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

section 7

7

Signs as to which humour the paralysis is caused by. If from sanguine humour, the pulse is full, and the colour of the body ruddy; the veins full, and it will have been preceded by causes of increase of sanguine humour. If from phlegm the body will be white, and phlegmatic signs are manifest before that in the whole body, for cold afflicts it; and it is relieved by heat;


p.253

it is also a sign if the sick man use those things that increase phlegm, such as white meat, fish and fruits, and excessive drinking (crapula). If from melancholy, the body is leaden-hued, black and scabby and (he) the sick man is lean and the season favourable thereto, and if he use things that increase melancholy,585 such as excessive meditation, and depression; beef and hare, and duck, and gander, and peas, and kail, or other things prepared with salt. If it come from choler, though that occurs586 but seldom and then only from a mixture of other humours, its symptoms are compound, i.e. heat, and yellowness in the body, and a kind of bitterness in the mouth and spittle; and if he be wont to take roasted things prior thereto, and garlic, pepper with fish, or (with) moist things, for that produces a compound humour from choler and phlegm.