Having considered those signs, which may give us hope or fear, we must proceed to the methods of curing diseases. Now these are divided into the general and particular: the general, which relieve several distempers, the particular, which are confined to single disorders. I shall first treat of the general. But there are some of those, that not only support the sick, but conduce to the preservation of the healthy, others are made use of in sickness only.

Now every thing that assists the body, either evacuates somewhat, or adds, or draws, or restrains, or cools, or heats, and at the same time either hardens, or mollifies. Some things also are useful not in one way only, but even in two, that are not contrary to each other. An evacuation is made by bleeding, cupping, purging, vomiting, friction, gestation, and all exercise of the body, abstinence and sweat. Of these I shall now treat.