Chap. 6.] COLIC. loo 



in Italy before the time of Pompeius Magnus. This malady, 

 too, like those already mentioned, mostly makes its first ap- 

 pearance in the face. In its primary form it bears a consider- 

 able resemblance to a small lentil upon the nose ; the skin 

 gradually dries up all over the body, is marked with spots of 

 various colours, and presents an unequal surface, being thick 

 in one place, thin in another, indurated every here and there, 

 and covered with a sort of rough scab. At a later period, the 

 skin assumes a black hue, and compresses the flesh upon the 

 bones, the fingers and toes becoming swollen. 



This disease was originally peculiar to Egypt. "Whenever it 

 attacked the kings of that country, it was attended with pe- 

 culiarly fatal efiects to the people, it being the practice to 

 temper their sitting-baths with human blood, for the treatment 

 of the disease. As for Italy, however, its career was very 

 soon cut short : the same was the case, too, with the disease 

 known as '' gemursa'"® to the ancients, a malady which made 

 its appearance between the toes, and the very name of which is 

 now buried in oblivion. 



CHAP. 6. COLIC. 



It is a remarkable fact that some diseases should disappear 

 from among us, while others, again, should continue to prevail, 

 colic ^'' for example. It was only in the reign of Tiberius 

 Csesar that this malady made its appearance in Italy, the 

 emperor himself being the first to be attacked by it ; a cir- 

 cumstance which produced considerable mystification through- 

 out the City, when it read the edict issued by that prince 

 excusing his inattention to public business, on the ground of his 

 being laid up with a disease, the very name of which was till 

 then unknown. To what cause are we to attribute these various 

 diseases, or how is it that we have thus incurred the anger of 

 the gods ? Was it deemed too little for man to be exposed to 



Lucretius, B. vi. 1. 1111, ei! scq., attributes it to the water of the Nile. It 

 is but rarely known in Europe. 



'^ Fee thinks that this may have been a sort of abscess similar to those 

 between the fingers which are known as fonrchcs by the French, and by 

 medical men as " Aposthema phulangum." Gruner considers it to be a sort 

 of Elephantiasis, and Triller identities it with the disease called Gumretha 

 by the Talmudists. 



^^ " Colum." Fee takes this to be Schirrus of the colon. 



