Of the diseases in the Spleen.
THe Spleen, as I have said before in many places, is the receptacle of melancholy, and of the dregs of bloud, and is subject to the like diseases that the Liver is, that is to say; to swelling, obstruction, hard knobs, and inflamation, for the substance of the Spleen is spongeous, and there∣fore apt to suck in all filth, and to dilate it self; wherefore being full it must needs swell, which will appear in the left side under the short ribs; and such swelling causeth also shortness of breath, and especially when the body doth labour or travel. It is painful also to ly on the right side, because the Spleen being swoln so oppresseth the midriffe, and especially when the stomach is full of meat, and the patient hath worse digestion then appetite, and is troubled with much winde, both upward and downward. Moreover the vapour of the humor doth offend the heart, making it faint, and causeth all the body to be heavy and dull; and if such swelling be suffered to go uncured, then if it be a melancholy humor, and abounding over-much, it waxeth every day thicker and thicker, causing obstruction not only in the veins & arteries, which is to be perceived by heaviness and grief on the left side, but also in the Spleen it self; whereas by vertue of the heat it is hardned every day more and more, and so by little and little waxeth to a hard knob, which doth not only occupy all the substance of the Spleen, but also many times all the left side of the womb, and thereby maketh the evill acci∣dents or griefs before recited much more than they were.
Now as touching the inflamation of the Spleen which chanceth very seldom; for so much as every inflamation proceedeth of pure bloud▪, which seldom entereth into the Spleen: I shall not need to make many words, but refer you over to the Chapter of the Liver, for in such case they differ not, but proceeding of like cause, have also like signes, and do require like cure. The old Writers say, that Horses be often grieved with grief in the Spleen, and specially in Summer season with gree∣dy eating of sweet green meats, a••d they call those Horses L••eno••os; that is to say, Spleenetick. The signes whereof (say they) are these, hard swelling on the left side, short breath, often groning, and greedy appetite to meat. The remedy whereof according to Absyrtus is to make a Horse to sweat once a day during a certain time, by riding him, or otherwise travelling him, and to pour in∣to his left nostril every day the juyce of Mirabolans mingled with Wine and Water, amounting in all to the quantity of a pinte. But me thinks it would do him more good, if he drank it as Hierocles would have him to do. Eumelius praiseth this drink: Take of Cummin seed and of Honey, of each six ounces, and of Laserpitium as much as a Bean, of Vinegar a pinte; and put all these into three quarts of water, and let it stand so all night, and the next morning give the Horse thereof to drink, being kept over night fasting. Theomnestus praiseth the decoction of Capers, especially if the bark of the root thereof may be gotten sodden in water to a syrup. Or else make him a drink of Garlick, Ni∣trum, Hore-hound, and Wormwood, sodden in harsh Wine: and he would have the left side to be bathed in warm water, and to be hard rubbed. And if all this will not help, then to give him the fire, which Absyrtus doth not allow, saying the Spleen lyeth so, as it cannot easily be fired, to do him any good. But for so much as the Liver and Spleen are members much occupied in the ingendring and separating of humors, many evill accidents and griefs do take their first be∣ginning of them, as the Jaundise, called in a Horse, the yellows, driness of body, and Consumpti∣on of the flesh, without any apparent cause why, which the Physitians call Atrophia; also evill habit of the body, called of them Cachexid, and the Dropsie. But first we will speak of the Jaun∣dise or Yellows.