OP PERSPIRATION. 125 



most truly electrical. They are very easily nourished, 

 and even reproduced, unless where the skin is diseased. 



192. Besides the functions ascribed to the integu- 

 ments in the former Section, must be enumerated their 

 excretory power, by which foreign and injurious matters 

 are eliminated from the mass of fluids.* 



This is exemplified in the miasmata of exanthematic 

 diseases, in the smell of the skin after eating garlic, 

 musk, &c. and in sweating and similar phenomena. 



193. What is most worthy our attention, is the tran- 

 spiration of an aeriform fluid, denominated, after the 

 very acute philosopher who first applied himself pro- 

 fessedly to investigate its importance, the perspircibih 

 Sanctoriamim,-f and similar to what is expired from the 

 lungs. It likewise is composed of various proportions 

 of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen, || precipitates lime 

 from solution, and is unfit to support either flame or 

 respiration. 



194. The siveat, which seldom occurs spontaneously 

 during health and rest, unless in a high temperature, 

 appears to arise from the perspirable matter of Sanc- 

 torius being too much increased in quantity by the 

 excited action of the cutaneous vessels, and from its. 



* Hence the danger of contagion from hairs, as miasmata adhere to them 

 very tenaciously for a great length of time. Vide Cartu'right, Jon run! <>f 

 Transactions on the Coast of Labrador, vol. i. p. 273. vol. ii. p. 424. 



f- Ars Sanctor. Sanctorii de Statica Mcdicina aphori>nnr. sectio>til/n<i <','. 

 comprehewta. Venet. 1634. 16. 



C. de Milly and Lavoisier, Memoires de TAcad. des Sc. tie Paris. I'/ 77. 

 p. 221 sq. 360 sq. J. Ingen-Houz, E.rpts. upon Vegetables. Lond. 17"!'. tfwu 

 p. 132 sqq. J. H. Voight, Vcrsuch cincr neuen Theoric des Fevers, p. Io7 .-.j. 



W. Bache, On the morbid effects of Carbonic Acid friz on Uculi'ty ,inutittft. 

 Philadel. 1794. 8vo. p. 46. 



H Abernethy, 1. c. 



