LEECH BOOK. IT. 163 



xxiii. Leechdoms, telling what the sick man hath Book 11. 

 to forego in hver disorder, what he hath to hold by, Contents. 

 either in leechdoms or in meat, and tokens that the 

 swelling may not dwindle nor run off in the liver. 



xxiv. Leechdoms and wort drinks for all liver pains, 

 thirteen in all, and if the liver wax. 



XXV. Leeches also have found a plain token for all 

 wamb ' diseases and disorders, and leechdoms, and how 

 a man shall treat the evil humours of the wamb, and 

 when disease will be at the wamb, for the evil in- 

 flammatory humours ; the knees " are hot,'' the loins are 

 lieavy, the sinews of the loins are sore, there are 

 spasms between the shoulders, the discharge is of a 

 mixed nature. 



xxvi. Leechdoms if the wamb be wounded, and how 

 a man may understand that, and lioiv cure it ; five 

 crafts or receii^ts. 



xxvii. Leechdoms regarding the various nature and 

 misbehaviour of the wamb, how a man may under- 

 stand and how treat that, and of the hot nature of 

 the wamb: and of its cold and moist nature, and of 

 its hot and dry nature,^ and how the congressus 

 sexuum is not holesome for a dry body, and how it 

 scatheth not a hot nor a wet one : seven crafts : and 

 that swiving most severely hurteth them who have 

 the disease of foul humours. 



xxviii. Leechdoms in case that the upper part of the 

 belly of a man be filled with evil humour, and of 

 the windy wamb. 



xxix. Leechdoms in case that meat digest not well, 

 and turn to foul and evil humour or feeces. 



' The maw is the organ of di- 

 gestion, the stomach ; the wamb 

 is the venter, -whatever that may 

 mean. 



3 The " hot and cold, wet and 

 " dry " theory was an attempt of 



the " rationalis disciplina " of the 

 Hellenes to arrive at scientific 

 generalizations ; it is traceable 

 among the works attributed to Hip- 

 pokrates and in Aristoteles. 



l2 



