Art. 1. 1.6.1. NUTRIENTIA. T 7 



again become a part of them, as well as the calcareous matter 

 with which they are united. Whence it may be conceived, 

 that the waters, which abound with limeflone in folution, may 

 fupply nutriment both to animals and to vegetables, as mention- 

 ed above. 



VI. i. The manner, in which nutritious particles are fub- 

 ftituted in the place of thofe, which are mechanically abraded, 

 or chemically decompofed, or which vaniih by animal abforp- 

 tion, muft be owing to animal appetency, as defcribed in Sect, 

 XXXVII. 3. and is probably fimilar to the procefs of inflamma- 

 tion, which produces new veffels and new fluids ; or to that 

 which conflitutes the growth of the body to maturity. Thus 

 the granulations of new fleiTi to repair the injuries of wounds 

 are vifible to the eye ; as well as the caucus matter, which ce- 

 ments broken bones > the calcareous matter, which repairs in- 

 jured fnail-fhells ; and the threads, which are formed by filk- 

 worms and fpiders ; which are all fecreted in a fofter ftate, and 

 harden by exficcation, or by the contact of the air, or by abforp- 

 tion of their more fluid parts. 



"Whether the materials, which thus fupply the wafte of the 

 fyftem, can be given any other way than by the flomach, fo as 

 to preferve the body for a length of time, is worth our inquiry ; 

 as cafes fometimes occur, in which food cannot be introduced 

 into the ftomach, as in obftrucYions of the eefophagus, inflam- 

 mations of the throat, or in hydrophobia ; Aid other cafes are 

 not unfrequent in which the power of digeftion is nearly or to- 

 tally deftroyed, as in anorexia epileptica, and in many ferers. 



In the former of thefe circum (lances liquid nutriment may 

 fometimes be gotten into the ftomach through a flexible cathe- 

 ter ; as defcribed in Clafs III. 1. 1. 15. In the latter many 

 kinds of mild aliment, as milk or broth, have frequently been 

 injected as clyfters, together with a fmall quantity of opium, as 

 ten drops of the tincture, three or four times a day ; to which 

 alfo might be added very fmall quantities of vinous fpirit. But 

 thefe, as far as I have obferved, will nor long fuftain a perfon, 

 who cannot take any fuftenance by the ftomach. 



2. -Another mode of applying nutritive fluids might be by 

 extend ve fomentations, or by im merging the whole body in a 

 bath of broth, or of warm milk, which might at the fame tin 

 be coagulated by rennet, or the acid of the calf's ftomach ; broth 

 or whey might thus probably be introduced, in part at leaft, into 

 the circulation, as a folution of nitre is faid to have been ab- 

 sorbed in a pediluvium, which was afterwards difcovered Ivy the 

 manner in which paper dipped frequently in the urine of the pa- 

 tient and dried, burnt and fparkled like touch-rllper. Great 



quantity 



