Rational Pharmaceutics, Part 1

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SECTION III. CHAPTER I.

On Purgative Medicines.

Purgation original: "Purgatio"; the clearing of the bowels is a condition contrary to vomiting, or rather its inverse, page 83. A description of it, page 84. Which materials, of four types, are drawn out through catharsis original: "catharsin"; purgation, same page. Namely, first: the chylous mass the semi-liquid mass of partly digested food, feces, mucus, lymph, and serum the watery part of blood overflowing from the glands and arteries, same page. Second: gas original: "flatus", page 85. How gas is produced in the internal organs original: "visceribus", same page. Gas is sometimes the cause and sometimes the effect of abdominal distensions original: "extensionum splanchnicarum", page 86. How they are produced in spasmodic conditions conditions involving involuntary muscle contractions, same page. How the excretory movement of the intestines behaves according to nature, and through which fibers it is accomplished, page 87. By what stimuli it is driven, page 88. Specifically by the weight and irritation original: "molestia" of the feces, same page. To which other factors original: "accidentia" are added, namely first: unsuitable or spoiled foods; likewise bile and pancreatic juice, page 89. Humors bodily fluids from the blood, the nervous juice a fluid Willis believed flowed through nerves, and the general constitution of the body, page 90. This type of matter is also purged by means of drugs original: "pharmaca", same page. These work both by irritation within the primary passages the digestive tract and by fermentation within the blood and humors, same page. How the former of these is carried out within the stomach original: "ventriculum", page 91. A sensation of discomfort is impressed upon the nerve fibers, and consequently the motor fibers are summoned into excretory spasms, page 92. The nature of a purgative's original: "Cathartici" operation within the duodenum the first part of the small intestine and the small intestines, page 93. Its action upon the bile and pancreatic ducts; upon the glands, and the openings original: "oscula"; literally "little mouths" of the arteries, page 94. Its nature within the blood, page 95. It happens partly by fermentation and partly by irritation, same page. The method and reasons for both are explained, same page. The three degrees of purgative operation, page 96. Purgatives do not work through attraction or selection Willis here rejects the ancient idea that certain drugs "chose" to pull only specific humors like yellow or black bile, page 97. Of purgatives...