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CHAP. XXIX. Pylorus the Governour. (Book 29)
1. The use of the Pylorus delivered by the Antients. 2. The chief Dis∣eases of the Pylorus. 3. He is the Moderator of the first digestion. 4. Of what sort the closure of the Pylorus is. 5. The Command or Go∣vernment of the Pylorus. 6. How vomiting happeneth. 7. The Blas of the Pylorus. 8. The Stern of the first digestion. 9. The Eccen tricities of the Pylorus. 10. Some Originalls of Diseases neglected by the Schools. 11. Some Positions. 12. Whence the diversity of matter vomited up, is. 13. What that gauly thing may be, which is cast forth by vomit. 14. The sluggishness of the Schools. 15. Their ridiculous admonition. 16. The shutting and opening of the Pylorus. 17. The reason of the Scituation of the Gaul. 18. Whence Fluxes, wringings of the Bowels, Bloudy Fluxes, the Hemorrhoids or Piles, &c: are. 19. An errour about hunger and thirst. 20. Some absurd consequences upon the positions of the Schools. 21. A sense of appetites in the Pylorus is de∣monstrated. 22. The remedy of the Bloudy Flux or Dysentery, and Flux, hath opened the office of the Pylorus. 23. Giddinesses of the Head, whence they are. 24. An example in a Cock. 25. The leekie Liquor of the stomach, is not that of the Gaul. 26. Thirst doth not shew a necessary defect of moysture. 27. Whence there is a yellow and bitter vomiting at the beginning of a Tertian Ague. 28. The use of the Pylorus is confirmed by four Histories. 29. Thirteen notable things resulting from thence.
IN what part the Stomach layeth open at top, and being conjoyned to the throat, doth lay under it, that by the figure Autonomasia, is called its Orifice or mouth: But its utte∣rance beneath, is named the Pylorus or Porter: For in those that are well in health, the Py∣lorus is shut, while the Stomach hath received the meats, or drinks, untill that the digestion of the stomach being finished, the Chyle or Cream be made.
For then, not before, the Pylorus openeth himself: but the orifice of the stomach is shut, at least, fulness being present (if there be not sufficient cast in) when the stomach begins to [unspec 1] give it self up to the performance of its office. These are all things that I have hitherto found delivered by the Schools concerning the Pylorus: But I have apprehended a great hinge of health, and sickness, to be involved in the Pylorus.
For first of all, I have seen now and then, in Fevers, that as to day, undigested things have been vomited up, which were the third day agoe cast in: But on the contrary, in the Caeliack [unspec 2] or belly passion, the Pylorus is never shut: Yea some, after that they have been filled with dainty fare, they do not desist from rioting all the night, and therefore they do pisse conti∣nually: Therefore it must needs be, that their Pylorus being notably passable, doth not onely distil drop by drop, but by a continual thred; neither that it doth expect any bound of coction: For straightway even from the beginning, that it was not suitably or exactly shut, or at leastwise, that it doth somewhat lay open in divided wrinckles, after that the stomach was not sufficient for the entring drink: For that happens in healthy persons, when there hath been a defect of the closure of the Pylorus. There are others also, whose Pylorus is a more stubborn keeper, they vomit drinks after they are half digested: because the digestive facul∣ty being not equivalent to the drinks received, being provoked, doth cast forth the whole. Indeed there is too much obstinacy of the Pylorus, where three dayes meats are cast forth.
Which things surely do convince, that the Pylorus is not onely the Porter, but also that it doth govern the first and most evident digestion; and so that in this respect, there is a [unspec 3] drowsie carelesness of the Schools: For that I may give enough to their insufficiency, I say,