Page:Greek Biology and Medicine.djvu/115

 PROGRESS IN ANATOMY more dogmatic doctors who were not happy unless they could understand the ratio of men's bodies and of their disturbances. They pro- fessed a rational medicine and held it neces- sary to understand the antecedent and obscure, as well as the palpable, causes of the disease, and insisted upon a knowledge of anatomy. In their opinion those who best knew the con- stitution of the body and the causes of disease had the best chance to effect a cure. Ex- perience was important, but must always be approached through the ratio of things. Then Celsus speaks of those who adhered to the methodum, the simple but sufficient way, which was in fine a rather Roman simplifi- cation of Greek theory, especially of the atomic theory and its application to the constitution and diseases of the human body. In general — and the Methodists preferred generaliza- tions to the specific knowledge which was more difficult — diseases are due to a condition of undue tension or rigidity in the body, or on the other hand to excessive relaxation. In the first case, the pores between the atoms are clogged, and in the second they are too loose and open. The theory was elastic and the treatment reasonable, consisting in warm baths [93]