Corrected medicines

Use in the book

Burton distinguishes two problems. The same medicine may help one person and hurt another; some substances are harmful in themselves but become beneficial when corrected by art. He uses both to explain why remedies must be managed by discreet, skilful physicians, arranged by professional rules and directed to particular ends. The preparation belongs to the substance, rather than to a written prescription. The claim does not make every substance safe in every circumstance.

The dietary discussion applies the same verb to fruit. Burton records disagreement about which foods are suitable and makes preparation a condition of several favourable judgments. Sweet apples are to be corrected for windiness; Montanus and Mercurialis, following Avenzoar, admit certain baked fruits after meals only with the stated preparation. These are qualifications within historical theories of digestion, not interchangeable endorsements by all the cited writers.

The discussion of compounds clarifies both a distinction and a reversal. Practitioners are accused of correcting and altering their formulas merely to display skill. Burton then answers the objections, defending necessary combinations and, through Aetius, their capacity to correct harmful properties, improve taste and preserve ingredients. Revising a recipe and counteracting an ingredient’s properties are related operations but different objects of the verb. The margin’s harmful remedies where the body says new remedies remains a source discrepancy, not a corrected reading.

The class-name correcters denotes medicines used to modify another medicine’s effects, as the supplied editorial note explains. The body lists them among several classes of treatment. The heading calls a different class of remedies correctors of accidents. Its continuation identifies the accidents as remaining symptoms, including sleeplessness and frightening dreams. Here the medicine does the correcting; it is not the thing being corrected.

Related entries

Alteratives

Receipt

Diet and regimen

Rectification

Complexion and temperament

Humoral qualities

Sleep and waking

Places to read

1. Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraphs 1–4Preparation, person-dependent effects and the need for skilled management.
2. Section 2. Member 1. Subsection 1. Diet Corrected in the Choice of Food · paragraphs 42–47Conditional permissions and differing judgments about corrected fruits.
3. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraphs 9–18Formula revision distinguished from correcting ingredients within the objection-and-answer sequence.
4. Section 5 Member 1 Subsection 1 Specific Treatment of the Three Distinct Kinds… · paragraphs 18–20Correcters as medicines modifying another medicine’s effects, distinguished from correctors of symptoms.
5. Subsection 6 Remedies for Accompanying Symptoms: To Bring Sleep, and Against… · paragraphs 33–35Correctors act on remaining symptoms rather than on medicines.

In this edition

“corrected by art” becomes “properly prepared”, supplying the pharmaceutical sense while the surrounding sentence retains Burton’s assertion of benefit. “corrected for their windiness” becomes “prepared to counteract their tendency to cause wind”, making the intended object of correction explicit.

“only corrected with sugar, and Aniseed, or Fennell seed” becomes “provided they are prepared with sugar and aniseed or fennel seed”: provided conveys the limiting condition. “Correctors of accidents” becomes “Remedies for accompanying symptoms”, distinguishing both the agent noun and the medical sense of accidents.

Correct a formula

Printed “correct” (English; phrase).

To revise or change something as an intended improvement.

Here: The objects are practitioners’ formulas and methods rather than the intrinsic properties of a single ingredient.

Context: This complaint about displaying skill is part of the objections Burton subsequently answers with a defence of necessary compounds.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: correct and alter

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Corrected medicines

Printed “corrected” (English; family).

Prepared or combined so as to counteract properties considered harmful.

Here: Correction is an operation on a medicinal substance.

Context: Burton distinguishes person-dependent effects from substances harmful in themselves and conditions their beneficial use on skilled management and particular purposes.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: corrected by art

Modern rendering: properly prepared

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “corrected” (English; family).

Here: Foods are prepared to counteract a supposed harmful effect.

Context: This qualification follows differing authorities’ judgments about fruit; praise of selected fruits is not unconditional.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: corrected for their windiness

Modern rendering: prepared to counteract their tendency to cause wind

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “corrected” (English; family).

Here: The stated preparation is a condition of the attributed permission to eat these fruits.

Context: Burton reports Montanus and Mercurialis following Avenzoar; only here introduces the proviso rather than an unrestricted recommendation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: only corrected with sugar, and Aniseed, or Fennell seed

Modern rendering: provided they are prepared with sugar and aniseed or fennel seed

Alignment scope: Corresponding conditional phrase; the modern provided they are expands the original only plus participle.

Word and construction: Corrected supplies prepared; only supplies the proviso, and the following ingredients remain the means of preparation.

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Further local use

Printed “correct” (English; family).

Here: Combining simples is defended as one means of counteracting undesirable properties.

Context: The defence is attributed to Aetius and follows Burton’s reversal of the objections to compounds; the margin’s harmful remedies and body’s new remedies remain discrepant.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: correct their harms

Modern rendering: correct their harmful properties

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Corrector · Correctors

Printed “Correctors” (English; lemma).

Remedies intended to counteract or relieve a disorder.

Here: Here the things corrected are residual symptoms, not the medicines themselves.

Context: The heading and continuation describe symptoms remaining after other treatment, including sleeplessness; the historical claims are not present advice.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Correctors of accidents

Modern rendering: Remedies for accompanying symptoms

Word and construction: Correctors supplies Remedies; accidents supplies symptoms. Accompanying is supplied to express their relation to the main disease.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Corrector · correcters

Printed “correcters” (English; lemma).

Medicines used to modify or moderate another medicine’s effects.

Here: The body lists a treatment class; the supplied editorial note explains its action on other medicines.

Context: Burton lists preparatives, purgers, correcters, averters and cordials before limiting his selection to notable examples. The drug-on-drug definition is supplied by the editorial explanation, not an explicit body definition.

Source: original body

Source wording: preparatives, purgers, correcters, averters, cordials

Original wording: correcters

Modern rendering: correctives

Word and construction: Correcters supplies correctives; this component does not include the neighbouring treatment classes.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.