1599.—"The disease which in India is called Mordicin. This is a species of Colic, which comes on in those countries with such force and vehemence that it kills in a few hours; and there is no remedy discovered. It causes evacuations by stool or vomit, and makes one burst with pain. But there is a herb proper for the cure, which bears the same name of mordescin."—Carletti, 227.
1602.—"In those islets (off Aracan) they found bad and brackish water, and certain beans like ours both green and dry, of which they ate some, and in the same moment this gave them a kind of dysentery, which in India they corruptly call mordexim, which ought to be morxis, and which the Arabs call sachaiza (Ar. hayẓat), which is what Rasis calls sahida, a disease which kills in 24 hours. Its action is immediately to produce a sunken and slender pulse, with cold sweat, great inward fire, and excessive thirst, the eyes sunken, great vomitings, and in fact it leaves the natural power so collapsed (derribada) that the patient seems like a dead man."—Couto, Dec. IV. liv. iv. cap. 10.
c. 1610.—"Il regne entre eux vne autre maladie qui vient a l'improviste, ils la nomment Mordesin, et vient auec grande douleur des testes, et vomissement, et crient fort, et le plus souvent en meurent."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 19; [Hak. Soc. ii. 13].
1631.—"Pulvis ejus (Calumbac) ad scrup. unius pondus sumptus cholerae prodest, quam Mordexi incolae vocant."—Jac. Bontii, lib. iv. p. 43.
1638.—"... celles qui y regnent le plus, sont celles qu'ils appellent Mordexin, qui tue subitement."—Mandelslo, 265.
1648.—See also the (questionable) Voyages Fameux du Sieur Victor le Blanc, 76.
c. 1665.—"Les Portugais appellent Mordechin les quatre sortes de Coliques qu'on souffre dans les Indes ou elles sont frequentes ... ceux qui ont la quatrième soufrent les trois maux ensemble, à savoir le vomissement, le flux de ventre, les extremes douleurs, et je crois que cette derniere est le Colera-Morbus."—Thevenot, v. 324.
1673.—"They apply Cauteries most unmercifully in a Mordisheen, called so by the Portugals, being a Vomiting with Looseness."—Fryer, 114.
[1674.—"The disease called Mordechi generally commences with a violent fever, accompanied by tremblings, horrors and vomitings; these symptoms are generally followed by delirium and death." He prescribes a hot iron applied to the soles of the feet. He attributes the disease to indigestion, and remarks bitterly that at least the prisoners of the Inquisition were safe from this disease.—Dellon, Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa, ii. ch. 71.]
1690.—"The Mordechine is another Disease ... which is a violent Vomiting and Looseness."—Ovington, 350.