Theses de sudore

XXVI.

Thick and viscous sweats occur either from crudity, when the pituity parts do not separate from the thinner ones, or from a dew-like moisture of the parts erupting into sweat along with the serum.

XXVII.

Thin sweats have their origin when there is an abundance of aqueous ichor, which could not be sufficiently cooked (an opinion also held by Galen in his commentary on Hippocrates' On Salubrious Diet, speaking of excrements), and from the constriction of the passages.

XXVIII.

Copious sweats have as a cause either a multitude of thin, excremental matter (Aphorisms 4.41), or the weakness of the retentive faculty, as in a fever that Hippocrates calls hidrodes sweaty and polyhidrodes very sweaty, and Galen calls typhodes feverish/stupor-inducing and helodes marsh/swamp fever; and in the English sweating sickness and other symptomatic sweats; hence Aretaeus (book 2 of On the Causes and Signs of Acute Diseases, chapter 3) says it is a sign of an affected heart. Or [they arise from] a robust and excited nature, as in critical days, Laconian exercises, etc. Or from the rarity of the skin (Galen On the Causes of Symptoms book 3, chapter 2; Aristotle section 2, problem 40).

Adults sweat more and more frequently than children and the elderly, because they are warmer than both.

XXIX.

Scant sweats occur from contrary causes. To these, add the metastasis transfer/migration of humor either to the hypochondria, as in dropsy, or to the bladder, or to the bowels, or to the hemorrhoids, or to the erythroid tunic of the testicles, as in hydrocele.

Never, for the sake of inducing sweats in cases of pudendagra venereal disease, paralysis, arthritis, gout, scurvy, and other diseases, should decoctions of Guaiacum wood, or Sarsaparilla, Hermodactyl, Agaric, extracts of Cnicopharmacum a specific purgative remedy, Carycostinum a spiced cathartic, Electuarium de Soldanella, or other Scammoniates be added; lest nature be distracted in vain toward different parts.