotional life. Structure is not the expression of function. A harmonious succession of events is discerned throughout the body: digestive juices are coordinated in time and place; bile output coo
- THESIS VI49 words
Life appears through operations in different degrees of living things. Faculties originate functions; faculty is static potentiality, power is dynamic activity. The soul is the totality of faculties; life is the totality of functions. Three kinds exist: vital, natural, and animal
- Chapter 19342 words
§ 129. Analysis of terms applied to living things: vegetable, animal, human. Distinctive qualities: vegetative (nutritive), sentient (appetitive), rational (intellectual). These terms are based on faculties, manifestations, causes, and theological considerations. Pre-modern thoug
- Chapter 20761 words
The natural faculties are divisible into two groups: dominant or directing, and subservient or obedient. The dominant faculties are twofold: those concerned with the preservation of the life of the individual, namely the nutritive faculty and the augmentative faculty (power of gr
- THE BREATH135 words
The breath originates in the left side of the heart, formed from finer particles of humours and igneity, enabling the soul's faculties to reach the body's members. It begins as a divine emanation from potentiality to actuality, proceeding without intermission until perfected. Tho
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 1786 words
Other philosophers have claimed that the breath acquires all its powers in the heart, emerging from it in a state of perfection; hence the liver and brain do not add to it. However, a careful enquiry into the truth shows that all such views are untenable. The only possible view i
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2489 words
§ 149. All these changes have been compared to a "dance." The breath is the controller of both aspects of the dance. It is the music of the dance that holds the dancers together. When the music ceases, the dance ceases, or degrades into a meaningless disorder. The ceasing of the
- Chapter 2486 words
The philosopher asks whether apprehension and memory are taken together or separately. To the physician, the question is irrelevant, as the same brain disorder would affect both. Apprehension relates to memory as common sense relates to imagination: the composite sense preserves
- Chapter 2551 words
The human soul has a hierarchy of faculties: the Lower Will (Nafs), perception (Sense-memory, Stereognosis, Mndrika), Phantasy (Khayal), Imagination (Musawwira), Memory (Hafiza, Dhakira), Heart (qalb), sirr, ruh, Intelligence (caql), Higher Will (Hamm), Cogitative (Fikr), Wahm, C
- Chapter 26173 words
Understanding, intellect, and reason are supra-sensuous; imagination, instinct, and memory are sensuous. Ancient medicine related everything to cosmic elements, while modern medicine prioritizes anatomy. Regarding mental diseases, cortical structure is a natural basis. This treat
- BLOOD (SANGUINEOUS HUMOUR)8 words
Through S.V.C., liver, to heart and general blood-stream.
- Chapter 2821 words
The Residues of 3rd and 4th Digestion, "wastes," go to kidneys, skin, tissues, seminal fluid, and mucus. Normal wastes subserve nutrition.
- Chapter 29154 words
The correlation between mental faculties and bodily organs is usefully indicated by a chart. In studying it, note: (1) There are no actual boundaries between faculties; internal senses are merely diverse aspects of a single sensuous faculty. (2) Avoid subdividing faculties into "
- Chapter 3041 words
Plane V, the "supernatural" life, is introduced for completeness, its relation to lower planes unspecified. Emotions lack separate treatment in the Qanun, except regarding pulse effects. Avicenna's short emotion list is practical, as each patient is governed by one dominant emoti
- V, Part 1941 words
Latin name: Gaudium, Laetitia, Tristitia, Ira, Timor. Arabic: Surtir, Lazzat, Gham, Ghadab, Faz. Chinese: Hsi, Ai, Ai, Nu, Chii. Translation: Joy, Delight, Concupiscence, Sorrow, Anger, Hatred, Fear. Corresponding phase of breath: Jelal, Jemal, Jemal, Jelal, Jemal. Dominant Humou
- V, Part 2412 words
Many terms describing character and soul aspects apply to the lower mind rather than to high human aspirations. As it has been truly said, sweet affections inclining the heart toward God come from the sensitive temperament or bodily disposition, not from solid piety of reason; th
- Chapter 33279 words
A condition in which pain is the chief feature, whether general or in some special region, but the pain is presumably not very severe.
- Chapter 3465 words
Depraved. This term applies only when the essential parts are primarily disordered, even if composite members are affected secondarily. Disorders of temperament occur in compound members of homologous tissues, with sixteen kinds. Disorders of configuration affect locomotive organ
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 1854 words
Group. Subvarieties. The normal roughness replaced by smoothness. Obstruction in cerebral ventricles in apoplexy. (a) Increase: as in elephantiasis, unduly large penis (priapism); macroglossia. (a) Increase: (α) in normal organs-additional teeth; supernumerary fingers; (β) entire
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2113 words
Health is the harmonious, unimpeded activity of the life-principle; disease is its abnormal, impeded activity. Causes of these states are threefold: primitive (extra-corporeal, e.g., trauma, heat, cold, or mental states like anger), antecedent (corporeal, e.g., repletion or starv
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 1698 words
Essential causes are those like pepper, which warms, or opium, which cools.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2740 words
A prolonged season predisposes to many illnesses, especially summer and autumn. The effects of changing seasons are due to the quality changed along with them, which markedly affects the body. A rainy autumn followed by a temperate winter is more healthy; a rainy spring followed
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 3797 words
Celestial and terrestrial factors determine a region's climate and health. Genuine celestial influences include solar effects: sunspots follow an eleven-year cycle linked to weather, earthquakes, and mental states, with solar flames extending into our atmosphere. Solar and lunar
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 4248 words
As we have also learned, the temperament of the air is revealed by the latitude of a territory, its elevation or lowness, proximity of mountains and seas, the prevailing winds, and the kind of soil.
- Chapter 41271 words
In southern regions, moist humours accumulate in the head, pass downwards, and loosen the intestines. Limbs become weak, senses dull, appetite feeble, and wine intoxicates readily. Ulcers heal slowly. Women experience profuse menstruation, rare pregnancy, and frequent abortion. M
- Chapter 42133 words
Sleep improves blood quality by concentrating internal heat and relaxing sensitive faculties, making the breath moist and preventing vital breath escape. It removes lassitude, restrains evacuations, and can expel waste through sweating by overcoming effete matter. Heavy sweating
- Chapter 4384 words
Movement of the breath. Direction. Associated emotion. Sudden and forcible; gentle and gradual. Expansion, contraction, outward, inward. Anger, delight, fear, gloom. Confinement and dispersal occur suddenly; languishing develops by degrees. Two simultaneous motions produce shame:
- DIETETICS340 words
Most illnesses arise from long-continued errors of diet. Food and drink influence the body in three ways: by quality, by material composition, and by "substance" as a whole. Influence by quality means that heating or cooling foods make the body hot or cold without becoming part o
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 1721 words
Or it diminishes in amount until the body wastes away, and the tissues dry up. An increase in nutriment is cooling unless decomposition supervenes, producing extraneous warmth.
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2231 words
Retention of waste matters is caused by weak expulsive faculty or unduly strong retentive faculty. The latter occurs from weak digestion, narrow or obstructed channels, or coarse waste; the former from superabundant waste or insufficient sensation for defecation. Compensatory eva
- Chapter 47132 words
19. Baths. Friction. Exposure to the Sun.
- Chapter 48290 words
Medical authorities cited by Sir Thomas Arnold hold that mural decorations in a bath's rest room strengthen the body's animal, spiritual, and natural powers. Pictures of fighting and galloping horses fortify the animal power; images of lovers and embraces strengthen the spiritual
- Chapter 49182 words
Baths that stir bilious humor cause nausea, disperse innate heat, and weaken the body. Natural baths are desiccant and calefacient, suiting humid, cold temperaments. Mineral baths are strongly resolvent and attenuant, making tissues flabby and preventing abscesses. Aluminous wate
- Chapter 50370 words
The agents that alter the body's qualities are classified into 29 categories. Calefacients produce heat through outward heat (summer, baths, plasters); movement (moderate exercise, friction, dry cupping); diet (hot foods and medicaments); emotions (anger, moderate joy); and putre
- Chapter 5186 words
H5 15. Numerical decrease has congenital causes (less matter, defective formative power) and acquired ones (nutrition lack, injury, frostbite, ulcers). 16. Loss of continuity arises from intrinsic causes-pathological fluids or gases that pierce and stretch tissues, depending on f
- Chapter 5221 words
Tooth inflammations arise from food putrefaction, causing abscesses. Pain topics follow: causes, types, alleviation, effects, and sources like movement or humours.
- Chapter 53226 words
Pain is a sensation produced by something contrary to nature, arising from either a sudden change of temperament or a solution of continuity. A constantly unhealthy temperament does not cause pain because the sense organ remains unaffected by change; suffering requires a contrary
- Chapter 54444 words
Pricking. Throbbing. Boring pain arises from gross matter or gas retained between the tunics of a hard member (e.g., the colon), goading and tearing it like a gimlet. Compression pain occurs when fluid or gas is confined in too small a space, squeezing tissues. Corrosive pain str
- Chapter 55988 words
The brain is receptive to matters that stronger members reject or discard. It would suffer were it not for its position, whereby nothing reaches it that it cannot tolerate; even its virtues cannot persist there.
- Chapter 5699 words
Temperament is shown by other signs than the hair. If hot and dry, hair grows rapidly, is numerous and coarse-abundance indicates heat, coarseness fumosity. Curly hair denotes hot-dry temperament; straight hair, cold-moist. Black hair indicates hot temperament; brown, cold; tawny
- Chapter 57376 words
One would not expect black hair (denoting hot temperament) in a black person even if his temperament were equable, nor in a Slav even if his temperament were hot. At puberty, hair resembles that of northern countries; in youth, southerly; after fifty, it is between. Abundance at
- ACTION AND PASSION47 words
Every expression signals a state of mind; that state is the hand, expression the instrument. Temperaments are hot, cold, moist, or dry, affecting emotions, intellect, and dreams. Congenital temperaments are innate; acquired ones are "intemperaments." Dream imagery reflects the do
- FOUR PRIMARY INTEMPERAMENTS204 words
The skin feels moist and warm, with a smooth, elastic surface. The complexion is clear, balanced between whiteness and redness. The build is neither bulky nor spare, tending toward bulkiness, with tall, straight stature and quick growth. Veins are neither prominent nor submerged,
- Chapter 6084 words
If plethora of faculty lacks humoral excess, veins aren't distended, skin not tense, pulse not full, urine not dense or red; lassitude only after exertion, dreams of itching or burning. Dominant humour is discerned by urine colour, complexion, pulse, and dreams: blood (red urine,
- Chapter 61108 words
Age hints at dominant humour. Sanguineous excess resembles plethora; atrabilious excess darkens blood, rare in pale persons. Signs of temperament intensify during illness and determine infection response.
- Chapter 62172 words
External tumours are evident to sight; deep inflammatory swellings are revealed by fever, heaviness, and stabbing pain if the part is sentient, plus hindered function. A degree of intumescence is a key sign. Cold swellings lack pain. General description is difficult, but heavines
- Chapter 6364 words
Pain: boring, stabbing, tearing. Often with humour flow, like hemoptysis or pus from abscess rupture, which then subsides fever and pain. Loss of continuity may cause luxation or hernia. Prognosis is graver in sensitive fibromuscular members, risking fatal syncope or spasm. Next
- THE PULSE309 words
The pulse is a movement in the heart and arteries, taking the form of alternate expansion and contraction. Every beat comprises two movements and two pauses: expansion, pause, contraction, pause. Many doctors cannot perceive the contraction movement, but Galen describes it as a b
- Chapter 6565 words
In pulse diagnosis, superficial pressure examines the body from loin to ankle, stomach, and chest; deep pressure from heart to head, spleen, and lungs. The left side corresponds to heart, small intestine, liver, bile, kidney; the right side to lung, large intestine, spleen, stoma
- Chapter 66169 words
Pulse interpretation depends on body interpretation, which follows world-conception rather than concrete anatomy. Understanding pulse requires occult science, as periodic bodily changes like breath expansion and retraction mirror changes in the cosmic ether. The ideas of urge and
- DETAILS, Part 1797 words
Pulse classification by length, breadth, and thickness yields nine simple and nine compound varieties. Broadbent criticizes this as superfluous, arguing a cylindrical tube expands equally in all directions. However, the text, alongside Chinese writings, suggests something more is
- DETAILS, Part 2847 words
539. Gazelle Pulse: [Synonym: goatleap pulse; modern "jerking"; "pulsus bisferiens"]. The expansion is interrupted and occupies a longer time than usual, remaining at a certain height and then succeeded by a swift increase to the full height. Just before the wave begins to subsid
- DETAILS, Part 3871 words
Soft pulse arises from emollient agents-abundant diet, liquid food, excessive bathing, hilarity-or from morbid states like dropsy, coma, lethargy, and serous humour disorders. Irregular pulse, if vital power holds, indicates heavy food or humour; if weak, it signals a contest bet
- DETAILS, Part 4632 words
The pulse becomes stronger if either the invigorating effect or the warming effect is exerted, and weaker if neither occurs. Warming increases resistance, or blood pressure; cooling diminishes it. Resistance is never increased without rendering the pulse more swift. Water has a s
- Book vi. Guftar 1, Juz' 2, ch. 3 ; E. G. Browne's translation,' p. 89.)27 words
Agents antagonistic to the pulse alter it through intemperament, confinement (causing irregularity), or dispersal (causing weakness). In convalescence, heart force and arterial tone increase as recovery advances.
- THE URINE754 words
Urine must be collected early morning, before food or drink, and free from coloring agents like crocus or salted fish. The patient should not have taken cholagogues, exercised, or been in a praeternatural mental state-fasting, anger, and dread all redden the urine. Coitus makes i
- TRANSPARENT (LIMPID) URINE67 words
Urine of limpid consistency indicates deficient digestion, venous congestion, renal insufficiency, excessive fluid intake, or a cold/dry temperament. In acute illness, it denotes weak digestive power. Transparent urine at puberty is worse than in adolescence, as it is naturally m
- OPAQUE (THICK) URINE65 words
Opaque urine indicates failed maturation or gross humours from fevers or abscesses. In acute fevers, it is a bad sign but shows some digestion and expulsion power. Prognosis improves if urine is passed quickly and plentifully; slow excretion suggests weakened vitality. Persistent
- CLEARNESS AND TURBIDITY, Part 1757 words
632. Thick urine is sometimes clear and translucent, sometimes turbid and opaque. When shaken, thick urine does not easily break into small portions; its foam consists of numerous bubbles that do not coalesce for a long time. A well-coloured transparent urine owes its colour to a
- CLEARNESS AND TURBIDITY, Part 2273 words
When sediment is unfavorable, light sediment rising to the top is more acceptable. In acute fever, black serous or atrabilious humor is better as a cloud than sinking, showing tenuity unless gas lifts it. Sediment sinking below the surface but not to the bottom is more satisfacto
- Chapter 77274 words
The following table summarizes the stages of digestion and maturation of humours as indicated by urine characteristics. In the first stage of digestion, when the condition is good, urine is plentiful, rather opaque, with moderate fetor, indicating immaturity in general with turbi
- Chapter 78285 words
Avicenna’s urinalysis assessed vitality, organ function, and diseases such as gout or nephritis through colour, odour, and texture. Modern tables add chemical details-albumin, glucose, casts-but the ancients’ simple observations balanced their vague conception of bodily functions
- THE ALVINE DISCHARGE205 words
675. The characters to note in stool: quantity, consistence, colour, form, and time of passage. Greater quantity than food eaten indicates excess humours; lesser indicates deficient humours or retention. Moist stool denotes defective digestion, weak mesentery, or fluxion from the
- THE EXPECTORATION29 words
Expectoration indicates respiratory disorder; its colour, consistency, and odour reveal humoral coction or heat. Any colour besides blood signals pathological heat. Sweat and menstrual fluid follow similar diagnostic principles.
- PREFACE396 words
Medicine has two parts: theory, which forms opinions and shows evidence about temperaments, humours, faculties, and disease causes; and practice, which prescribes regimen to maintain health or heal sickness. Having covered theory in earlier parts, we now address the practical sid
- THESIS I200 words
After birth, sever the umbilical cord four fingers from the navel with a clean wool ligature, then apply an oiled cloth. To aid separation, use a mixture of turmeric, dragon's blood, and myrrh. Harden the infant's skin with slightly salted water until the cord dries, avoiding the
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 1893 words
Another illustration may be quoted to show the beautiful spirit in these lullabies. . . . . . . ."
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2371 words
Watery discharge from the ears is treated with an ointment of wool-fat, honey, wine, and alum or saffron, introduced by syringe. Earache from flatulence or moistness is treated with boxthorn, origanum, or colocynth seeds digested in oil and instilled drop by drop. For difficulty
- THE REGIMEN PROPER FOR THE PHYSICALLY465 words
Exercise is voluntary movement entailing deep and hurried respiration. Regulating exercise by amount and time eliminates the need for toxic medicaments to remedy diseases from abnormal matters, provided the rest of the regimen is proper. Digestion always leaves superfluities; nat
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 1785 words
In spring, exercise is best around midday in a moderately warm room; in summer, earlier; in winter, delayed until vespers, with the room made warm. Exercise continues as long as the skin becomes florid, movement is moderated, and members show no puffiness. If insensible perspirat
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 21461 words
Good food may often be allowed liberally in the case of persons in whom the humours are unhealthy, so long as diarrhoea from intestinal weakness does not supervene in consequence. But if the person be of spare habit and liable to have loose motions, the diet should consist of moi
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 3610 words
We have already discussed the properties and selection of waters and how to correct them when they are bad. Adding vinegar rectifies unhealthy waters. Drinking water while fasting, after exercise, or after a bath is harmful, especially on an empty stomach. False thirst, such as t
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 4815 words
Moderate sleep balances the humours, moistening and warming the body-especially beneficial for the aged, who need their moisture preserved. Galen took lettuce with aromatics to induce sleep and correct coldness, noting that sleep’s humidity helped him as an old man. A bath after
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 5267 words
841. When lassitude from superfluities has an external cause and vessels are unobstructed, intensify restorative exercises. Otherwise, order inactivity, sleep, fasting, abdominal oil, then a moderately hot bath. Diet should produce good chyme: barley, frumenty, delicate game, syr
- THESIS III327 words
The regimen for old people requires warming, moistening food, drink, and baths, along with ample sleep and liberal time on the couch. Urine flow should be assisted by diluents, and mucus helped out of the stomach. Massage with oil, moderate to avoid lassitude, is beneficial, foll
- THESIS IV425 words
For a hot intemperament (bilious disposition), the regimen aims to restore equilibrium and conserve health. If the passive qualities are balanced, heat reaches a limit; if dryness accompanies heat, the condition lasts; if moisture, it is short-lived. Management requires early dis
- THESIS V218 words
Spring: Begin with bloodletting, then cathartics and emesis. Diet: avoid heating foods; use attenuants. Exercise moderately but more than in summer. Divide meals; use diuretic syrups. Avoid hot, bitter, salt, or sharp items.
- THESIS VI60 words
Tremor of the heart, nightmare, vertigo, jerking movements, loss of sensation, facial twitching, redness, gloom, swelling, stench, lassitude, and appetite changes each signal specific diseases such as sudden death, epilepsy, or paralysis. In short, any abnormal function-appetite,
- Chapter 95897 words
Some special symptoms indicate particular conditions. A persistent severe headache and dilation of the pupil warn of cataract, as do imagining insects before the face and great impairment of vision. Heaviness in the right side indicates liver disease; heaviness in the loins with
- END OF PART THREE192 words
When prescribing a regimen for a chronic ailment, consider light, air, climate, residence, season, age, sex, food, sleep, exercise, clothing, personal habits, occupation, and mental environment. Free access to light is often neglected, yet excess is as faulty as deficiency. Impur
- GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, Part 1845 words
Treatment comprises regimen and diet, medicines, and manual intervention. In diet, the physician decides whether to forbid, reduce, maintain, or increase food. Forbidding food leaves digestive faculties free to mature humours; reducing it conserves digestive powers. Two dangers m
- GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, Part 2453 words
Evacuation should not be performed when there are contraindications such as weakness, extreme heat or cold in the temperament, or an unsuitable physique. It is less injurious to leave a little of the morbid matter behind than to strive to evacuate everything to the most minute fr
- GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, Part 3941 words
As long as a given drug eliminates the superfluities, it will cause no restlessness. If it does, something more than superfluity is being discharged. We know the superfluous humours have been eliminated when the humour lost by emesis or purgation changes into another kind. Prolon
- GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, Part 4778 words
Purgatives act by five properties: specific resolvent (e. g. , turbith), expressive power (myrobalan), lenitive (manna), lubricant (mucilage of fleawort, prunes, liquid paraffin), or a poisonous character in violent purges that attacks the natural faculty directly. Such propertie
- Chapter 101682 words
Blood-letting is a method of general evacuation that removes excessive or unhealthy humours from the blood vessels. It is indicated when blood is so superabundant that disease threatens, or when disease is already present. Examples include incipient sciatica, podagra, danger of h
- Chapter 102121 words
Continue bleeding only while the blood remains black and thick; if it turns pale and thin, stop immediately. The color may mislead, especially with inflammatory masses. Watch the pulse: if it weakens, or if yawning, hiccough, or nausea occur, halt. Limited venesection conserves s
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 1930 words
If venesection must be repeated, the other arm may be used. The operation may be repeated often if the humours are much in excess, as it sets them in motion. But if the blood is rich in atrabilious humour, bloodletting should be infrequent, as it may cause apoplexy, especially in
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 2936 words
Inflammatory swellings from remote or plethoric causes occur in emunctory organs or not. If not in such organs, do not apply resolvents initially; relieve the emunctory organ if present. If the vital organ lacks an emunctory, treat the whole body by recoil, using a repercussive t
- THE CANON OF MEDICINE, Part 3146 words
One must not overlook extrinsic causes of pain-external heat, cold, faulty posture, and falls. Intrinsic causes require searching for signs of plethora. An external source may become internal and persist: icy water causes stomach pain, treatable with a bath and sleep; heating foo
- Chapter 106126 words
A hot water douche or shower should not be given at the start of suppurative inflammation unless pain is due to flatulence, not inflammation, as heat may worsen the condition. Poultices, especially with millet or orobs flour boiled in vinegar, alleviate flatulence; steamed millet
- BOOK II25 words
Book II classifies drugs by temperament, actions, and effects on body systems. The Latin edition lists 760 names, the Bulaq 802, though some are cross-references.
- BOOK III26 words
SPECIAL PATHOLOGY examines body systems and their diseases, covering the head, chest, alimentary tract, urinary system, pregnancy, muscles, joints, and brain disorders including epilepsy and paralysis.
- BOOK IV.'25 words
PART I. Fever types, crisis, and leprosy. PART II. Wounds, fractures, dislocations, ulcers. PART III. Poisoning and bites. PART IV. Beauty culture and skin treatments.
- BOOK V66 words
Life and every perfection come only from the Primal Most High Truth. Creatures require specific capacity to receive good; wool cannot be a sword, water cannot be human. All corporeal bodies may receive life except the four first principles, which are non-living and negligible in
- Chapter 111345 words
Corporeal bodies receive life by entering into living matter. First principles are neither matter nor form; they are co-terminous with the universe's infinity but have no mass or volume. The mingling of substances in compound bodies enables them to receive life. Components blend
- Chapter 112467 words
Tabular Summary.
- Chapter 113580 words
Blood states determine emotional tendencies. Plentiful, bright, hot blood produces swift oxidative processes and a tendency to anger. Plentiful, bright, attempered blood yields clear breath and a tendency to delight. Bright, watery, cool, tenuous blood slows oxidation, disperses
- Chapter 11423 words
This completes the first part. The second classifies heart drugs, detailing their uses and combinations for varying temperaments, mirroring the Canon's Second Book.
- CONCLUDING SURVEY214 words
Recent medical discoveries, while spectacular, require intellectual engagement to be appreciated. The ancient system, represented by Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, was not valueless; it covered cosmology, anatomy, psychology, and therapeutics, and presumed knowledge of logic and m
- Chapter 116386 words
§ 272. The Canon’s teachings on human nature, health, and disease provide the clear idea of “the patient before me” essential for effective treatment.
- Chapter 117295 words
Disease begins when superfluities accumulate in stagnating tissue-juices, exceeding the capacity of the third and fourth digestions. Bacteria settle and multiply, and wandering-cell infiltrations gather. Functional disturbance is succeeded by anatomical lesions. A chart illustrat
- Chapter 118110 words
Treatment, as described in books, is far inferior to the practical experience of a skillful physician (Rhazes). Applying ancient principles to modern practice may seem superfluous, but the general approach can help cases unresponsive to current methods. The choice of treatment de
- Chapter 119480 words
Thus, the name of the disease is given according to the condition we face (for example, gastric ulcer, cerebral haemorrhage); the cause, even when known, has done its work and departed.
- THESIS I, Part 1876 words
- Introduction and Overview of the Canon1118 words
This chapter explores the Canon's structure and the intellectual world of Avicenna, setting the stage for why his work remains relevant despite its age.
- Fundamental Principles: Elements, Temperaments, and Humors1613 words
This chapter lays the groundwork for understanding health and disease through elements, temperaments, and humours. It explores the four causes, the nature of elements, and the doctrine of matter and form, setting the stage for a deeper investigation into the body's balance.
- Organs, Faculties, and the Breath1598 words
This chapter explores the body's faculties and their origins, focusing on the heart as the source of all powers. It distinguishes between natural, vital, and animal faculties, and introduces the concept of breath as an immaterial vital principle.
- Digestion, Nutrition, and Wastes797 words
This chapter traces the journey of blood through digestion and transformation, revealing how humours shape the body's balance. It explores the interplay of residues, oxidation, and decomposition in maintaining health.
- Causes of Disease and Symptoms1008 words
To understand disease, we must first define it. This chapter explores the nature of disease, its causes, and the symptoms that reveal it, laying the groundwork for diagnosis.
- Diagnostic Methods: Pulse and Urine1516 words
The physician reads the body through pulse and urine, two windows into vital power and humoral balance. This chapter explores their diagnostic use, from pain theory to pulse classification and urine inspection.
- Other Diagnostic Signs and Regimen for Health1516 words
This chapter turns to the practical art of preserving health, beginning with the regimen for infants and children. It covers the signs found in stool and expectoration, then outlines daily routines from birth through adolescence.
- Therapeutics: General Principles and Bloodletting1498 words
As we turn to the principles of treatment, the physician must weigh qualities, timing, and methods. This chapter distills ancient wisdom on diet, evacuation, bloodletting, and pain relief-tools that must be chosen with care for each patient's unique balance.
- Materia Medica and Special Pathology1590 words
This chapter explores the deeper structure of Avicenna's Canon, moving from systematic drug classification to the philosophical and physiological roots of emotion. It examines how breath, blood, and temperament shape joy, sadness, and anger, setting the stage for a nuanced understanding of human disposition.
- Concluding Synthesis and Relevance1122 words
As we close the ancient book, we see its holistic philosophy of human nature, which modern medicine often overlooks, still offering insights into the individual patient's constitution and treatment.
- Introduction and Overview of the Canon1118 words
Related works
Thematic kin
- A Compendium on the Soul
De Canon wordt filosofischer naast het Compendium over de ziel: geneeskunde is hier nooit alleen techniek, maar ook mensbeeld.
- Treatise on First Philosophy
Avicenna's medische wereldbeeld rust op vragen naar oorzaak, orde en natuur; Al-Kindi geeft een vroeg filosofisch vocabulaire voor zulke vragen.