[p. li]
likely that the word means properly "showing signs
that crasis has not taken place."
Coction
The course of our inquiry has brought us to the
doctrine of "coction" (πέψις). Familiar as a
modern is with the difference between chemical
blending and mechanical mixture, it is difficult for
him to appreciate fairly theories put forward when
this difference was unknown, and the human mind
was struggling with phenomena it had not the
power to analyse, and trying to express what was
really beyond its reach. We must try to see things
as the Greek physician saw them.
We have in Chapters XVIII and XIX of Ancient
Medicine the most complete account of coction as
the ancient physician conceived of it. It is really
the process which leads to κρᾶσις as its result. It
is neither purely mechanical nor yet what we should
call chemical; it is the action which so combines
the opposing humours that there results a perfect
fusion of them all. No one is left in excess so as to
cause trouble or pain to the human individual. The
writer takes three types of illnesses--the common
cold, ophthalmia and pneumonia--and shows that
as they grow better the discharges become less acrid
and thicker as the result of πέψις.
In one respect the writer of Ancient Medicine is
not a trustworthy guide to the common conception
of πέψις. He attached but little importance to heat,
and it can scarcely be doubted that the action of
heat upon the digestibility of foods, and the heat
which accompanies the process of digestion itself,
