THEBellydischarges it self sometimes moreseldomor infrequently; sometimes with morePainandDifficulty; and sometimes in lessQuantitythan is convenient forNature.
THEREhave been manyInstancesgiven of thisDisorder, by[78]Learned Men, where somePatientshave gone toStoolbut once inEight, once inFourteen, and once inTwentyor moreDays.
YEA,[79]Dominicus Panarolusrelates of a certain Friend of his, whoseBellywas so exsiccated, that he sometimes liv’d threeMonthswithout going toStool.
BUTwhat I mean byCostiveness, is not that Distemper, where there is a total Suppression, for that rather belongs to theIliack Passion; but that only, where theExcrementslodging longer than their due naturalTime, perhaps three or four Days more or less, are at last voided hard and dry with some small Straining.
Which irregularAccidentmay proceed from many differentCauses. Although in thepregnant Woman, I take the following to be the mostCommon: That is to say, theCalidityandSiccityof theLIVER, orSPLEEN; occasion’d by theLusty Child’sattracting too much of theRadicaland SuccidMoistureof theMOTHER, and compressing theIntestines.
THISSymptomproves often of dangerousConsequence: For by the pressingForce, commonly us’d in such aCaseto ease theBelly, someVesselsorLigamentsmay be easily and readilybroken. And not only so, but the retain’dFæcesalways affect theHead, and contaminate theBloodwith noxiousVapours; and thereby impede or hinder theConcoctionof theVentricle, and the Separation of the better and purer, from the grosser and impurer part of theChyle: Whence proceed many other variousDisordersto the wholeBody, from the long Retention of theExcrements.
THECureconsists in temperating theCalidityof theVISCERA, and relaxing theBELLYby properDiet,Dissolvents, &c. And inCaseof any suddenVOMITING, which sometimes happens uponCostiveness, humectant and emollientClystersmay be most properly and cautiously used, to restrain and prevent all suchRevulsions.