Memoirs of Erasmus Darwin, M. D. - 113 



'feeing In its natural state inodorous ; which is not so with 

 the other excretions of faeces, or of urine. 



^' In some constitutions the perspirable matter of the lungs 

 acquires a disagreeable odour ; in others the axilla, and in 

 others the feet, emit disgustful effluvia ; like the secretions 

 of those glands, which have been called odoriferae ; as those 

 which contain thccastor in the beaver, and those within 

 the rectum of dogs, the mucus of which has been supposed 

 to guard them against the great costiveness which they are 

 liable to in hot summers ; and which has been thought to 

 occasion canine madness; but which, like their white ex- 

 crement, is more probably owing to the deficient secretion 

 of bile. Whether these odoriferous particles attend the 

 perspirable matter in consequence of the increased action of 

 the capillary glands, and can properly be called excremen- 

 titious ; that is, whether any thing is eliminated, which 

 could be hurtful if retained ; or whether they may only con- 

 tain some of the essential oil of the animal ; like the smell 

 which adheres to one's hand on stroking the hides of some 

 dogs ; or like the effluvia, which is left upon the ground, 

 from the feet of men and other creatures ; and is perceptible 

 by the nicer organs of the dogs, which hunt them, may 

 admit of doubt. 



*^ M. M. Wash the parts twice a day with soap and water ; 

 with lime water; cover the feet with oiled silk socks, which 

 must be washed night and morning. Cover them with 

 charcoal recently made red-hot, and beaten into fine pow- 

 der and sifted, as soon as cold, and kept well corked in a 

 bottle, to be washed off and renewed twice a day. Inter- 

 nally rhubarb grains vi. or viii. every night, so as to procure 

 a stool or two extraordinary every day, and thus by in- 

 creasing one evacuation to decrease another.*' 



He gives a cure for the tape-worm* 



^' The tape-worm is cured by an amalgama of tin and 

 quicksilver, such as is used on the back of looking-glasses ; 

 an ounce should be taken every two hours, till a pound is 

 taken; and then a brisk cathartic, of Glauber's salt two 

 ounces, and common salts one ounce, dissolved in two 

 wine-pints of water, half a pint to be taken every hour till 



Vol. 30. No, 118. March 1808. H it 



