Sentence:  As a "symptomatic" phenomenon, Diarrhœa is <WSD>"skittering</WSD>", "i.e.", the discharges are composed of water, intermingled with particles of imperfectly digested food; from two to six or eight discharges may thus take place, and it is an invariable precursor of constipation. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To suffer from a bout of diarrhea; to produce thin excrement.