Pristine vigour

Meaning

Pristine vigour is an original or former strength to be restored. The adjective is temporal and restorative, not simply a claim that a material is untouched or clean.

II.3.11 requires a true medicine to purge and restore together. The author criticizes treatments that evacuate irrelevant matter or weaken a patient without uprooting the cause of disease. Restoration is the neglected superior task in his polemic, but purging itself is not rejected wholesale. Elaborate preparation is said to attain a purity beyond Nature's unaided work, enabling the former vigour to return. This is a historical claim about medical efficacy, not a present-day recommendation for purgation or a demonstrated cure.

The English gives “original vigour,” and note 145 explains pristine. In the same context surnaturelle means beyond unaided natural preparation, not necessarily a miraculous suspension of natural causes.