BUT the greatest Hardship or Misfortune, after All, is _This_; that, if the _Woman_ doth not indulge her corrupt _APPETITE_, she _languishes_ and _pines_ to such a degree, that her[61]Life is often endanger’d, together with the FOETUS, by the Disappointment: and if she does so gratify herself, _This_ often proves of the worst of Consequences, even sometimes to a mortal Fatality. HOWEVER, in short, this _SYMPTOM_ is like many _Others_, more easily _prevented_, than _cur’d_: Wherefore all _Women_, as soon as they _conceive_, ought (at repeated Times) to use proper _Anti-kittean Medicines_ (that is, against _PICA_ or _Longing_) and be very careful of their _Regimen_ and _Diet_: But when, perhaps, by neglect of those _Means_, the _Distemper_ appears inordinate, the Method of CURE consists in evacuating the Humours, and in absterging, alterating, and corroborating the STOMACH. [Illustration] CHAP. VIII. _Of CHOLICKS and GRIPES._ THO’ the _Cholick_ derives its Name from the Gut _Colon_, I mean by it not precisely that _Pain_ which affects _This_ only, but that also which usually invades other _Guts_, whether thin or thick; because one _Gut_ seems not to be more subject than another to this Pain; the _Contexture_ of all of _them_ being the same every where. So that the _Cholick_ is nothing else than a sorrowful _Sensation_ of a very sharp _Pain_, infesting the _Guts_, or the Nervous _Plexus_, or _Membranes_ in their Neighbourhood, proceeding from wandering _Winds_ and _Flatulencies_ in the ABDOMEN, or lower Belly; arising from the _Humours_ aggregated about the WOMB: which, dissipating themselves, distend the _Intestines_, and excite most severe _Pains_ about the NAVEL. THESE _Effects_ may also proceed from indurated _Excrements_ in the RECTUM; or from any _other Matter_, which either compresses, obstructs, or erodes the _Intestines_: Hence _Physicians_ commonly take notice of _Three_ different Sorts of _Cholicks_; namely, the _Flatulent_, the _Bilous_, and the _Pituitous_. NOW _These_ are All thus distinguished: The _Wind-Cholick_ traverses the Belly, and gives an excruciating wandring _Pain_ in the VISCERA, or _Bowels_, &c. The _Bilous_ induces a certain Pain, with a very sensible _Mordacity_; and is generally attended with _Thirst_ and a _Bitterness_ in the MOUTH: The _Pituitous_ gives a most sharp penetrating fixed _Pain_, resembling (as it were) a driven _Stake_, or perforating _Instrument_; attended with a _Nausea_, _Vomiting_, and _Retention_ of Excrements, _&c._ This last Sort _Galen_ calls the most cruel CHOLICK.