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LONGING

Volume 6 · 147 words · 1778 Edition

is a preternatural appetite in pregnant women, and in some sick persons when about to recover. It is called pica, from the bird of that name, which is said to be subject to the same disorder. The disorder consists of both a desire of unusual things to eat and drink, and in being soon tired of one and wanting another. It is called mutacia, from μυτακης, "weakness." In pregnant women it is somewhat relieved by bleeding, and in about the fourth month of their pregnancy it leaves them. Chlorotic girls, and men who labour under suppressed hemorrhoids, are very subject to this complaint, and are relieved by promoting the respective evacuations. In general, whether this disorder is observed in pregnant women, in persons recovering from an acute fever, or in those who labour under obstructions of the natural evacuations, this craving of the appetite should be indulged.