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protrude like folding doors, or like wings; in those which
have prominent throats; and those which are pale and have
narrow chests. As to situations, those which are cold and
humid, as being akin to the nature of the disease.
CHAPTER IX.
ON PERSONS AFFECTED WITH EMPYEMA.
THOSE persons in whose cavities above, along the region of
the chest, or, in those below the diaphragm, abscesses of matter
form, if they bring it up, they are said to be affected with
Empyema; but if the matter pass downwards, they are said
to labour under Apostemes. And in the ulcers in the chest,
or in the lungs, if phthoe supervene, or in the pleura, or the
sternum, or anywhere below at the junction of the lungs with
the spine -- in all these cases the passage for the matter
upwards is by the lungs. But in the viscera below the diaphragm,
the liver, spleen, and kidneys, it is by the bladder;
and in women by the womb. And I once made an opening
into an abscess in the colon on the right side near the liver,
and much pus rushed out, and much also passed by the
kidneys and bladder for several days, and the man recovered.
The common causes of all are a blow, indigestion, cold and
the like. Of those in the chest also, chronic cough, pleuritis,
peripneumony, and protracted defluxion; but also the determination
of some acute diseases to any one of them.
The humour is sometimes inert, weak, and rests on
something else; sometimes bitingly acrid, and occasioning
putrefactions even unto death. And there are many other
varieties, as I shall presently declare. It is a wonder how
