With respect to diarrhœa, Celsus recommends us to give an emetic; to anoint next day with oil; to give moderate food and undiluted wine; and to apply over the belly a cerate with rue. Cælius Aurelianus enjoins at first rest and abstinence, then astringent applications to the belly, next day astringent food, and then wine and the hath. Haly Abbas remarks that a diarrhœa is not to be rashly stopped unless it become excessive, in which case astringents are to be given, such as galls, roses, pomegranate fruit, &c. Serapion and Rhases mention an emetic as a remedy for diarrhœa.
For the cure of diarrhœa, the veterinary surgeons recommend at first bleeding and hot water, and then astringents, such as sumach and pomegranate rind. (Geopon. xvi, 8.)
SECT. XL.—ON LIENTERY AND CÆLIAC AFFECTION.
There are two varieties of lientery: the one arising from superficial ulceration of the intestines, and (according to some) from a cicatrix occasioned most frequently by dysentery or other defluxions; and the other from an atony of the retentive faculty of the bowels: the second variety being in our opinion connected with the cæliac affection; for in it the stomach being unable to concoct and distribute the food, it is discharged downwards in a smooth, undigested, and liquid state, the stomach in all cases labouring under a defluxion. But in lientery the passage of the food is quick, and the indigestion more intense; so that the appearance of the food which has been taken is preserved, and by these circumstances it is more especially distinguished from cæliac affection. Wherefore we must apply cataplasms of linseed with dates. And lentisk and bramble boiled with oxymel is a very effectual remedy; but, when there is flatulence of the bowels, we must mix some cumin, dill, and rue. If the defluxion increase, we may add quinces, moist alum, acacia, hypocistis, galls, some or all of these. Cerates also made of myrtle-oil with some astringent wine are useful, and the caleficient epithemes from the bay-berries, or from seeds. But that from the flowers of wild vine, that from grape-stones, and that ascribed to Antyllus are more astringent. But the one called Erythrian is wonderfully efficacious. When the disease is protracted, we must have recourse to a dropax (calefacient plaster) along the abdomen, and the cerate from mustard, or mustard itself. The drinks which are taken should be simple, containing plantain-seed, or the seed of dock, or the rind of pomegranate, or dried services, or dried unripe grapes from the Aminæan vine, to the amount of three oboli; which things, when there is no fever, are to be taken in six cupfuls of an austere wine, but when there is fever in rain water. It will injure the stomach less if the dried crop of hens be sprinkled upon the drink. But diuretics, such as parsley, maiden-hair, and the like, occasion a metastasis of the fluid; and, in like manner, the compound ones, as that of Polyides (it is the sigillum), the trochisk from amber, that from Egyptian thorn, the one called clidium, and that from seeds. The following one is most excellent: Of the seed of the wild dock, oz. iss; of plantain-seed, oz. j; of the juice of the hypocistis, dr. vj; of gum or acacia, dr. iij; add to a decoction of the juice of quinces boiled to a third part.—Another: Of cumin, of pepper, of Syriac sumach, of the flowers of the wild pomegranate, of each, oz. iss; of pomegranate-rind, oz. j; of laserwort, oz. ss; either sprinkle a drachm of it dried upon the drink, or mix with oxymel, and give morning and evening.—Another: Of black myrtle, a spoonful and a half; of anise, of dried roses, of the flower of wild vine, of each, half a spoonful; of dates, xx in number; make trochisks, and give a drachm with water or diluted wine. And the theriac from vipers is also an excellent remedy for them. When the discharge is acrid and bilious, the food should be from chondrus, rice, alica, and the like; but some of the astringents should be boiled along with them, such as pears, apples, quinces, medlars, and such like. Boiled milk is also proper. The drink should be either a light watery wine, or some of the sweet potions. If the discharges consist more of phlegm, we may change the diet to the opposite kind, mixing the seeds of some of the stomachic vegetables, anise, cumin, or the seed of parsley. The dried lentil twice boiled is often of use to them, when eaten with a little vinegar or oxymel, and cabbages likewise twice boiled; but it is better to make the second boiling in oxycrate. They should drink some of the older and more heating wines.
Commentary. Hippocrates (Aphor., de Affect.); Galen (in Hipp. Aphor. Comment. vi, 1; de Med. sec. loc. vii); Aretæus (Morb. Chron. ii, 10); Celsus (iv, 16); Nonnus (166); Theophilus (de Alvi Retrim. 2); Actuarius (Meth. Med. i, 42); Aëtius (ix, 37); Oribasius (Morb. Curat. iv, 88); Leo (v, 5); Psellus (Opus Medicum); Scribonius Largus (xi); Marcellus (de Medicam. 27); Avicenna (iii, 16, 1); Serapion (iii, 18); Haly Abbas (Theor. ix, 25, Pract. vii, 16); Alsaharavius (Pract. xvii, 1); Rhases (ad Mansor. ix, 72; Contin. xiii.)
In lientery, says Hippocrates, the food passes through the bowels in a liquid state and without change. Galen remarks that the affection may be defined to be a loss of digestion, the food having undergone no change in consistence, smell, or quality, while in the bowels. The intestines, he says, are either in a state of ulceration and great tenderness, or they have lost their retentive faculty.
Aretæus calls it a disease arising from broad ulcers of the intestines when the food passes through the bowels not at all altered. With respect to the treatment, he merely says that an emetic after food will remove it.
Celsus recommends astringent food, stimulant and rubefacient applications externally; and afterwards exercise, friction, insolation, and vomiting, which, he says, Hippocrates directed to be produced with white hellebore when other things fail.
Dioscorides states that when the inner membrane of a cock’s stomach has been dried and reduced to powder, it may be given triturated in wine with great advantage in stomach complaints. Our author, it will be remarked, makes mention of this medicinal article.