26 DISEASES CLASS I. 1. 2. 14, 



In some constitutions the perspirable matter of the lungs ac- 

 quires a disagreeable odour; in others the axilla, and in others 

 the feet, emit disgustful effluvia; like the secretions of those 

 glands which have been called odoriferae; as those, which con- 

 tain the castor in the beaver, and those within the rectum of 

 dogs, the mucus of which Las been supposed to guard them 

 against the great costiveness, which they are liable to in hot 

 summers; and which has been thought to occasion canine mad- 

 ness, but which, like their white excrement, is more probably 

 owing to the deficient secretion of bile. Whether these odorife- 

 rous particles attend the perspirable matter in consequence of 

 the increased action of the capillary glands, and properly be 

 called excrementitious; that is, whether any thing is eliminated, 

 which could be hurtful if retained; or whether they may only 

 contain some of the essential oil of the animal; like the smell, 

 which adheres to one's hand on stroking the hides of some 

 dogs; or like the effluvia, which is left upon the ground, from 

 the feet of men and other creatures, and is perceptible by 

 the nicer organs of the dogs, which hunt them, may admit of 

 doubt. 



Add to this, that some parts of the skin are liable to more 

 profuse perspiration than other parts without possessing any fetid 

 scent, as the skin of the face, on'any more violent exercise. This 

 seems to have been observed very early in the history of man- 

 kind, as it was said, that our first parents should earn their bread 

 by the sweat of their brow. Why this circumstance does not 

 attend other animals is a curious inquiry. Mankind soon learned 

 to cover their bodies, except their faces, with clothes; when the 

 face, by being more frequently exposed to greater variations of 

 heat and cold, acquired greater irritability, or sensibility, or 

 associability, and thus has become more excitable into greater 

 action by the stimulus of exercise, or by that of food, or by the 

 Variolous infection, than other parts of the skin, as spoken of in 

 Class IV. I. 2. 12; which also appears by its sympathy with 

 diseases of the liver or stomach by sensitive associations, as in the 

 gutta rosea. From all these analogous facts the profuse sweat, 

 which exudes from the face on exercise, does not appear to be 

 an excrementitious fluid, but simply the consequence of more 

 violent action of the cutaneous or perspirative glands. 



M. M. Wash the part twice a day with soap and water; 

 with lime water; cover the feet with oiled silk socks, which 

 must be washed night and morning. Cover them with charcoal 

 recently made red hot, and beaten into fine powder and sifted, 

 as soon as cold, and kept well corked in a bottle, to be washed 



