374 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Again, sweat cometh more plentifully, if the heat be 

 increased by degrees, than if it be greatest at 

 first, or equal. The cause is, for that the pores 

 are better opened by a gentle heat, than by a more 

 violent ; and by their opening, the sweat issueth 

 more abundantly. And therefore physicians may do 

 well when they provoke sweat in bed by bottles, 

 with a decoction of sudorific herbs in hot water, to 

 make two degrees of heat in the bottles ; and to lay 

 in the bed the less heated first, and after half an hour, 

 the more heated. 



707. Sweat is salt in taste ; the cause is, for that 

 that part of the nourishment which is fresh and 

 sweet, turneth into blood and flesh ; and the sweat 

 is only that part which is separate and excerned. 

 Blood also raw hath some saltness more than flesh : 

 because the assimilation into flesh is not without a 

 little and subtile excretion from the blood. 



708. Sweat cometh forth more out of the upper 

 parts of the body than the lower ; the reason is, be 

 cause those parts are more replenished with spirits ; 

 and the spirits are they that put forth sweat : besides, 

 they are less fleshy, and sweat issueth, chiefly, out of 

 the parts that are less fleshy, and more dry ; as the 

 forehead and breast. 



709. Men sweat more in sleep than waking ; and 

 yet sleep doth rather stay other fluxions, than cause 

 them ; as rheums, looseness of the body, &c. The 

 cause is, for that in sleep the heat and spirits do 

 naturally move inwards, and there rest. But when 



