Constriction is occasioned either by obstruction or contraction of the
pores. Obstruction is produced either by the quantity or thickness of
crude and indigested humours, and contraction by such things as are cold
or astringent, or desiccative. Upon stripping the body, the affection
is at once recognized by the paleness, hardness, and contraction of the
skin, and by the body’s being heated with difficulty during exercise.
Calefacient remedies are the proper cure for this state of body, and
therefore we must have recourse to the strongest exercise and the hottest
baths, and the time of remaining in the cold bath must not be long, nor
must the water be very cold. And when about to put on their clothes,
let their bodies be anointed with a sweet and thin oil, of a moderately
heating quality. Obstructions of the skin are also properly cured by the
oil of dill, (more particularly if the dill had been green,) and by the
oil of black poplars.
* * * * *
COMMENTARY. This Section is taken from Oribasius. (Synops. v, 16.)
But a somewhat fuller account is given by Galen. (Hyg. iii, 10.) Like
our author, he states, that this affection is occasioned, either by a
collection of thick viscid humours in the body, or by contraction, that
is to say, spasm of the cutaneous pores. It is generally brought on, he
says, by exposure to cold, or going into an astringent bath. He gives
very minute directions about the treatment, recommending hot baths, and
friction with oils of a calefacient and attenuant nature. See also Aëtius
(iv, 46); and Actuarius (Meth. Med. iii, 16.)