Defecate

Use in the book

The brewing passage begins with an adverse account of thick, stagnant water, allowing household uses or necessity but rejecting ordinary human consumption. Some people, however, say such water makes the best beer and that boiling defecates it; Cardan is cited for the claim that substance and flavour improve. Burton calls this a paradox, an assertion against received opinion. His next paragraph makes the disagreement sharper: such beer may be stronger yet less wholesome, and Joubert, reasoning from Galen, rightly denies that boiling cleanses or purifies those waters. The entry therefore records a disputed clarification claim, not Burton’s unqualified approval or modern water-treatment advice.

The remedial diet section uses the same form adjectivally. River water may be continually muddy, Burton concedes, but after settling it is defecate and clear, meaning free of sediment. This differs from the claim about boiling. In the treatment of facial redness, Crato’s proposed infusion is intended to defecate impure blood: the object is bodily, but the action means purification rather than defecation in the modern sense. No historical preparation needs to be reconstructed to understand that verb.

The religious uses transfer purification to communities and doctrine. Calvinists are more defecate than the rest in Burton’s ranking, yet still quarrel and remain subject to superstition; he follows with a prayer that his own Church contain no follies. Later the true Church is compared to wine mixed with water, hidden until Luther begins to defecate it and disperse the mists of superstition. The purification is Burton’s confessional interpretation of the Reformation. His following criticism of extremes within his own religious camp prevents that praise from implying that all subsequent practice is pure.

Related entries

Concoction

Excrements

Water and springs

Places to read

1. Subsection 1 Bad Diet as a Cause. Substance. The Quality of Foods · paragraphs 38–40Cardan’s boiling-and-brewing clarification claim, qualified as a paradox and opposed in the continuation.
2. Section 2. Member 1. Subsection 1. Diet Corrected in the Choice of Food · paragraphs 29–31Settled river water is described as cleared of sediment.
3. Subsection 6 Remedies for Accompanying Symptoms: To Bring Sleep, and Against… · paragraphs 6–8Crato’s proposed purification of impure blood in the treatment of facial redness.
4. Its Object, God; What His Beauty Is; How It Attracts. The Parts and People… · paragraphs 9–11Comparative religious purity remains qualified by disagreement and superstition.
5. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions… · paragraphs 11–16Luther’s figurative clarification of the Church, followed by criticism of excess within Burton’s own camp.

In this edition

“seething doth defecate it” becomes “boiling clarifies it”: seething names boiling and defecate the claimed clarification. The following paradox is rendered as running against received opinion; the next paragraph’s denial of purification remains essential. “defecate and clear” becomes “free of sediment and clear”. “to defecate impure blood” becomes “purify impure blood”.

“more defecate then the rest” becomes “purer than the rest”, preserving the comparative qualification. In the Luther passage, defecate becomes clarify it; the modern object it makes explicit the Church understood from the original context. Clarification, bodily purification and religious reform share the removal-of-impurity sense without becoming identical processes.

defecate · local use 1

Printed “defecate” (English; lemma).

To clarify a liquid or remove its dregs.

Here: Boiling is said to clarify thick stagnant water used for beer and improve its substance and flavour.

Context: Burton reports some people’s opinion and Cardan’s position, calls it a paradox, then endorses Joubert’s contrary account that boiling does not purify such waters.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: seething doth defecate it

Modern rendering: boiling clarifies it

Word and construction: Defecate supplies clarifies; seething supplies boiling, and it retains the fluid’s reference in the brewing claim.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

defecate · local use 2

Printed “defecate” (English; lemma).

Cleared of sediment or impurities.

Here: Muddy river water is described as clear after being left to settle.

Context: Burton concedes that rivers can be persistently muddy and then approves water after settling; this is historical water-quality judgment, not a current safety assurance.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: defecate and clear

Modern rendering: free of sediment and clear

Word and construction: Defecate supplies free of sediment; and clear is separately retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

defecate · local use 3

Printed “defecate” (English; lemma).

To purify or remove impurities from.

Here: The verb describes Crato’s proposed purification of impure blood with an infusion.

Context: Burton attributes the measure to Crato in a discussion of facial redness; the neighbouring preparations and reported cure are historical medicine, not practical directions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: to defecate impure blood

Modern rendering: purify impure blood

Word and construction: Defecate supplies purify; impure blood gives its object, not part of the verb’s general definition.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

defecate · local use 4

Printed “defecate” (English; lemma).

Purified or free from impurities, figuratively of religion.

Here: Calvinists are comparatively purer than other Christian groups in Burton’s confessional survey.

Context: More is comparative, not absolute: Burton immediately says they disagree among themselves and are not free from superstition, then turns the warning upon his own Church.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: more defecate then the rest

Modern rendering: purer than the rest

Word and construction: Defecate supplies purer under the comparative more; then the rest is than the rest.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

defecate · local use 5

Printed “defecate” (English; lemma).

To clarify or purify, figuratively.

Here: Luther is represented as clearing the obscured Church and restoring its early purity.

Context: This is Burton’s Reformation account, combining mixed-liquid and mist imagery; the subsequent attack on excess in his own camp qualifies any claim of completed purity.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: who began upon a sudden to defecate

Modern rendering: Suddenly he began to clarify it

Alignment scope: Corresponding relative/main clauses, with the implicit original object supplied as it

Word and construction: Defecate supplies clarify; who becomes he, upon a sudden Suddenly, and it is supplied for the Church understood as the object.