From the book
A Chymical Dictionary
Gerhard Dorn and John French · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA bowel disorder explained through the historical category of tartar.
- In the bookDuelech also places tartar within the human body and associates it with dangerous stone-like matter.
- A place to readThe 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
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.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 17; facsimile PDF page 345 — Facsimile