The Art of Physick
Section C. Of things Preternatural
1. Of Diseases
D. What is a Disease?
C. A Disease is a Preternatural Affection by which the Action is first harmed. D. I thus dispute against it: Every Disease is not a Disposition; therefore is ill defined by Galen. C. I deny the Antecedent. D. I prove it thus: For the most part a Disease is a Habit; but Disposition is not a Habit; yea, it is opposed to Habit by Aristotle, because Habit is a permanent Quality which cannot easily be removed from the Subject; but Disposition is a Quality that may be easily removed from the Subject. C. The Word Disposition, that is, Affection, is understood by Galen, not according to that more special signification, wherein Disposition, that is a preparation of Habit, is used by Aristotle; but according to the more general signification, under which he comprehends Disposition and Habit: for some Diseases easily come, and soon go off; others are with difficulty removed. D. Moreover, by this Argument I prove that the Disease does not in the first place injure the Action. Faculty differs from Action, as the Cause from the Effect; but the Disease first injures the Faculty; therefore the Action is not first injured. C. That is false in an Organic Distemper; for the Use of the Instrument may be hindered without any injury to the Faculty. D. However in a similar Disease the Faculty is injured before the Action. C. I answer, a Physician makes his Judgement of all things according to Sense: but we do not find the Faculty hurt, before we find the Action fail. D. Besides I thus prove, That every Disease does not injure the Action: A Wound is a Disease, but the Functions of the wounded Part remain entire, because it attracts, retains, assimilates the Blood, and lastly, restores the portion of the Flesh cut off: There every Disease does not injure the Action. C. I Answer these things are performed by the sound part, which are next to the Wound. D. How many general Divisions are there of a Disease? C. A Disease is threefold; Similar, Organic, and Common. D. What is a Similar Disease? C. A Distemper which first injures the Action of the Similar Part. D. Of how many sorts is Distemper? C. It is either Simple or Compound. A Simple Distemper is either hot, cold, moist, or dry. The Compound Distemper is either hot and moist, hot and dry, cold and moist, cold and dry; at that either alone, or joined with Matter. D. What is an Organic Distemper? C. A Disproportion of the Structure which first injures the use of the Organ. D. Of how many sorts is it? C. It is fourfold; either in the forming, the Magnitude, the Number or Situation. D. What is the Disease of Form? C. The Disease of Form is, when the natural Figure of the Frame is depraved, or when a Passage or Cavity is dilated beyond measure, or straightened, or obstructed where it should not be; or when the Part is rough where it should be smooth, or smooth where it should be rough. D. What is the Disease of Magnitude? C. The Disease of Magnitude is when any Part is increased or diminished beyond or beneath its due proportion. D. What is the Disease of Number? C. The Disease of Number is when any Part is wanting or superabounds. D. What is the Disease of Situation? C. When any Part loosens from its proper place, as when the great Gut falls into the Scrotum. D. What is the Common Disease? C. The Separation of the Continuity which hinders the Functions of both parts. D. Of how many sorts is the Separation of Continuity? C. Fourfold: A Wound, an Ulcer, a Fracture, a putting out of Joint: which may be likewise called a Disease in Situation. D. Why do you here omit a Tumor against Nature? C. Because a Tumor preternatural is said to be a compounded Disease of Distemper, ill Figure, and Separation of the Continuity, by a Word from the Greek called an Aposteme. D. How many significations will the Word Aposteme bear? C. Two: the one General, and the other Special; for generally the Word Aposteme is taken for any Tumor which is preternatural; but specially for an Inflammation brought to Suppuration; and many times for a Tumor, wherein some certain Matter appears in the Vesicle, resembling Honey or Grease, or thick Gruel. D. Where do these Apostemes breed? C. In the extreme Parts of the Body. D. There ‘tis true they use to breed, but we observed not long since a new place which they had found out, never heard of before in the School of the Physicians. The most illustrious, the Marquess of Monte-pezzati, a Person of a sharp Wit, upon the ceasing of a Dysentery, to which he had been subject from his younger years, and after a suppression of the Emrods, which for eight years together had kept their constant course, in the 49th year of his Age, 1619. he was taken at Tours with a violent and obstinate pain in the Head, the Consequence of which was a Delirium. All the Remedies that the most Famous Physicians of Tours could imagine, were applied, but all to no purpose: wherefore he was removed to Pressignac, at a good distance from the King’s Court, whither I was called, together with three other of the most eminent, to try our Skill; but notwithstanding all the most violent Remedies that could be rationally used, bot being able to vanquish the Distemper, at length he died Lethargic. His Body being opened under the foremost right-side ventricle, a part of it was apparently corrupted, in which there appeared various and sundry forms of an Aposteme, the Vesicles of which were about the bigness of a Pine-nut. This observation I thought for to give thee an account of by the way. Now let us return to the general Discourse of Apostemes. Of how many sorts are Tumors preternatural? C. Fourfold: Phlegmone, Erysipelas, Oedema and Schirrus. D. What is Phlegmone? C. It is a Tumor preternatural, caused by the Blood starting out of the Veins and dilating the Part with Heat, Redness, Paint, Beating, and resisting the Touch. D. What is an Erysipelas? C. An inflammation very hot lying in the Skin, and sometimes encroaching upon the flesh underneath, proceeding from a Choleric hot Blood, which by reason of its thinness causes no great Swelling, but disperses it self in length and breadth every way. D. What is an Oedema? C. A cold, loose, white Tumor, void of pain, leaving the print of the finger that touches it, proceeding from a Phlegmatic Humor. D. What is a Schirrus? C. A hard, resisting Tumor, void of pain, with little or no sense of feeling, proceeding from a Melancholy Humor. D. What is a Wound? C. It is a separation of the Contiguity in soft parts by some Cut, Bite, or other external Accident. D. What is an Ulcer? C. The separation of the Continuity is soft parts, made by Corrosion. D. What is a Fracture? C. It is a Union of the Bone separated; occasioned by some external Accident bruising or breaking the same. D. What is Luxation? C. It is the falling or slipping of a Joint out of its proper place into another, to the impeding the voluntary Motion. |
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Organic Disease, a disease of genetic abnormality; a disease acquired from the parents Separation of Continuity refers to some damage of the tissues Apostume (Aposteme), is properly an abscess, is taken for any tumor is its broadest sense. This 'abscess' is almost certainly a septic or ruptured appendix. Preternatural means 'Against Nature' Tumors were broadly classed into 4 categories, each coming from one of the 4 Humors. The names are specific diseases that represent the 'archetypal tumor' of the Humor. Phlegmone: Blood Erysipelas: Bile Edema: Phlegm Schirrus: Melancholy |
The Art Of Physick
Section A.
OF THE 7 NATURALS
(Physiology)
Introduction to the 7 Naturals
1. Elements
2. Temperaments
3. Parts
4. Humors
5. Spirits
6. Faculties
7. Actions
Section B.
OF THE 6 NOT-NATURALS
(Preservation of Health)
Introduction to the 6 Not-Naturals
1. Ambient Air
2. Food and Drink
3. Sleep and Waking
4a. Exercise &
4b. Rest
5. Excrements
6. Emotions (Passions of the Mind)
Section C.
OF THE 3 PRETER-NATURALS
(Pathology)
1. Diseases
2. Causes
3a. Symptoms &
3b. Signs
Section A.
OF THE 7 NATURALS
(Physiology)
Introduction to the 7 Naturals
1. Elements
2. Temperaments
3. Parts
4. Humors
5. Spirits
6. Faculties
7. Actions
Section B.
OF THE 6 NOT-NATURALS
(Preservation of Health)
Introduction to the 6 Not-Naturals
1. Ambient Air
2. Food and Drink
3. Sleep and Waking
4a. Exercise &
4b. Rest
5. Excrements
6. Emotions (Passions of the Mind)
Section C.
OF THE 3 PRETER-NATURALS
(Pathology)
1. Diseases
2. Causes
3a. Symptoms &
3b. Signs