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PART 24

XXIV. As I have said before, we must examine the powers of humours, and what the effect of each is upon man, and how they are related to one another. Let me give an example. If a humour that is sweet assumes another form, not by admixture, but by a self-caused change, what will it first become, bitter, or salt, or astringent, or acid? I think acid. Therefore where sweet humour is the least suitable of all, acid humour is the next least suitable to be administered.1 If a man can in this way conduct with success inquiries outside the human body, he will always be able to select the very best treatment. And the best is always that which is farthest removed from the unsuitable.

1 Because :-- (1) Health is a crasis of all the humours, none being in excess ;

(2) Sweet humour passes readily into acid ;

(3) Therefore, when sweet is the least suitable as a remedy (there being an excess of it already), acid (which is likely to be reinforced from the sweet) is the next least suitable.

Kéhlewein's text makes sense only if we transpose ὀξύς2 and γλυκύς2. If you want ὀξὺς χυμός1 for crasis you can get it best by adding ὀξύς2, next best by adding γλυκύς, which naturally turns into ὀξύς2.

Hippocrates Collected Works I. Hippocrates. W. H. S. Jones. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1868.

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