THIS Malicious or Lusting SYMPTOM, is most dangerous; degenerating commonly into a Cacochymy, Dropsy, Phthisick, or some other heavy Disease.
BUT the greatest Hardship or Misfortune, after All, is This; that, if the Woman doth not indulge her corrupt APPETITE, she languishes and pines to such a degree, that her[[61]]Life is often endanger’d, together with the Foetus, by the Disappointment: and if she does so gratify herself, This often proves of the worst of Consequences, even sometimes to a mortal Fatality.
HOWEVER, in short, this SYMPTOM is like many Others, more easily prevented, than cur’d: Wherefore all Women, as soon as they conceive, ought (at repeated Times) to use proper Anti-kittean Medicines (that is, against PICA or Longing) and be very careful of their Regimen and Diet: But when, perhaps, by neglect of those Means, the Distemper appears inordinate, the Method of Cure consists in evacuating the Humours, and in absterging, alterating, and corroborating the Stomach.
CHAP. VIII.
Of CHOLICKS and GRIPES.
THO’ the Cholick derives its Name from the Gut Colon, I mean by it not precisely that Pain which affects This only, but that also which usually invades other Guts, whether thin or thick; because one Gut seems not to be more subject than another to this Pain; the Contexture of all of them being the same every where. So that the Cholick is nothing else than a sorrowful Sensation of a very sharp Pain, infesting the Guts, or the Nervous Plexus, or Membranes in their Neighbourhood, proceeding from wandering Winds and Flatulencies in the Abdomen, or lower Belly; arising from the Humours aggregated about the Womb: which, dissipating themselves, distend the Intestines, and excite most severe Pains about the Navel.
THESE Effects may also proceed from indurated Excrements in the Rectum; or from any other Matter, which either compresses, obstructs, or erodes the Intestines: Hence Physicians commonly take notice of Three different Sorts of Cholicks; namely, the Flatulent, the Bilous, and the Pituitous.
NOW These are All thus distinguished: The Wind-Cholick traverses the Belly, and gives an excruciating wandring Pain in the Viscera, or Bowels, &c. The Bilous induces a certain Pain, with a very sensible Mordacity; and is generally attended with Thirst and a Bitterness in the Mouth: The Pituitous gives a most sharp penetrating fixed Pain, resembling (as it were) a driven Stake, or perforating Instrument; attended with a Nausea, Vomiting, and Retention of Excrements, &c. This last Sort Galen calls the most cruel Cholick.
HOWEVER I take it to be the First of these, which most commonly afflicts the Conceiv’d Woman; generated of improper Diet, or proceeding from an irregular Regimen: And This is also sometimes so excessive, that I’ve seen the PATIENT fall by its Extremity into a Lipothymia, or Swooning-Fit, which generally presages ABORTION, if not seasonably prevented by proper Discutients, and convenient Diet, &c.
