This electronic edition is funded by the National Library of Medicine History of Medicine Division. This text has been proofread to a high degree of accuracy. It was converted to electronic form using Data Entry. (Medical Information Disclaimer:
It is not the intention of NLM to provide specific medical advice but rather to provide users with information to better understand their health and their diagnosed disorders. Specific medical advice will not be provided, and NLM urges you to consult with a qualified physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions.)
ON THE NATURAL FACULTIES Book I
PART 11
[p. 41]The so-called white [leprosy] shows the difference between assimilation and adhesion, in the same way that the kind of dropsy which some people call anasarca clearly distinguishes presentation from adhesion. For, of course, the genesis of such a dropsy does not come about as do some of the conditions of atrophy and wasting,
Lit. phthisis. cf. p. 6, note 2. Now means tuberculosis only.
from an insufficient supply of moisture; the flesh is obviously moist enough,- in fact it is thoroughly saturated,- and each of the solid parts of the body is in a similar condition. While, however, the nutriment conveyed to the part does undergo presentation, it is still too watery, and is not properly transformed into a juice,
More literally, "chymified." In anasarca the subcutaneous tissue is soft, and pits on pressure. In the "white" disease referred to here (by which is probably meant modular leprosy) the same tissues are indurated and "brawny." The principle of certain diseases being best explained as cases of arrest at various stages of the metabolic path is recognized in modern pathology, although of course the instances given by Galen are too crude to stand.
nor has it acquired that viscous and agglutinative quality which results from the operation of innate heat;
The effects of oxidation attributed to the heat which accompanies it? cf. p. 141, note 1 ; p. 254, note1.
therefore, adhesion cannot come about, since, owing to this abundance of thin, crude liquid, the pabulum runs off and easily slips away from the solid parts of the body. In white [leprosy], again, there is adhesion of the nutriment but no real assimilation. From this it is clear that what I have just said is correct, namely, that in that part which is to be nourished there must first occur presentation, next adhesion, and finally assimilation proper.
Strictly speaking, then, nutriment is that which is actually nourishing, while the quasi-nutriment which is not yet nourishing (e.g. matter which is undergoing adhesion or presentation) is not, strictly speaking, nutriment, but is so called only by an equivocation.
