A uery brefe treatise, ordrely declaring the pri[n]cipal partes of phisick that is to saye: thynges natural. Thynges not naturall. Thynges agaynst nature. Gathered, and sette forth by Christopher Langton.

¶The .iiii. chapter, of accidentes.

THis worde accidente is takē .2. maner of wayes: generally and specially, generally, it signyfyeth any thing contrary to nature: spe∣cially, all thinges agaynst nature, excepte the causes of diseases, and diseases them selfes.

Therfore it is nothynge elles but an vnnaturall affection of the bo∣dy, which foloweth the disease, as the shadowe foloweth the body. The accidentes specially taken, be deuided in to .iii. partes. For sum be the fautes & errors of actions, sum affections of oure body, other sum folow them both, ether by o∣uer much excretion, or retention of excrementes & other like such thynges. Of the error in actions, there be .ii. differences: animall, & natural. The faultes, or errors,

of the animall actions, be yet de∣uided in to .iii. for ether they be faultes of y^e sences, as of hearing, seinge, tastyng, smellyng, felynge, or els of mouinge, or finally of the principall actions, as of ymagi∣ning, thinkinge and remembring. These be all the animall actions, of the which eche one may be hurt iii. manner of wayes: firste if the action be vtterly extincte, as yf a man see nothyng at all: secōdari∣ly, yf it be not vtterly abolished, & takē away but decayed sumthing or not parfit, as whan a man seeth but euen scantly as they do, which the ignorant call sand blynde. Thirdly whā it is depraued, and wronge wrasted, as whan a man of force, seeth thinges which he did not beholde with hys common sense, as they do which loke a gog∣gell:

And as it is euident, that all these fautes happen in the sight, so they happen also in eche one of the other before named sensis.

There be thus many as folowe naturall actions, appeticion, con∣coction, digestion, pulsatiō, attrac∣cion, alteration, retention, expulsi∣on. Of the which eche may erre .iii. manner of wayes, as is sayed be∣fore in the actions animall: and the fautes or errors of the same, be accidentes folowyng diseases. There be besyde these .iiii. manner of accidentes, which be affections of oure bodies: as vnnaturall cul∣lers, ether in y^e hole body, or elles in sumpart of it: Fylthy sauors al∣so ether of y^e mouthe, nose, or eares and obsurde and vnnaturall sapo∣res, belonging to the taste: and be∣side these, hardnes, drines, & rough¦nes

of the skynne.

As for the vnnaturall inanitions, or detentions from whense so euer they cum, they be contayned vnder one of these .iii. differencis: For ey∣ther they be vnnaturall ī their hole substance, as that fluxe of bloude that is called commonly the emor∣roydes: or elles they are in theyre qualitie, as sumtyme it chaunseth in wemens flowres: or finally in their quantitie, they be founde vn∣naturall, as the great abundance or lacke and scarsnes eyther of the vryne or sweat. The whiche euery one, is handeled to the vttermoste in Gallē, where he entreateth of y^e causes, of accidentes.