SCOURING, &c. 343 



fad, rules fo few, (either phyfical or moral) 

 that will not admit of Tome, it can create no 

 furprife that the maxims of fo great a man 

 Ihould be entitled to their trifling proportion. 

 To elucidate a text from authority fo truly ref- 

 pedtable, and bring the matter into a fair dif- 

 cuffion for every comprehenfion, it will be 

 unavoidably rheceifary to enlarge a little upon 

 the fubjedl: we wifh clearly to explain. 



The fadl is, when a quantity of grofs food 

 and collecled impurities are accumulated and 

 pent up within the confined limits of the in- 

 teftinal canal, whether obftrufted in the firft 

 or laft pafTages, the inconvenience (though dif- 

 ferent in fymptoms) may be ultimately the 

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

 ftrudion 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 conftitution), ftimulates 

 and begins to ad uDon the internal coat of the 

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

 irritability of the other, a folution of the ex- 

 crements enfue; and Nature is enabled to re- 

 lieve herfelf, by throwing off that load which 



Z 4 the 



