Cohos

Body disease and historical medicine · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. The contents of the body considered within the boundary of its skin.

In the book. Corpus gives another general word for a bodily or material subject, while Excrementa identifies things expelled as superfluous.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 16; facsimile PDF page 344.

Historical Definition

Cohos is everything contained by the skin throughout the whole body.

Meaning

The definition takes the skin as a boundary and gathers what it contains into a single term. It is broader than the name of one organ, fluid or tissue. “Everything” is important: replacing Cohos with a particular internal substance would narrow the definition beyond what the compiler says.

Use in the Book

Corpus gives another general word for a bodily or material subject, while Excrementa identifies things expelled as superfluous. Cohos describes inclusion within a boundary; Excrementa describes the book’s account of removal. Their contrast can help a reader follow changes between the body as a whole and particular products of its activity.

Places to Read

Corpus. A body understood as the subject containing a thing’s hidden efficacy.

Excrementa. Superfluities described through expulsion by Nature.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 16; facsimile PDF page 344 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary 1650, s.v. Cohos

See also. Corpus; Excrementa