FIRST SECTION · THIRD CHAPTER · TENTH PART · Fifth Article
Fifth Article
It explains the causes of the formation of the four mixtures, their natures, their benefits, the causes of their movements, and the natural spirit that arises from vapors.
O dear one! It should be known that the scholars of anatomy have said as follows: The efficient cause of normal blood is balanced heat. Its material cause is normal foods and drinks. Its final cause is the nourishment of the body. The efficient cause of normal yellow bile is moderate heat. Its material cause is the light, hot, sweet, oily, and sharply flavored substances in the blood. Its efficient cause is the excessive maturation of this substance. Its final cause is the mixing of the blood and the nourishment of the body. The efficient cause of black bile is the excessive heat of the liver. The efficient cause of normal melancholia is moderate heat. Its material cause is hot and dense foods with little moisture. Its formal cause is the sediment and residues that neither flow nor spread. Its final cause is to strengthen the blood and to serve as nourishment for the body. The efficient cause of burning melancholia is heat that exceeds the normal.
The efficient cause of phlegm is insufficient heat. Its material cause is thick, cold, moist, and sticky food. Its formal cause is insufficient maturation. Its final cause is the complete mixing of the blood and its becoming nourishment for the body. The cause of the emergence of the mixtures is heat and cold. For, from normal heat, blood arises. From excessive heat, burning yellow bile arises, and from even greater heat, burning melancholia arises. From coldness, phlegm arises. The mixtures that flow with the blood in the vessels undergo their third digestion within the vessels in two or three hours. When these mixtures are distributed to the organs, in each organ, within the aforementioned period, there is the fourth digestion of its own share.
The excesses of the third digestion in the vessels and the fourth digestion in the organs—as explained in the previous section—are the earwax in the ear canal, the eye discharge (rheum), and the nasal mucus, and by taking the form of hair and nails, the impurities separated from the organs by the vessels, as well as the lumps and swellings that appear in the body and the flowing wounds, are expelled from the body. Just as there are causes for the emergence of the aforementioned mixtures, so too are there causes for their movement. For, with the movement of the body, hot things set the blood and yellow bile in motion. Sometimes, they also set melancholia in motion. However, stillness strengthens phlegm. Thinking of beautiful things also sets the four mixtures in motion. Indeed, from the density of the four mixtures, a dense substance arises. This substance either becomes an organ or a part of an organ. Likewise, from the subtle vapors of the four mixtures, a subtle substance is born. This substance is the natural spirit (ṭabīʿī rūḥ). First, this spirit is born upon a temperament that has reached the capacity to receive the animal spirit, and then it is this which gives the organs the ability to receive their own psychic faculties and other properties. Thus, the psychic (nafsānī) and animal (ḥaywānī) faculties are not naturally present in the organs of the human body. Rather, it is only through the aforementioned natural spirit. And if the psychic and animal faculties of an organ of the body become inoperative, but its natural spirit does not become inoperative, that organ is still alive. For, an organ that is numb or paralyzed, though it loses the faculties of sensation and movement, still possesses life. If it were dead, it would decay and rot. Therefore, in the paralyzed organ, there is a force that holds it, and that is the natural spirit.
“Glory be to Allah, Who created everything with wisdom, and Who is free from all deficiency. His majesty is exalted.”
THIRD PART
It explains in detail, in four articles, the qualities and essences of the organs, their benefits, their names and faculties, their origins and characteristics.