566 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



fluids, or of the same proportion as before ; arid this seems to 

 me to be the case in the Atrophia senilis, Sauv. sp. 2. Or it 

 may be a palsy of the larger trunks of the arteries, rendering 

 them unfit to propel the blood into the smaller vessels ; as is 

 frequently the case of paralytic limbs, in which the arteries are 

 affected as well as the muscles. The Atrophia lateralis, Sauv. 

 sp. 15. seems to be of this nature. 



MDCXII. A second general head of the causes of emacia- 

 tion I have mentioned, in MDCII., to be a deficiency of oil. 

 The extent and quantity of the cellular texture in every part 

 of the body, and therefore how considerable a part it makes in 

 the bulk of the whole, is now well known. But this substance, 

 in different circumstances, is more or less filled with an oily 

 matter ; and therefore the bulk of it, and in a great measure 

 that of the whole body, must be greater or less according as 

 this substance is more or less filled in that manner. The defi- 

 ciency of fluids, fora reason to be immediately explained, is 

 generally accompanied with a deficiency of oil : but physicians 

 have commonly attended more to the latter cause of emaciation 

 than to the other, that being usually the most evident ; and I 

 shall now endeavour to assign the several causes of the deficien- 

 cy of oil as it occurs upon different occasions. 



MDCXIII. The business of secretion in the human body is 

 in general little understood, and in no instance less so than in 

 that of the secretion of oil from blood which does not appear 

 previously to have contained it. It is possible, therefore, that 

 our theory of the deficiency of oil may be in several respects im- 

 perfect ; but there are certain facts that may in the mean time 

 apply to the present purpose. . 



MDCXIV. First, it is probable, that a deficiency of oil may 

 be owing to a state of the blood in animal bodies less fitted 

 to afford a secretion of oil, and consequently to supply the 

 waste of it that is constantly made. This state of the blood 

 must especially depend upon the state of the aliments taken 

 in, as containing less of oil or oily matter. From many obser- 

 vations made, both with respect to the human body and to that 

 of other animals, it appears pretty clearly, that the aliments 

 taken in by men and domestic animals, according as they con- 

 tain more of oil, are in general more nutritious, and in particu- 



