Ar' oun tauta monon enargôs machetai tois Asklêpiadou dogmasin ê kai to therous men pleiona kenousthai tên xanthên cholên hypo tôn autôn pharmakôn, cheimônos de to phlegma, kai neaniskô men pleiona tên cholên, presbytê de to phlegma? phainetai || gar hekaston helkein tên 44 ousan, ouk auto gennan tên ouk ousan. ei goun ethelêsais neaniskô tini tôn ischnôn kai thermôn hôra therous mêt' argôs bebiôkoti mêt' en plêsmonê phlegmatos agôgon dounai pharmakon, oligiston men kai meta bias pollês ekkenôseis tou chymou, blapseis d' eschatôs ton anthrôpon; empalin d' ei cholagôgon doiês, kai pampoly kenôseis kai blapseis ouden. Ar' apistoumen eti tô mê ouch hekaston tôn pharmakôn epagesthai ton oikeion heautô chymon? isôs phêsousin hoi ap' Asklêpiadou, mallon d' ouk isôs, alla pantôs apistein erousin, hina mê prodôsi ta philtata. XIV Let us pass on, then, again to another piece of nonsense; for the sophists do not allow one to engage in enquiries that are of any worth, albeit there are many such; they compel one to spend one's time in dissipating the fallacious arguments which they bring forward. What, then, is this piece of nonsense? It has to do with the famous and far-renowned stone which draws iron [the lodestone]. It might be thought that this would draw[113] their minds to a belief that there are in all bodies certain _faculties_ by which they attract their own proper qualities. Now Epicurus, despite the fact that he employs in his _Physics_[114] elements similar to those of Asclepiades,[115] yet allows that iron is attracted by the lodestone,[116] and chaff by amber. He even tries to give the cause of the phenomenon. His view is that the atoms which flow from the stone are related in shape to those flowing from the iron, and so they become easily interlocked with one another; thus it is that, after colliding with each of the two compact masses (the stone and the iron) they then rebound into the middle and so become entangled with each other, and draw the iron after them. So far, then, as his hypotheses regarding causation[117] go, he is perfectly unconvincing; nevertheless, he does grant that there is an attraction. Further, he says that it is on similar principles that there occur in the bodies of animals the dispersal of nutriment[118] and the discharge of waste matters, as also the actions of cathartic drugs.