Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

Primary Sources • 249changes at differ ent periods of life in occupation, habits and customs,ethnic group and nationality.1.3.3. The Formal Causes§§17 The formal (suriyah) causes are three: temperaments (mizajat)(or the pattern of constitution as a whole) and the faculties or drives(qawa) which emerge from it and the structure (the quantitativepatterns).1.3.4. The Final Causes§18 The final (tamamia) causes are the actions or functions. Theycan be understood only from a knowledge of both the facultiesor drives (qawa) and the vital energies (breaths, arwah) that areultimately responsible for them. These will be described presently.1.4. Other Factors to Consider§19 A knowledge of the above-mentioned causes gives one insightinto how the body is maintained in a state of health and how itbecomes ill. A full understanding of just how health is conserved orsickness removed de pends on understanding the underlying causesof each of these states and of their “instruments.” For example, thediet in regard to food, drink, choice of climate, regulations regardingwork and rest, the use of medicines, or operative interference.Physicians treat all these points under three head ings as will bereferred to later: health, sickness, and a state intermediate betweenthe two. But we say that the state which they call intermediate is notreally a mean between the other two.§20 As the aim of medicine is to preserve health and eradicatedisease, there are some other factors which deserve consideration: (1)the elements;(2) the temperaments; (3) the humors or body fluids; (4) thetissues and organs-simple and composite; (5) the breaths and theirnatural, nervous and vital faculty or drives; (6) the functions; (7) thestates of the body health, sickness, intermediate conditions; and (8)their causes: food, drink, air, water, localities of residence, exercise,repose, age, sex, occupation, customs, race, evacuation, retention andthe external accidents to which the body is exposed from without;(9) the diet in regard to food, drink, medicines; exercises directed topreserving health; and (10) the treatment for each disorder.