i\it ^lemoirs of Erasmus Darwin, AT, D, 



liable W ferment, and produce too much acidity , as appears 

 by the consequent diarrhoea with green dejections and gripes ; 

 the colour is owing to a mixture of acid with the natural 

 quantity of bile, alid the pain to its stimuhis. And they 

 should never be fed as they He upon their backs, as in that 

 posture they are Necessitated to swallow all that is put into 

 Hieir mouths ; but when they are fed as they are sitting 

 up, or raised up, when they have had enough they can 

 permit the rest to run out of their tnouths. This circum- 

 stance is of great importance to the health of those children 

 who arc reared by the spoon, since, if too much food is given 

 them, indigestion, and gripes, and diarrhoea, are the conse- 

 quence; and if too liftlc, they become emaciated ; and of 

 this exact quantity their own palates judge the best." 



His observations are no less curious rcs^tcUn^ perspirath 

 fcetida, fetid perspiration : 



''^ The uses of the perspirable matter are to keep the skin 

 soft and pliant, for the purposes of its easier flexibility du- 

 ring the activity of our limbs in locomotion, and for the 

 preservation of the accuracy of the sense of touch, which is 

 difluscd under the whole surface of it to guard us against the 

 injuries of external bodies ; in the same manner as the se- 

 cretion of tears is designed to preserve the cornea of the eye 

 tnoist, and in consequence transparent : yet has this cu- 

 taneous mucus bet II believed by many to be an excrement ; 

 and I know not h(nv many fanciful theories have been built 

 Qu its supposed obstruction. Such as the origin of catanh^, 

 coughs, inflanmiations, erysipelas, and herpes. 



" To all these if may be sufficient to answer, that the an- 

 tient Grccian&r oiled themselves all over ; that some nations 

 have painted themselves all over, as the Picts of this island ; 

 that the Hottentots smear themselves all over with grease. 

 And lastly, that many of our own heads at this day are co- 

 vered with the fi(7ur of wheat and the fat of hogs, according 

 to the tyranny of a filthy and wasteful fashion, and all this 

 wiihout inconvenience. To this must be added the strict 

 analogy between the use of the pcr3j)irable matter and the 

 mucous fluids, which are poured for similar purposes upon 

 >all the internal memhrancii of the body; and besides its 

 3 being 



