Book 2
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The bladder also sometimes suffers from hemorrhage; the blood there is bright and thin, but the patients never die from it, although it may not be easy to stop. But from the clots and the inflammation there is danger; for the coldness, mortification, gangrene, and the other evils consequent upon it readily prove fatal.
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Winter and autumn bring on these diseases. As to age, manhood, but still more old age. The other seasons and periods of life do not generally produce the diseases, and they very rarely prove fatal. Of all others, infants are most free from danger.
CHAPTER XI. ON HYSTERICAL SUFFOCATION
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IN the middle of the flanks of women lies the womb, a female viscus, closely resembling an animal; for it is moved of itself hither and thither in the flanks, also upwards in a direct line to below the cartilage of the thorax, and also obliquely to the right or to the left, either to the liver or spleen; and it likewise is subject to prolapsus downwards, and, in a word, it is altogether erratic. It delights, also, in fragrant smells, and advances towards them; and it has an aversion to fetid smells, and flees from them; and, on the whole, the womb is like an animal within an animal.
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When, therefore, it is suddenly carried upwards, and remains above for a considerable time, and violently compresses the intestines, the woman experiences a choking, after the form of epilepsy, but without convulsions. For the liver, diaphragm, lungs and heart, are quickly squeezed within a narrow space; and therefore loss of breathing and of speech seems to be present. And, moreover, the carotids are compressed from sympathy with the heart, and hence there is heaviness of head, loss of sensibility, and deep sleep.
