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

section 2

2

There are three varieties of this sickness called arthritica:—sciatica, podagra, and, cheiragra. Sciatica is a grief in the haunch,763 and therefore it is called sciatica, because scia in Latin is the name of that sinew, and that is the same764 as the sinew of the hip; this sickness keeps this sinew taut or painful. Therefore is it called sciatica (i.e. hip cramp) and the upper end of the thigh-bone moves in the hollow of the upper bone.765 The name of this bone in Latin is ancha, and vertebrum is the other name of the bone, from the turning it does in the upper bone, and the sinew mentioned binds these two bones together: though the doctors say that this sinew (?)766 is insensible to pain, yet it spreads to the empty (?) places nearest it, and causes pain therein, and the disease

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called sciatica is said of this pain. If this sinew were not insensible to pain, there would be pain therein constantiy, from the continuous rubbing together of these parts, and therefore the healthiest man in the world when he moved, would have pain in that member, the which is a lie, for where pain is, there it indicates disease, according to the author.767