CHAP. XI.
Of the HEAD-ACH.
OF all the Parts of the Body, the Head is most expos’d to Pains; that is, to a troublesome and grievous Sensation of the Membranous Parts; proceeding from Vapours of the noxious Humours; which ascending to the Head, distend and rend, in a manner, the Membranes of the Brain.
THE Parts most commonly affected, are the Hairy Scalp, the Pericranium, and the Diploe; That is, the medullous Duplicature of the Cranium, otherways call’d the Meditullium: For these Parts, by a continual Solution, when it happens so, are always most severely pain’d. But besides, in a Woman that has conceiv’d, the Pains commonly shift and move from one Place, to another, of the Head; and take certain Intervals, longer or shorter, betwixt their Access and Recess.
BUT as the Infant grows, and exhausts a greater Quantity, or at last the whole of the Blood; and as the Humours fix in their proper Place: So this Symptom gradually goes off, and quite ceases.
HOWEVER, in case the Accesses be long and violent, they may be discreetly cur’d by repelling and mitigating Applications, or by peculiar Corroboratives and Discutients, or proper Alteratives, according to the Nature and Quality of the Cause. I refer what may be farther added on this Head, to Sect. IX. Chap. 3.
CHAP. XII.
Of the MEGRIM, or VERTIGO.
THIS Symptom begins with a Swimming, Giddiness, or Dizziness of the Head, and proceeds (in the conceiv’d Woman) from Vapours of the Humours; which, ascending partly thro’ the Veins and Arteries tending to the Brain, and partly thro’ the Oesophagus or Gullet, disturb the Animal Spirits.
NOW This Distemper is Two-fold, and distinguished by the Words Vertigo and Tenebricosa; which last the Arabian Physicians have call’d Scotomia, I suppose from the Greek Word Σκοτος, Tenebræ, Darkness; and is now generally receiv’d by that Name.