Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

248 • The Making of Islamic Science1.2. Concerning the Subject-Matter of Medicine§12 Medicine deals with the states of health and disease in thehuman body. It is a truism of philosophy that a complete knowledgeof a thing can only be obtained by elucidating its causes andantecedents, provided, of course, such causes exist. In medicineit is, therefore, necessary that causes of both health and diseaseshould be determined.§13 Sometimes these causes are obvious to the senses but atother times they may defy direct observation. In such circumstances,causes and an tecedents have to be carefully inferred from the signsand symptoms of the disease. Hence, a description of the signsand symptoms of disease is also necessary for our purpose. It is adictum of the exact sciences that knowledge of a thing is attainedonly through a knowledge of the causes and origins of the causes,assuming there to be causes and origins. Con sequently our knowledgecannot be complete without an understanding both of symptoms andof the principles of being.1.3. The Causes of Health and Disease§14 There are four causes—material, efficient, formal, and final.On the subject of health and disease, we have the following:1.3.1. The Material Causes§15 The material (maddi) cause is the physical body which is thesubject of health and disease. This may be immediate as the organsof body together with their vital energies and remote as the humorsand remoter than these, the elements which are the basis both forstructure and change (or dynamicity). Things which thus provide abasis (for health and disease) get so thoroughly altered and integratedthat from an initial diversity there emerges a holistic unity with aspecific structure (or the quantitative pattern of organization) and aspecific type of temperament (the qualitative pattern).1.3.2. The Efficient Causes§16 The efficient (failiya) causes are capable of either preventingor inducing change in the human body. They may be external tothe per son or internal. External causes are: age, sex, occupation,residence, and climate and other agents which effect the human bodyby contact whether contrary to nature or not. Internal causes aresleep and wake fulness, evacuation of secretions and excretions, the