A Chymical Dictionary

Colica

Body disease and historical medicine · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A bowel disorder explained through the historical category of tartar.

In the book. Duelech also places tartar within the human body and associates it with dangerous stone-like matter.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 17; facsimile PDF page 345.

Historical Definition

Colica is tartar dissolved in the bowels, or a fixed disease in the colon.

Meaning

The entry offers two formulations: a process involving tartar in the bowels and a disease located in the colon. Its first clause belongs to the dictionary’s account of bodily materials and their transformations. “Tartar” here is a historical explanatory category; the wording should not be read as a modern laboratory finding.

The adjective “fixed” is retained because the definition does not explain whether it describes persistence, localisation or a particular material state. Removing it would lose a distinction the text makes, while expanding it into a contemporary diagnosis would supply information that it does not provide.

Use in the Book

Duelech also places tartar within the human body and associates it with dangerous stone-like matter. Tartarum itself extends from the dregs in wine vessels to stones or gravel in people. Together these entries show how a substance name can organise an account of disease across different bodily sites.

Places to Read

Duelech. Bodily tartar associated with a dangerous stone-like formation.

Tartarum. A wine-vessel deposit whose name also serves for bodily stones or gravel.

In This Edition

The modernised definition reports the historical account. It is not a diagnosis of present-day abdominal symptoms, and the entry supplies no treatment.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 17; facsimile PDF page 345 — Facsimile

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

See also. Duelech; Tartarum