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Meteorology By Aristotle

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Author Topic: Meteorology By Aristotle  (Read 2795 times)
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Bathos
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« Reply #90 on: August 31, 2009, 12:07:35 am »

This then is the nature of concoction: but inconcoction is an imperfect
state due to lack of proper heat, that is, to cold. That of which
the imperfect state is, is the corresponding passive qualities which
are the natural matter of anything.

So much for the definition of concoction and inconcoction.

Part 3

Ripening is a sort of concoction; for we call it ripening when there
is a concoction of the nutriment in fruit. And since concoction is
a sort of perfecting, the process of ripening is perfect when the
seeds in fruit are able to reproduce the fruit in which they are found;
for in all other cases as well this is what we mean by 'perfect'.
This is what 'ripening' means when the word is applied to fruit. However,
many other things that have undergone concoction are said to be 'ripe',
the general character of the process being the same, though the word
is applied by an extension of meaning. The reason for this extension
is, as we explained before, that the various modes in which natural
heat and cold perfect the matter they determine have not special names
appropriated to them. In the case of boils and phlegm, and the like,
the process of ripening is the concoction of the moisture in them
by their natural heat, for only that which gets the better of matter
can determine it. So everything that ripens is condensed from a spirituous
into a watery state, and from a watery into an earthy state, and in
general from being rare becomes dense. In this process the nature
of the thing that is ripening incorporates some of the matter in itself,
and some it rejects. So much for the definition of ripening.

Rawness is its opposite and is therefore an imperfect concoction of
the nutriment in the fruit, namely, of the undetermined moisture.
Consequently a raw thing is either spirituous or watery or contains
both spirit and water. Ripening being a kind of perfecting, rawness
will be an imperfect state, and this state is due to a lack of natural
heat and its disproportion to the moisture that is undergoing the
process of ripening. (Nothing moist ripens without the admixture of
some dry matter: water alone of liquids does not thicken.) This disproportion
may be due either to defect of heat or to excess of the matter to
be determined: hence the juice of raw things is thin, cold rather
than hot, and unfit for food or drink. Rawness, like ripening, is
used to denote a variety of states. Thus the liquid and solid excreta
and catarrhs are called raw for the same reason, for in every case
the word is applied to things because their heat has not got the mastery
in them and compacted them. If we go further, brick is called raw
and so is milk and many other things too when they are such as to
admit of being changed and compacted by heat but have remained unaffected.
Hence, while we speak of 'boiled' water, we cannot speak of raw water,
since it does not thicken. We have now defined ripening and rawness
and assigned their causes.
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