[p. 351]
clayey, along with the phantasy, as if a fluid were passing
through them; heavy pain of the stomach now and then, as
if from a puncture; the patient emaciated and atrophied, pale,
feeble, incapable of performing any of his accustomed works.
But if he attempt to walk, the limbs fail; the veins in the
temples are prominent, for owing to wasting, the temples are
hollow; but also over all the body the veins are enlarged,
for not only does the disease not digest properly, but it does
not even distribute that portion in which the digestion had
commenced for the support of the body; it appears to me,
therefore, to be an affection, not only of the digestion, but
also of the distribution.
But if the disease be on the increase, it carries back the
matters from the general system to the belly, when there is
wasting of the constitution; the patients are parched in the
mouth, surface dry and devoid of sweat, stomach sometimes
as if burnt up with a coal, and sometimes as if congealed with
ice. Sometimes also, along with the last scybala, there flows
bright, pure, unmixed blood, so as to make it appear that the
mouth of a vein has been opened; for the acrid discharge
corrodes the veins. It is a very protracted and intractable
illness; for, even when it would seem to have ceased, it relapses
again without any obvious cause, and comes back upon even a
slight mistake. Now, therefore, it returns periodically.
This illness is familiar to old persons, and to women rather
than to men. Children are subject to continued diarrhœa,
from an ephemeral intemperance of food; but in their case the
disease is not seated in the cavity of the stomach. Summer
engenders the disease more than any other of the seasons;
autumn next; and the coldest season, winter, also, if the heat
be almost extinguished. This affection, dysentery and lientery,
sometimes are engendered by a chronic disease. But, likewise,
a copious draught of cold water has sometimes given rise
to this disease.
