When anything is discharged from the bowels which was not part of the
food or drink that was taken, but of the fluids of the body which
had flowed to them, (resembling the yellow bile which is continually
discharged by vomiting and purging, but differing from it in fetor;
and in this, that the alvine discharge is of a darker yellow, of the
consistence of the sordes balneorum, oily, and adipose,) the disease is
called colliquation or melting. At first the fat and newly-made flesh
are dissolved and melted by the heat of the fever; but as the evil is
protracted, some of the solid parts themselves are melted down. In this
most unfavorable state of fever, a draught of cold water from the coolest
fountain is the most proper remedy; likewise cold cataplasms and epithems
ought to be applied to the chest and hypochondriac regions, and cooling
food to be given.
* * * * *
COMMENTARY. Galen mentions that a colliquative discharge from the bowels
was a common symptom of the fatal plague which prevailed in his time.
He adds that the fæces were generally of a deep yellow colour, and
always fetid. (Comment. in Hippocrat. Epidem. iii.) In another place, he
states that it is a fatal practice to bleed or purge in cases of fever
complicated with diarrhœa. (Therap. ad Glauc. i.)