Apotherapeia iatrikē

XXII.

Particular signs, however, show either the Cause or the Location. Those which indicate the cause show either humor, or flatus, or some other cause.

XXIII.

These signs demonstrate that phlegm causes this pain, as Galen teaches (12 Method 7). The pain is not so intense, but lingering deep inside, and it is fixed, so that they feel as if the intestine itself were being perforated. Torments afflict them, there is nausea, and pituitous vomiting; if anything is voided, it is seen to be coated in phlegm (indeed, I testify that I have sometimes seen a mass of phlegm excreted). The things that are excreted are sometimes seen to be light and full of flatus, and they are not soothed by eructations nor by emitted flatus.

XXIV.

If flatus is the cause of the pain, the pain will be very great, tense, wandering, unstable, with rumbling and inflation of the stomach, and it is relieved by eructation or by the passing of wind.

XXV.

Signs which show the Location indicate whether the cause of the evil resides in the cavity of the intestine or within the tunics.

XXVI.

Galen (12 Method) says: If enemas and warming poultices and wind-dispersing agents are applied in Colic, and the pain is not mitigated, it will be a sign that the humors are impacted in the substance of the intestines. If, however, the contrary happens, the contrary is to be thought and pronounced.

XXVII.

Next, if the cause is in the cavity of the intestines, the pains generated are generally mobile and recrudesce at certain short intervals; but if it is within the tunics, the torments are made continuous and more persistent.