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CHAP. IIII. Of filling the hollownesse of the Pallat.
MAny times it happeneth that a portion or part of the bone of the pallat, * 1.1 being broken with the shot of a gun, or corroded by the virulency of the Lues venerea, falls away, which makes the patients to whom this happe∣neth, that they cannot pronounce their words distinctly, but obscurely and snuffling: therefore I have thought it a thing worthy the labour to shew the meanes how it may be helped by art. It must be done by filling the cavity of the pallat with a plate of gold or silver a little bigger than the cavity its selfe is. But it must bee as thick as a French Crowne, and made like unto a dish in figure, and on the upper side, which shall be towards the braine, a little spunge must bee fastened, which, when it is moistened with the moysture distilling from the brain, will become more swolne and puffed up, so that it will fill the concavity of the pallat, that the ar∣tificiall pallat cannot fall down, but stand fast and firme, as if it stood of it selfe. This is the true figure of those instruments, whose certain use I have observed not by once or twice, but by manifold triall in the battels fought beyond the Alpes.