Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rosa Anglica (Author: [unknown])

section 11

11

Many things are required for the cure of this sickness; first of these, diet: the second, to put the viscera in their proper place: the third, to keep them there; the fourth, to heal the wound; the fifth, cicatrizing and firing, or cutting.570 The first of these is carried out by keeping the sufferer for six months without repletion of food and drink, or allowing him too much exercise; and let him not eat fresh fruit or things that cause flatulence, such as peas, and beans, and new ale; and let him not eat his fill at one time, nor rise from the place he is in after food, except he have very great need of performing the works of nature: let him not go a journey, nor go up and down stairs, nor jump, nor shout. And if he ride, let him not mount by the stirrup but571 be in a high place sloping down, so that it (the horse) be below him, and he


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come down on to it. If he must walk or do work, let it be finished before food, and keep the bowels relaxed with a clyster or a laxative pottage; avoid coition, and bathing, except there be so much swelling in the entrails that they cannot be put back, for then a bath may be taken to prepare him for that.