S C O U R I N G, &c. 343 



feft, rules fo few, (either phyiical or moral) 

 that will not admit of fome, it can create no 

 furprife that the maxims of fo great a man 

 fhould be entitled to their trifling proportion. 

 To elucidate a text from the authority fo truly 

 refpecSable, and bring the matter into a fair dif- 

 cuflion for every comprehenfion, it will be 

 unavoidably neceifary to enlarge a little upon 

 the fubjedl we wilh clearly to explain. 



The fad: is, when a quantity of grofs food 

 and colledled impurities are accumulated and 

 pent up within the confined limits of the in- 

 teftinal canal, whether obftrud:ed in the firft 

 or laft paffages, the inconvenience (though dif- 

 ferent in fymptoms) may be ultimately the 

 fame in efFed. For the aliment, by the ob- 

 ftrudlion in its natural progrefs through the 

 ftomach or inteftines, and preternatural reten- 

 tion there, acquires a degree of acrimonious 

 malignity, that, at a certain period, (depend- 

 ing upon the habit and conflitution), ftimulates 

 and begins to ad upon the internal coat of the 

 inteftines, till, by the ftimulus of one, and the 

 irritability of the other, a folution of the ex- 

 crements enfues ; and Nature is enabled to re- 

 lieve herfeif, by throwing off that load which 

 Z 4 the 



