196 



Then, *ay the gentlemen, who will have bile to be a stimulus, 

 what gives origin to that commotion which takes place in cholera, 

 if it is not the presence of such an additional stimulus? This is a 

 ridiculous question, replies the opposite party ; it may be just as 

 well asked what gives origin to the increased secretion of bile, or 

 liow disease of any kind ever happens spontaneously? It is then 

 urged by the stimulators that the bowels are most regular when 

 the secretion of bile is the most natural. Aye, say the others; but 

 the bowels are sometimes the most active when there is no evi- 

 dence of the presence of any bile, as we have witnessed in those 

 who have had frequent and loose evacuations almost white, and 

 accompanied with much griping and tenesmus. It may be further 

 urged, on the same side, that the stools of those of the most 

 costive habits appear, so far as may be inferred from their colour, 

 to contain the largest proportion of bile: it may be noticed too 

 that persons may have stools of the usual appearance or even 

 lighter for some time, when, upon the the exhibition of a purgative, 

 dark scybala may be discharged, which, so far as may be judged 

 a priori, and from appearances, had lain a long time in the intes- 

 tines. Now if these scybala are made dark or black by the bile 

 they contain, how comes it that portions of faeces, apparently con- 

 taining the most bile, are not discharged so soon as portions con- 

 taining less, if the action of the intestines is stimulated by bile? 

 These and such like witticisms may be pursued on both sides, at 

 great length, but it is a subject on which little or nothing is 

 proved; I shall therefore hasten to take leave of it, merely sug- 

 gesting to the stimulators, that if the functions of animal bodies 

 are to be explained by a reference to efficient causes, precise rela- 

 tions, and real agency, it must be done without calling in the aid 

 either of whips or spurs. 



12. But it will be asked seriously, does not then the bile con^ 

 tribute towards those actions of the bowels by which the faeces are 

 expelled? To this I reply, the inquiry is analytical, it has never 

 been attempted: and, unless we should gain some unexpected 

 lights from collateral knowledge, it never will be attempted with 

 success, until we have acquired that other sense of which we have 

 Before spoken. 



13. There are others (I rejoice to say, very few) of those bold 

 theorists, men of some place too, who will tell us the use of bile as 

 easily as they can reckon their fingers. And of what use do they 

 say it is? Why, truly, to make fat: so weak, so silly and extra- 

 vagant a notion is very much below scrutiny. Let it suffice to say 

 that a child of ten years old would discriminate that such an in- 

 ference was not warranted, if the shallow grounds of it were clearly 

 stated to him. Suppose I were to assert the use of bile to be, 

 that the souls of elephants, formed in the air, imbibed by the 

 earth, taken into the stomach, and embodied with our food, should, 

 by its operation, be freed from purgatory, where they had been 

 confined for their sins, passing away into their native air, in a 



