But we are besides this to consider, That the Static Chair, and nice Observation taught Sanctorius,[35] That Men do increase a Pound or two in their weight every Month, which overplus is discharged at the Months end, by a Crisis of copious, or thick turbid Urine.
It is not therefore at all strange that we should once a Month be liable to the returns of such Distempers as depend upon a Fullness of the Vessels, that these should take place at those times especially, when the ambient Air is least able to repress the Turgency; and that tho' New and Full Moon are both of equal Force, yet that sometimes one, and sometimes the other only should Influence the Periods, according
as this or that happens to fall in with the inward Repletion.
The Afflux of Humours to Ulcers is sometimes manifestly altered by this Power; [36] Baglivi was acquainted with a Learned Young Man at Rome, who labour'd under a Fistula in the Abdomen, penetrating to the Colon, which discharged so plentifully in the Increase, and so sparingly in the Decrease of the Moon, that he could make a very true judgment of the Periods and Quadratures of the Planet, from the different quantity of the Matter that came from Him.
Nephritic Paroxysms have frequently been observed to obey the Lunar Attraction: Tulpius[37] relates the Case of Mr. Ainsworth, an English Minister at Amsterdam, who had a Fit of the Gravel and suppression of Urine every Full Moon, of which he found no relief till the Moon decreased, unless by Bleeding at the Arm. After his death two large Stones were taken out of his Bladder, and the Pelvis of the left Kidney was enlarged to that degree by the quantity of Urine so often stopt there, as to contain almost as much as the Bladder it self.