ABSTRACT
I have explained in another work the total number of diseases in existence, when divided according to sort and kind, both simple and composite. But there remains for me to discuss the causes of each of these diseases, beginning with the simple and similar which are named according to the constituent parts of the body, and then passing on to the composite and instrumental. Now by those who believe that in birth and in death the substance of the body undergoes a process of uniting and changing respectively, every illness and bad temperament too has been shown to arise from a body that in terms of sensation is both simple and composed of similar parts, and divisible according to the continuity of its parts; but for those who hold that the parts of the body are not united, and that spaces are an integral part of the fabric of the body, there are innumerable ways of dissolving and dispersing any perceptible union.
