PART 14
One must determine by such marks as these, when sweet, strong, and
dark wine, hydromel, water and oxymel, should be given in acute diseases.
Wherefore the sweet affects the head less than the strong, attacks
the brain less, evacuates the bowels more than the other, but induces
swelling of the spleen and liver; it does not agree with bilious persons,
for it causes them to thirst; it creates flatulence in the upper part
of the intestinal canal, but does not disagree with the lower part,
as far as regards flatulence; and yet flatulence engendered by sweet
wine is not of a transient nature, but rests for a long time in the
hypochondria. And therefore it in general is less diuretic than wine
which is strong and thin; but sweet wine is more expectorant than
the other. But when it creates thirst, it is less expectorant in such
cases than the other wine, but if it do not create thirst, it promotes
expecto-
[p. 75]ration better than the other. The good and bad effects of a
white, strong wine, have been already frequently and fully stated
in the disquisition on sweet wine; it is determined to the bladder
more than the other, is diuretic and laxative, and should be very
useful in such complaints; for if in other respects it be less suitable
than the other, the clearing out of the bladder effected by it is
beneficial to the patient, if properly administered. There are excellent
examples of the beneficial and injurious effects of wine, all which
were left undetermined by my predecessors. In these diseases you may
use a yellow wine, and a dark austere wine for the following purposes:
if there be no heaviness of the head, nor delirium, nor stoppage of
the expectoration, nor retention of the urine, and if the alvine discharges
be more loose and like scrapings than usual, in such cases a change
from a white wine to such as I have mentioned, might be very proper.
It deserves further to be known, that it will prove less injurious
to all the parts above, and to the bladder, if it be of a more watery
nature, but that the stronger it is, it will be the more beneficial
to the bowels.
