Evacuation and retention

Use in the book

Retention first appears as a necessary part of nutrition. Food must stay in the stomach until it is digested; if it passed straight through, the body could not be nourished. In regimen, retention and evacuation form one paired category among the six non-naturals. Together with diet, they concern the production, keeping or expulsion of bodily matter; the other categories alter it. In the causes chapter the pair can accompany, assist or alone cause melancholy. Constipation leads the examples, but the category is broader than bowel waste.

Burton includes stopped haemorrhoidal bleeding, menstrual flow, nosebleeds, sexual expenditure, and discharge from sores. He says some are necessary only at certain times, then invokes customary flow and individual histories rather than a universal need to bleed or discharge. The same word therefore covers different materials and routes. Later, stopped bleeding becomes something Trallianus would have carefully investigated in the account of whole-body melancholy. Reproductive explanations are especially historically conditioned: Burton gives retained seed a supposed harmful action and reports named authorities’ gendered claims about unmarried women, nuns and widows. He also calls for particular compassion toward people whose illness arises from causes harder to avoid.

Excessive evacuation is itself among the causes. Baths, sweating rooms, bloodletting and purging can harm when used at unsuitable times or immoderately. The discussion does not yield a single unanimous endorsement: Salvinianus, reporting hospital experience, rejects bloodletting unless the disease plainly proceeds from blood. In the cure, Burton qualifies the simple opposite of constipation with “or mean at least,” a middle course; the subsequent bowel regimen distinguishes nature’s action from treatment supplied where nature fails. Prognostic claims likewise have conditions. The allegedly favourable opening of haemorrhoids is, according to some, spontaneous rather than forced, while the neighbouring discussion disputes whether fever cures melancholy or causes it.

The sexual discussion demands its continuation. Reports that marriage cures illness supposedly caused by retained seed culminate in the sweeping “marriage mends all”. Burton then says this must be cautiously understood: the proposed benefit depends on a manifest cause such as excess seed or blood, preceding desire, or particular constitution and habit. Further authorities exclude many patients, restrict the exception to vigorous people with abundant blood, and especially condemn expenditure in cold and dry constitutions. The article preserves the claim and its restrictions as historical medical and social reasoning, not advice about sex or marriage.

What is discharged can matter as much as how much. For whole-body melancholy, “evacuation in this kinde” means bloodletting, whose amount at one time is limited by the person’s strength. In hypochondriacal melancholy, Aëtius and other authorities recommend diuretics, while Bayerus and Hollerius oppose them because, they argue, the finest material leaves and the thicker matter remains. This is an explicit dispute about selective removal, not merely a disagreement over the quantity of urine.

Outside the regimen, the same emptying image travels. Writing is Burton’s imagined evacuation of a burdened head; Latin evacuant describes workers emptying privies, in a harsh account of labour and poverty whose margin nevertheless professes pity. Grief “evacuates it self by teares,” a qualified consolatory image followed by an argument for moderation rather than insensibility or unbounded mourning. Finally, recovery through vomiting, sweat and other evacuations supplies an analogy for powers of faith and hope that may seem lost yet revive.

Related entries

Excrements

Non naturals

Blood and sanguine

Bowels

Phlebotomy

Issue

Clister

Impostume

Bile and boil

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 5–10Writing as the figurative evacuation of a burdened mind and imagined abscess.
2. Subsection 5. The Soul and Its Faculties · paragraphs 25–28Beneficial retention among the nutritive functions.
3. Subsection 1 Bad Diet as a Cause. Substance. The Quality of Foods · paragraphs 30–32Retention and evacuation as one paired category of the six non-naturals.
4. Subsection 4 Retention and Evacuation as Causes, and How They Act · paragraphs 4–26Definition, marginal Latin formula, varied bodily materials, occasion and custom, stopped sores, excessive artificial evacuations and disagreement over bloodletting.
5. Subsection 6 Poverty and Want as Causes of Melancholy · paragraphs 9–11Literal emptying of privies in the poverty-and-labour catalogue and the marginal profession of pity.
6. Member 5 Subsection 1 Immediate, Internal, Antecedent and Proximate Causes… · paragraphs 57–59Suppressed reproductive discharges and the demand for tender compassion.
7. Subsection 3 Symptoms of Melancholy Abounding Throughout the Body · paragraphs 22–24Investigation of stopped discharges in the account of whole-body melancholy.
8. Section 4 Member 1 Prognosis of Melancholy · paragraphs 6–10Favourable discharge claims, the spontaneous-versus-forced qualification, and disputed prognosis.
9. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraphs 26–31The middle course, bowel emptying, nature and medical assistance.
10. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraphs 1–9The retained-seed and marriage-cure claims, followed by substantial restrictions and opposing authorities.
11. Member 5 Against Sorrow Over the Death of Friends or Other Causes, Groundless… · paragraphs 34–39Grief discharged in tears, with the subsequent moderation argument.
12. Member 2 Treatment of Melancholy Throughout the Body · paragraphs 14–18Blood removal limited by strength and varied by bodily site.
13. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraphs 36–41Opposing recommendations on diuretics and which matter they remove.
14. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 42–45Bodily evacuation and recovery used as an analogy for spiritual renewal.

In this edition

The modern text sometimes retains the technical noun, as in “Retention holds the food”, but makes its object explicit. Elsewhere it specifies the bodily action: “much evacuation in this kinde at once” becomes “much blood to be removed at once” within the patient-strength condition. “the subtile or thinnest is evacuated” is rendered with the diuretics as agent, “they remove the fine or thinnest material”; the adjoining statement that thicker matter remains preserves the opponent’s reasoning.

The marginal “Quæ excernuntur aut subsistunt” is translated in the supplied note as “Things discharged or retained”. This English belongs to the edition’s note translation. Latin “latrinas evacuant” becomes “empty privies” in the labour passage, while the figurative “no fitter evacuation then this” becomes “no better way to empty it than this” in the account of writing. “for the most part all grief evacuates it self by teares” becomes “for the most part, all grief discharges itself in tears”. The changing English renderings distinguish literal bodily removal, ordinary emptying and figurative release without erasing their shared vocabulary.

evacuare

Printed “evacuant” (Latin; lemma).

To empty or clear out.

Here: Emptying privies is work performed by poor labourers, not emptying a patient’s body.

Context: Burton’s disparaging catalogue describes servile, underpaid occupations; the next marginal note professes pity rather than mockery.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Inter illos pleriq; latrinas evacuant

Modern rendering: Among them many empty privies

Word and construction: Evacuant contributes empty; latrinas privies; inter illos pleriq; among them many. Urinatores later in the sentence means divers, not urine handlers.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

evacuate · evacuated · local use 1

Printed “evacuated” (English; lemma).

To discharge or remove bodily material.

Here: The named authorities describe bowel evacuation naturally or with medical assistance.

Context: Altomarus requires it before the morning walk; treatment supplies a lack in nature, and the preceding paragraph qualifies the opposite of constipation with a middle course.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: first, by art or nature he will have these ordinary excrements evacuated

Modern rendering: insists that these ordinary bodily wastes first be evacuated, naturally or through medical help

Word and construction: Evacuated is retained; art is clarified as medical help, ordinary excrements as bodily wastes, and first preserves the ordering before the walk.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

evacuate · evacuated · local use 2

Printed “evacuated” (English; lemma).

To remove or discharge bodily material.

Here: A diuretic may allegedly remove only the finer matter and leave the thicker behind.

Context: Aëtius, Vidus Vidius, Mercurialis and Fuchsius recommend diuretics; Bayerus and Hollerius oppose them, with this reason attributed to Hollerius.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: because by them the subtile or thinnest is evacuated, the thicker matter remains

Modern rendering: because they remove the fine or thinnest material, while the thicker matter remains

Word and construction: Is evacuated becomes they remove, with the diuretics as agent; subtile or thinnest is made explicit as material, and thicker matter remains preserves the contrasting retention.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

evacuate · evacuates

Printed “evacuates” (English; lemma).

To discharge or pour out.

Here: Grief is represented as emptying itself through tears.

Context: The sentence is assigned to Seneca and qualified for the most part; Burton next argues for moderated grief rather than perpetual lamentation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: for the most part all grief evacuates it self by teares

Modern rendering: for the most part, all grief discharges itself in tears

Word and construction: Evacuates it self becomes discharges itself; by teares becomes in tears; for the most part is preserved.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

evacuation · evacuations · local use 1

Printed “evacuations” (English; lemma).

A bodily discharge brought about by an intervention.

Here: Sweating rooms, baths, bloodletting and purging may cause harm through timing or excess.

Context: Burton’s causal comparison is conditional on unseasonable or immoderate use; named authorities then differ over the mechanism.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Artificial evacuations are much like in effect, as hot houses, baths, blood-letting, purging, unseasonably and immoderately used

Modern rendering: Artificial evacuations have much the same effect when used at unsuitable times or to excess: sweat baths, bathing, bloodletting and purging

Word and construction: Artificial evacuations names induced discharges; the modern sentence brings the condition forward and retains all four examples.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

evacuation · local use 1

Printed “evacuation” (English; lemma).

An outflow or discharge.

Here: Haemorrhoidal discharge appears as a favourable prognostic sign in the cited authority.

Context: Burton invokes Hippocrates and later commentators; the next paragraph preserves the condition, attributed to some, that the opening happen spontaneously rather than by force.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: that evacuation of hæmrods

Modern rendering: that discharge from haemorrhoids

Word and construction: Evacuation contributes discharge; of hæmrods becomes from haemorrhoids. The adjacent varices/water identification is a separate historical difficulty.

Qualification: The body and margin differently coordinate haemorrhoids, varices and water beneath the skin. The supplied note distinguishes enlarged veins from fluid rather than endorsing their equation.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

evacuation · local use 2

Printed “evacuation” (English; lemma).

A removal of bodily material, here blood.

Here: The amount and repetition of blood removal depend on the patient’s strength.

Context: The historical prescription limits what can be taken at one time; it then varies the site, particularly in cases of stopped haemorrhoidal or menstrual bleeding.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: If the parties strength will not admit much evacuation in this kinde at once

Modern rendering: If the person’s strength will not allow much blood to be removed at once

Word and construction: Evacuation in this kinde is resolved as blood to be removed; the condition on strength and at once remain explicit.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

evacuation · local use 3

Printed “evacuation” (English; lemma).

An emptying or release, here figurative.

Here: Writing provides an imagined outlet for the speaker’s burdened mind and head.

Context: Burton compares his writing to emptying an impostume, not to a particular proven clinical intervention.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: no fitter evacuation then this

Modern rendering: no better way to empty it than this

Word and construction: Evacuation is expanded as way to empty it, referring back to the imagined abscess.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

evacuation · evacuations · local use 2

Printed “evacuations” (English; lemma).

A bodily discharge.

Here: Vomiting and sweat illustrate the recovery of seemingly exhausted bodily powers.

Context: Burton uses the bodily theory as an analogy for possible spiritual recovery in the next paragraph, not as a current treatment direction or an assured individual outcome.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: by vomit, sweat, or some such like evacuations

Modern rendering: through vomiting, sweat or similar discharges

Word and construction: Evacuations contributes discharges, with vomit and sweat retained as examples; the next paragraph turns the bodily image into spiritual consolation.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

excernere et subsistere

Printed “excernuntur aut subsistunt” (Latin; family).

To discharge or separate out; to remain or stay.

Here: The marginal formula gives the scope of the paired regimen as what leaves the body and what stays in it.

Context: Burton’s margin supplies the formula corresponding to the body’s attribution to others; it does not itself command discharge.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Quæ excernuntur aut subsistunt.

Modern rendering: Things discharged or retained.

Modern container: note

Alignment scope: Equal-scope complete marginal formula

Word and construction: Quæ contributes things which, compressed to things; excernuntur discharged; aut or; subsistunt retained, interpreting remaining in the body.

Translation layer: The English counterpart is the supplied modern translation within the Burton-labelled note, not Burton’s original marginal English.

retentio

Printed “retentionem” (Latin; lemma).

A keeping in or withholding.

Here: Retention of reproductive seed is the alleged cause in a gendered account of nuns and unmarried women.

Context: Mercatus and Rodrigo de Castro supply the account; Plater’s marriage-cure assertion follows. Burton then warns that such general benefits must be cautiously understood and limited by cause, constitution and prior habit.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: ob seminis retentionem sæviunt sæpè moniales & virgines

Modern rendering: because of the retention of seed, nuns and unmarried women often become frenzied

Word and construction: Ob contributes because of; seminis of seed; retentionem retention; sæpe often; moniales & virgines nuns and unmarried women; sæviunt become frenzied.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

retention · Retention

Printed “Retention” (English; lemma).

A keeping or holding in place.

Here: Holding food in the stomach until digestion is a necessary nutritive function.

Context: Burton’s account of the vegetal faculty makes this retention beneficial; immediate passage would prevent nourishment.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Retention keeps it, being attracted unto the stomack, untill such time it be concocted

Modern rendering: Retention holds the food once it has been drawn into the stomach, until it is digested

Word and construction: Retention is retained; the pronoun it is made explicit as the food, while concocted is rendered digested.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

retention · Retentions

Printed “Retentions” (English; lemma).

A keeping of bodily material or a stopping of its discharge.

Here: Customary bleeding, menstrual flow and sexual expenditure require attention to occasion rather than an invariable rule.

Context: Burton attributes the classification to Fernel and explicitly limits necessity to certain times.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Other Retentions and Evacuations there are, not simply necessary, but at some times

Modern rendering: There are other retentions and evacuations, necessary only at certain times rather than invariably

Word and construction: Retentions supplies the keeping-in side; Evacuations the discharging side; not simply necessary becomes necessary only at certain times rather than invariably.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

retention and evacuation

Printed “Retention and Evacuation” (English; phrase).

Keeping bodily material in and discharging it from the body.

Here: The paired category includes deficiency and excess, with constipation the first example.

Context: Burton allows these processes to accompany, assist or alone cause melancholy; the category does not mean that every retention is harmful or every evacuation helpful.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Of Retention and Evacuation, there be divers kindes, which are either concomitant, assisting, or sole causes many times of melancholy

Modern rendering: There are several kinds of retention and evacuation, which often accompany, assist or alone cause melancholy

Word and construction: Retention and Evacuation supply the paired processes; concomitant, assisting, or sole preserves three different causal relations.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.