SECT. XLI.—ON COLLECTIONS OF PHLEGM IN THE STOMACH.
If you should meet with a person who loathes any wholesome food which is offered him, who abstains from food, or, if compelled to take it, becomes sick, who longs after only such things as are acrid, and has no pleasure even in them, but has his belly swelled up with flatulence, is seized with nausea, and enjoys only a short respite by eructations, and on whose stomach everything spoils and becomes acid,—know for certain that the remedies which will afford him relief are such as will clear the stomach of phlegm. I have known one of those so affected, after taking an emetic, consisting of radishes out of oxymel, bring up an incredible quantity of very thick phlegm, by which he has been straightway completely restored to health.
Commentary. This chapter is taken from Oribasius, who, in his turn, is indebted to Galen.
A similar account is given by Rhases. (Contin. xi, 1.) He recommends emetics. (Ad Mansor. iv, 16.)