Sec. 320. This is the Disease which the common People attribute to, and term, the _Twisting of the Guts_; and in which they make the Patients swallow Bullets, or large Quantities of Quick-silver. This twisting, tangling, or Knoting of the Guts is an utter, an impossible Chimera; for how can they admit of such a Circumstance, as one of their Extremities, their Ends, is connected to the Stomach, and the other irremoveably fastened to the Skin of the Fork or Cleft of the Buttocks? In Fact this Disease results from a Variety of Causes, which have been discovered on a Dissection of those who have died of it. It were to be wished indeed this prudent Custom, so extremely conducive to enrich, and to perfect, the Art of Physick, were to prevail more generally; and which we ought rather to consider as a Duty to comply with, than a Difficulty to submit to; as it is our Duty to contribute to the Perfection of a Science, on which the Happiness of Mankind so considerably depends. I shall not enter into a Detail of these Causes; but whatever they are, the Practice of swallowing Bullets in the Disease is always pernicious, and the like Use of Mercury must be often so. Each of these pretended Remedies may aggravate the Disease, and contribute an insurmountable Obstacle to the Cure--Of that Iliac Passion, which is sometimes a Consequence of Ruptures, I shall treat in another Place. _Of the Cholera-morbus._ Sec. 321. This Disease is a sudden, abundant, and painful Evacuation by vomiting and by Stool. It begins with much Flatulence, or Wind, with Swelling and slight Pains in the Belly, accompanied with great Dejection; and followed with large Evacuations either by Stool or by Vomit at first, but whenever either of them has begun, the other quickly follows. The Matter evacuated is either yellowish, green, brown, whitish, or black; the Pains in the Belly violent; the Pulse, almost constantly feverish, is sometimes strong at first, but soon sinks into Weakness, in Consequence of the prodigious Discharge. Some Patients purge a hundred Times in the Compass of a few Hours: they may even be seen to fall away; and if the Disease exists in a violent Degree, they are scarcely to be known within three or four Hours from the Commencement of these Discharges. After a great Number of them they are afflicted with Spasms, or Cramps, in their Legs, Thighs, and Arms, which torment them as much as the Pains in the Belly. When the Disease rages too highly to be asswaged, Hiccups, Convulsions and a Coldness of the Extremities approach; there is a scarcely intermitting Succession of fainting, or swooning Fits, the Patient dying either in one of them, or in Convulsions.