SCOURING. 343 



trifling proportion. To elucidate a text 

 from the authority so truly respectable;, and 

 brine: the matter into a fair discussion for 

 every comprehension, it will be unavoidably 

 necessary to enlarge a little upon the subject 

 we wish clearly to explain. 



The fact is, when a quantity of gross food 

 and collected impurities are accumulated and 

 pent up withm the confined limits of the in- 

 testinal canal, whether obstructed in the first 

 or last passages, the inconvenience (though 

 different in symptoms) may be ultimately 

 the same in effect. For the aliment, by the 

 obstruction in its natural progress through 

 the stomach or intestines, and preternatural 

 iretention there, acquires a degree of acri- 

 monious malignity, that at a certain period 

 (depending upon the habit and constitution)^ 

 stimulates and begins to act upon the inter- 

 nal coat of the intestines, till, by the stimulus 

 of one, and the irritability of the other, a 

 solution of the excrements ensues ; and na- 

 ture is enabled to relieve herself, by throw- 

 ing off that load which the attention of the 

 master, and the interposition of art, would 

 sometimes do Avell to remove. And this is 



