Petrarch

Meaning

The comparison attributed to Petrarch says that rain does not dry rivers and flames do not extinguish fire. Nuysement uses it to argue that adding corruptible matter to a corruptible body increases rather than cures corruption. It caps the image of physicians fighting with corrupted and corrupting weapons.

The attribution is retained as the witness presents it; the passage does not identify a literary work or exact location. No invented reference is supplied. Its immediate target is impure preparation, qualified by the author’s declared respect for physicians, rather than a proof that all medicine is worthless.