Book 2
8
What, however, if the bile is not contained in the food, but comes into existence in the animal's body? Will it not also be useful to know what state of the body is followed by a greater, and what by a smaller occurrence of bile?Here it is rather the living organism we consider than the particular food that is put into it. For obviously it is in our power to alter and transmute morbid states of the body — in fact, to give them a turn for the better. But if we did not know in what respect they were morbid or in what way they diverged from the normal, how should we be able to ameliorate them?
