579 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC 



BOOK II. 



OF INTUMESCENTI.E, OR GENERAL 

 SWELLINGS. 



MDCXX. The swellings to be treated of in this place, are 

 those which extend over the whole or a great part of the body ; 

 or such at least, as, though of small extent, are however of the 

 same nature with those that are more generally extended. 



The swellings comprehended under this artificial order, are 

 hardly to be distinguished from one another otherwise than by 

 the matter they contain or consist of: and in this view I have 

 divided the order into four sections, as the swelling happens to 

 contain, 1st, oil ; 2d, air ; 3d, a watery fluid ; or, 4th, as the 

 increased bulk depends upon the enlargement of the whole sub- 

 stance of certain parts, and particularly of one or more of the 

 abdominal viscera. 



CHAP. I OF ADIPOSE SWELLINGS. 



MDCXXI. The only disease to be mentioned in this chap- 

 ter, I have, with other Nosologists, named Polysarcia; and in 

 English it may be named Corpulency, or, more strictly, Obe- 

 sity ; as it is placed here upon the common supposition of its 

 depending chiefly upon the increase of oil in the cellular tex- 

 ture of the body. This corpulency or obesity is in very dif- 

 ferent degrees in different persons, and is often considerable 

 without being considered as a disease. There is, however, a 

 certain degree of it, which will be generally allowed to be a 

 disease ; as, for example, when it renders persons, from a cliffi- 



