PART 11
The excrement is best which is soft and consistent, is passed at the
hour which was customary to the patient when in health, in quantity
proportionate to the ingests; for when the passages are such, the
lower belly is in a healthy state. But if the discharges be fluid,
it is favorable that they are not accompanied with a noise, nor are
frequent, nor in great quantity; for
[p. 49]the man being oppressed by frequently
getting up, must be deprived of sleep; and if the evacuations be both
frequent and large, there is danger of his falling into deliquium
animi. But in proportion to the ingesta he should have evacuations
twice or thrice in the day, once at night and more copiously in the
morning, as is customary with a person in health. The faeces should
become thicker when the disease is tending to a crisis; they ought
to be yellowish and not very fetid. It is favorable that round worms
be passed with the discharges when the disease is tending to a crisis.
The belly, too, through the whole disease, should be soft and moderately
distended; but excrements that are very watery, or white, or green,
or very red, or frothy, are all bad. It is also bad when the discharge
is small, and viscid, and white, and greenish, and smooth; but still
more deadly appearances are the black, or fatty, or livid, or verdigris-green,
or fetid. Such as are of varied characters indicate greater duration
of the complaint, but are no less dangerous; such as those which resemble
scrapings, those which are bilious, those resembling leeks, and the
black; these being sometimes passed together, and sometimes singly.
It is best when wind passes without noise, but it is better that flatulence
should pass even thus than that it should be retained; and when it
does pass thus, it indicates either that the man is in pain or in
delirium, unless he gives vent to the wind spontaneously. Pains in
the hypochondria, and swellings, if recent, and not accompanied with
inflammation, are relieved by borborygmi supervening in the hypochondrium,
more especially if it pass off with faeces, urine, and wind; but even
although not, it will do good by passing along, and it also does good
by descending to the lower part of the belly.
