Note 5 — GALEN

That is, “On the Natural Powers,” the powers of the Physis or Nature. By that Galen practically means what we would call the physiological or biological powers, the characteristic faculties of the living organism; his Physis is the subconscious vital principle of the animal or plant. Like Aristotle, however, he also ascribes quasi-vital properties to inanimate things, cf. Introduction, p. xxvii.