Cause and symptoms of disease

Meaning

II.3.11 assigns medicine two tasks, purging what harms and restoring what sustains. Removing a quantity of humour is insufficient if the offending cause or root remains untouched. Likewise, ordinary food may not restore the original strength because its useful portion is weak or mixed with what corrupts.

The author accordingly seeks a return toward a pristine condition and calls the desired assistance surnaturelle in relation to what unassisted Nature can accomplish. This does not necessarily mean a breach of all natural order; the art is supposed to intensify and assist Nature's own path. The promised causal reach remains a historical medical claim. It must not be converted into diagnosis or a recommendation to purge a modern patient.