[Ads-l] 1684: "stagnize", =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9Ctranschangement=E2=80=9D=2C__=22dry_belly-ache=22=2C?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E2=80=9Cstagnization=E2=80=9D=2C_=E2=80=9Ccongelation=E2=80?= =?UTF-8?Q?=9D=2C_?="lues"

[Joel Berson]

Some medical oddities from 1684.  I suspect concentrated reading will be not only amusing but productive of other oddities, both medical and linguistic.
 
 
William Russell.  A Physical Treatise, Grounded, not upon Tradition, nor Phancy, but Experience ... .  London:  John Williams, 1684.  Page 126.  [GBooks.]
 
 
Or if any Matter be stagnized, that also is liable to the same Transchangement, and produceth Effects as bad, or worse than the former; as is sufficiently witnessed by the Dry Belly-Ache in the West-Indies; and by some of our Country-Men afflicted with the Scurvey, in whom the Knots in their Nerves give a palpable Testimony, not only of Siagnization, but also of
preternatural Congelation; not much unlike to our knotty Gouis, or Tophuses in the Lues, which happen upon the Bones ...
 
 
(1)  “stagnize”, v., antedates OED2  1694--.
 
 
(2)  “transchangement”, n., not in OED.
 
 
(3)  "dry belly-ache" not in OED.
 
 
This also interdates OED2 “belly-ache”, n., 1552 -- 1750.
 
 
(4)  “s[t]agnization”, n. not in OED.  (The source has “siagnization” -- a misprint?)
 
 
(5)  “congelation”, n. not in OED (although “degelation” and “regelation” are).

(6)  "lues", n. [various diseases, here probably syphilis], interdates OED2 1634 -- 1721.
 

I suspect "Gouis" is “gouts” (another substitution of "i' for "t"), given the likening to “tophuses” (see OED, sense 2).

Joel

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