Leechdoms, wortcunning, and starcraft of early England. Being a ...

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leech: book. ii. 199
imtients. The liver is extended ou the right side as Book II.
far as the pit of the belly, it hath five lohes or lappets,
it has a hold on the false ribs, it is the material of
the blood, and the house and the nourishment of the
blood ; when there is digestion and attenuation of the
meats, they arrive at the liver, and then they change
their hue, and turn into blood ; and it casteth out the
uncleannesses which be there, and collects the clean
blood, and through four veins principally sendeth it to
the heart, and also throughout all the body as far as
the extremities of the limbs. Of the six things which
work liver pain : first swelling, that is, puffing up of
the liver; the second is the bursting of the swelling ; the
third is wound of the liver ; the fourth is a burning heat
with sensitiveness and with a sore swelling ; the fifth
is
a hardening of the maw with sensitiveness and with
soreness ; the sixth is a hardening oi" the liver without
sensitiveness and without soreness. Thou mayest thus
understand swelling or puffing up of the liver ; on the
right side is under the nesh ^ rib first the swelling of the " Read laM.
liver observed, and the disordered man there first feeleth
heaviness and sore, and from that place the sore riseth
over all the side as far as the collar bone, and as far as
the right shoulder, and the mans mie is bloodred as if
it were bloody ; loss of appetite is incident unto him,
and his hue is pale, and he is somewhat feverish, and
he suffereth remarkable chill, and quaketh as a man doth
in lent addle or typhus fever ; his meat will not keep
down, the liver enlarges, and he may not touch the
sore with his hand, to that degree is it strong, and
he hath no sleep when it is strongest. When the
swelling bursteth then is the mie purulent, as ratten
if it runneth ofi" then is the sore less.