Detail View: LUNA: Folger Manuscript Transcriptions Collection: Receipt book [manuscript].

123226

V.a.140

Receipt book [manuscript].

compiled ca. 1600

folio 37 verso || folio 38 recto

FSL collection

http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=231384

I will briefely Explayne ^what asthma is, whence it proceeds, by what sighnes to be discernd, and by what methode in phisick, and dyett it is cureable. The word asthma according to Senertus is thus vnfolded; Asthma est l�sa respiratio, eaque densa, et frequens fere. vt �ger sine anhelatione respirare nequeat; sine febrie plerumque ab angustia bronchiorum pulmonis proveniens, quando malum (differt enim asthma, et orthopnaea, saltem magnitudine) ita inerementum sumpsit. vt �ger, non nisi [o] erecta service spirare possit, orthopnaea nominat Asthma (sayth he) is a distemperature of breathing being thick and often, soe that the sick cannot fetch theyr wind, without difficulty. it is commonly without a feaver, proceeding from the straightness of the pipes of the lungs, when the evill (for the asthma, and orthopnaea differ only in quantitye) is soe increased, that the sick cannot breathe, but with the neck stretched out it is called orthopnea, the place affected causing this hardness of breathing, is the lungs, whose aspera, or sharp arterye, with its severall branches, being obstructed or stopped, with thick phleame, or thin watery matter, [by which meanes], the ayre cannot [fre] freely and sufficiently be drawen into the body, allthough the lungs, and brest are inlarged or mooved to the full of theyr office: wherefore the ofteness of breathing is for the better satisfaction of Nature, who by such frequencye rec.a.. that [non] sufficient quantitye, which: at once it could not doe, for the causes mentioned. Galen is of opinion that the Asthma is chiefely occasioned by these two meanes, namely by a thick and tough phleame impacting the conduits of the lungs, and by a kind of litle swelling like haylestone, and sometimes hard like stone in the kidney, or blather. 8 folio 38 recto 38 To which Avicen, �tius, and Carolus Piso. add, that it may be occasioned by a thin watery matter, as in the dropsye, where the brest is cumbered with the like; to these, some adioyne the vapors, and windyness ascending from the lower parts. It is allsoe a common opinion amongst writers that the frequentest cause, of the asthmaticall difficultye of breathing, is derived from the descent of an excrementitious matter, from an intemperate brayne, vppon the lungs, which sticks there, and soe stops the passages, and causeth the asthma. to which: obiection. Senertus replyes thus, non nego quandoque post catarrhos, aliquid pituit� in pulmone restare, eiusque bronchia obstruere, et asthma excitare posse, tamen rarius hoc fieri existimo, sed frequentissime, asthma gonerari puto, ab humoribus crudis circa epar, imo in vniverso venosa genere collectis, et per venam arteriosam in pulmones effusis. I doe not deny, (sayth he) that after a catarrhe, some phleame may remayne in the lungs, and soe stopp its pipes, and cause the asthma: but I think this not ordinarye, but am of opinion that the asthma is most commonly ingendred, of crude, or rawe humors, collected about the liver, and indeed in the veines in generall, and powred out vppon the lungs, through the veine called arteriosa now sayth the same author further. If the asthma be derived from the catarrhe, consequently must the catarrhe precede the asthma, and soe there must have beene [an] a cough, which: (sayth he) those that have the asthma, commonly miss, but they that have the catarrhe very seldome; Now to reconcile the opinion of Senertus with other writers, it is necessary to observe, that he denyes not, but that the catarrhe may cause the asthma, but he seemes to inferr, that when it is soe, then there will 9

Transcriptions made by Shakespeare’s World volunteers (shakespearesworld.org), participants in EMROC classes and transcribathons (emroc.hypotheses.org), participants in Folger paleography classes and transcribathons, and Folger docents.