

Sect. XXIX. 4. f. ABSORBENTS. 247 



fanguification ; and that the fcirrhohty of the liver was the orig- 

 inal caufe of it : but as the fcirrhus of the liver is moil frequent- 

 ly owing to the fame caufes, that produce the diabetes and drop- 

 fies *, namely, the great ufe of fermented liquors ; there is no 

 wonder they mould exift together, without being the confe- 

 quence of each other. 



5. If the cutaneous branch of abforbents gains a habit of being 

 excited into ftronger action, and imbibes greater quantities of 

 moifture from the atmofphere, at the fame time that the urina- 

 rv branch has its motions inverted, another kind of diabetes is 

 formed, which may be termed the aqueous diabetes. Iri this 

 diabetes the cutaneous abforbents frequently imbibe an amazing 

 quantity of atmofpheric moifture ; infomuch that there are au- 

 thentic hiftories, where many gallons a day, for many weeks to-, 

 gether, above the quantity that has been drunk, have been dis- 

 charged by urine. 



Dr. Keil, in his Medicina Statica, found that he gained eigh- 

 teen ounces from the moid air of one night ; and Dr. Percival 

 affirms, that one of his hands imbibed, after being well chafed, 

 near an ounce and half of water, in a quarter of an hour. 

 (Tranfaft. of the College, London, vol. ii. p. 102.) Home's 

 Medic. Fa£ts, p. 2. feci:. 3. 



Dr. Rollo in his work on Diabetes has (hewn, that one patient, 

 whom he weighed after being ten minutes in the warm bath, 

 did not weigh heavier on his leaving it. Dr. Currie, I think, 

 mentions a fimilar facl. I fufpec~t, that if the bath be made very- 

 hot, perhaps much above animal heat, the bather may perfpire 

 more than he abibrbs, and become in reality lighter. And that 

 in a more moderate heat, if the patient has been previouilv ex- 

 haufted by abftinence or fatigue, that he will abforb much ; but 

 that if his fyftem be already full of fluids, from the food and flu- 

 ids, which he has previoufly eaten and drunk, he may not abforb 

 anything. See Clafs I. 3. 2. 6. 



The pale urine in hyfterical women, or which is produced by 

 fear or anxiety, is a temporary complaint of this kind ; and it 

 would in reality be the fame difeafe, if it v/as confirmed by habit. 



6. The purging (tools, and pale urine, occafioned by expofing 

 the naked body to cold air, or fprinkling it with cold water, orig- 

 inate from a fimilar caufe ; for the mouths of the cutaneous 

 lymphatics being fuddenly expofed to cold become torpid, and 

 ceafe, or nearly ceafe, to acl: ; whilft, by the fympathy above de- 

 scribed, not only the lymphatics of the bladder and fnteftines 

 ceafe alfo to abforb the more aqueous and faline part cf the flu- 

 ids fecreted into them ; but it is probable that thefe lymphatics 

 invert their motions, and return the fluids, which were previ- 



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