The lesser writings of John Arderne / by D'Arcy Power.

D'Arcy Power

Date:: 1913

Credit: The lesser writings of John Arderne / by D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$ellys of brokene humours goyinge aboute, or for falynge doune of the guttys into the purs of the testiclys, or of woormys or of febylnesse of the wytte.’ The pfassio iliaca is distinguished clearly from colic, one form of which is often associated with changes in the urine and so is due to a ‘passion of the reynes’. But renal colic again may be distinguished from colic in the bowels. Arderne maintains that the pain of renal colic is fixed, and differs from Gordon, who, he says, teaches that ‘ the sorowe of the reynys is other whyle goyinge to & fro’. The treatment consists in giving clysters and in hot applications to the abdomen when they can be borne. Care must be taken in making these hot applications that they are not put over the region of the liver, ‘lest that the livere de dyssolvyd thorough the hete of the medycine.’ A disquisition of clysters and their use is followed by an essay upon the causes and treatment of renal colic. In connexion with this subject Arderne contrasts the virtues of milk obtained from the cow, sheep, and goat. The governaunce of nefretykes. A regimen for nephritics forms a separate tract, and is a common-sense instruction for the guidance of patients suffering from kidney disease. They are to lead an easy life; if they have passed a bad night they ‘mowe slepe be the morne unto 1x on the clokke’. Patients with renal disease should “putte awey ire, hyghly & moche besynesse & almanere thynge that longeth to the soule saff only joye. . . . They schulle forbere almanere metys that ben to _grete of substaunse & viscous, as olde beeff that is myghtyly pooudryd & enharded with salt & also fressch porke but yf it lye in salt ii dayes afore. . . . They mowe use grete wyne & the fflessch of calvys that ben soowkynge & also of all ffowlys saff thoo that ben of the lakys & dichys (dykes ?) . . . and squamous ffyssches, i.e. fyssch of the rivere, of the stony waterys & rennynge ryveres & not of the standynge waterys & they schulle eschywe almaner mete made of paast (pasties) & all bred that is dowgh bakene & all fatnesse. And they schulle use the reynes of the beeste other roste or sode. And in especiall he schall use a ffoowl that is callyd Cauda tremula or Wagstertte other fressch or salte or bakene withoute drynesse ffor & it be drye it is nought woorth. And note that the use of the powdir or of the flessch of the Wagstertte avayleth gretly to breke the stone in the bladdere.’ Arderne also distinguishes between inflammation of the kidney and “a botch’ or abscess of the kidney, and again between a botch of the kidney and a botch of the bladder. Botch of the bladder leads him to speak of strangury; and strangury of the chaudepisse or ‘ brennynge of the uryne in the yerde’ with which he was perfectly familiar. The chaudepisse he treated with a mucilaginous injection. Urinary disorders. Dysuria is classified under the headings of ‘ whanne the uryne is utterly denied’, or suppression, which ‘is a sygne of deeth withinne vii dayes’; and ‘ dyfficulte i.e. hardnesse of pyssynge’, or reten- tion. M{ag.] W. de Hochesworth in cases of retention used the following$

The lesser writings of John Arderne / by D'Arcy Power.

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