Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Aristotle On Sterility 267go through a questionnaire: is the womb healthy? Does the woman secretefluid normally? Is the mouth of the uterus dry after intercourse, and soon? All these points are presented as indicators for the observer: they serveas clues to an answer to the original question, whether sterility is due to adefect in the female or in the male.This ‘diagnostic’ character is underscored by the frequency of expressionssuch as ‘on touching, this will appear . . . ’, or ‘whether you touch this ornot...’. 34 It is as if he is giving instructions as to how one can determine thesituation by touching various parts of the female body. Furthermore, theauthor shows a great interest in ‘signs’: he very frequently uses expressionssuch as ‘this indicates . . . ’, ‘you can infer from this . . . ’, ‘this is not difficultto judge...’. 35 In fact, he seems more interested in the significance ofcertain symptoms or conditions than in how they are causally related tothe disorder. A third point which is relevant in this respect is his frequentlyrecurring observation that a particular condition ‘is in need of treatment’ , or ‘does not require treatment’, or ‘does not admitof treatment’. 36 To be sure, he does not indicate what sort of treatmentshould be applied, but he does seem to find it important to comment,in the case of each condition, on the curability, the need for cure, or theabsence of this need.These characteristics, in combination with the above-mentioned resemblancesto the Hippocratic writings, suggest that we are not dealing witha biological but with a predominantly medical work, intended to provideinstructions on how to deal with an important practical problem. For, inthe context of early Greek medicine, to establish whether a certain bodilyaffection required treatment, and whether it admitted of treatment, was34 (634 a 4–5); (635 a 7–10); (635 a 12–13); ’ (635 b 15–16); ’ (638 b 30–1; but the text is uncertain here).35 (passim, e.g. 634 a 14, 26, 635 a 11, 12, 17, 23, etc.); (or ) (634 a 5; 636 b 3); (634 a 5); (634 a 29); (635 a 31–2); (634 a 37); (634 b 12); (636 b 11–12). In themselves, theseexpressions are not peculiar to this treatise, but the high frequency and the emphasis the author putson indicators are significant.36 (634 a 12, 21, 34; 634 b 7, 10–11, 31; 635 a 36, b27; 637 b 29); (634 a 39–41); (634 b 7); (635 a 2–4); (636 a 25); (636 b 3). In the shortdiscussion of sterility in Gen. an. 746 b 16–25 Aristotle also distinguishes forms of sterility that canbe cured and those that cannot.