30 



nitre. Hence divers animals grow fat hi frosty wea- 

 ther, the air then abounding with nitre. 



The uses of the Tat are various; as to facilitate the 

 motions of the muscles in all parts, lessen their attri* 

 tion against each other, and prevent a stiffness or ri. 

 gidity, it fills up the intermediate spaces between the 

 muscles, in such a manner, with the cavities about 

 many of the viscera, that it readily yields to their mo- 

 tions, and yet supports them when at rest ; it serves as 

 a stratum or bed to conduct and defend the vessels in 

 their course to ail parts, it gives an uniform extension 

 to the skin, and serving as a cushion to ease the weight 

 of the body in many parts, at the same time it renders 

 the whole of a- comely agreeable shape : it probably 

 by returning and mixing with many of the humours, 

 abates their acrimony ; it has a principal share in 

 forming the matter of the bile, and by transuding 

 through the cartilaginous incrustations of the benefit 

 mixes with the articular liniment or synovia ; also by 

 exhaling in a living person from the mesentery, mcso. 

 colon, omentum, and round the kidneys, it lubricates 

 the surfaces of the viscera with an oily emollient 

 vapour, and by interposing betwixt their integuments, 

 prevents their growing one to another. 



Yet too much fat is a real disease, which hinders 

 the motion of the lungs, entangles the most active 

 particles of the blood, and naturally creates dulness 

 and heaviness. You may cure this, by following 

 three plain rules : eat and drink little ; sleep little ; 

 work much. 



16. The fourth general integument is the panni- 

 culus caruosus, which in some parts is of a fleshy 

 substance ; in othersj a mere membrane^ lying just 

 under the fat. 



1.7- The dissimilar parts are composed of the simi- 

 lar. The chief of these is the head. The cavity of 

 the skull is nearly filled with a soft substance, termed 

 in general the brain. But this is properly that part 



