[Page] 73

[...there co]mes a violent coughing, [and] there is sticky phlegm; in drawing breath [the sufferer] wheezes, and it is labored. The period of the paroxysm (*paroxysm*) continueth from five unto ten minutes, and often endeth with vomiting. If the fit cometh on with great violence, the countenance turneth red and livid, the eyes become sunken, [the patient] groweth distressed, the blood rusheth to the head, breathing becometh difficult, and at times fainting and stupor ensue. After a few hours it returneth again, especially by night. It is frequently brought on anew by crying out, weeping, laughing, and other bodily movements. This torment cometh on with such severity that sometimes blood bursteth forth from the nose and the mouth; it causeth vomiting, and [the patient] cannot hold his urine, so that it passeth involuntarily; yet in the intervals between these fits, [the sufferer] appeareth as though he were entirely sound. 235. After two or three weeks, and at times after a month, the symptoms of the malady diminish; yet at times it lingereth longer and becometh contagious (passing from one to another, *contagium*). It likewise happeneth at times to be transmitted and spread abroad among the populace, not among children alone, but also among persons of full age. What may be the cause that engendereth this cough hath not hitherto been understood. During the coughing, the more easily the phlegm is brought up, the more readily will [the fit] pass away. 224. This disease is distinguished from ordinary coughs by this, that the patient maketh a wheezing sound when drawing breath. It is the more perilous for such infants as are not yet one year of age, or are teething, or are seized [with it] while breaking out with measles and scarlatina. 235. The manner of treating this disease is as followeth: Unto those who, when coughing, do not bring up sufficient phlegm, there must be given to drink a tea brewed from the root of elecampane or mallow, sweetened with good honey; and when putting them to bed, let them be bathed with warm water, wherein have been cast two or three handfuls of crushed mint, or mallow, or chamomile flowers, or wormwood, or else bran.

[NOTE: 10]