254 RETROGRADE. SECT. XXIX. 5. i, 



ftools ; others have their paroxyfms terminated by ftupor, or 

 fleep, without the above evacuations. 



The former kind of thefe inebriates have been obferved to be 

 more liable to diabetes and dropiy ; and the latter to gout, 

 gravel, and leprofy. Evoe ! attend, ye bachannalians ! itart at 

 this dark train of evils, and amid yfcur inimodeft jefts, and idiot 

 laughter, recoiled:, 



Quern Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. 



In thofe who are fubjec"l to diabetes and dropfy, the abforbent 

 veflels are naturally more irritable than in the latter ; and by be- 

 ing frequently diilurbed or inverted by violent ftimlus, and by 

 their too great fympathy with each other, they become at length 

 either entirely paralytic, or are only fufceptible of motion from 

 the flimulus of very acrid materials , as every part of the body, 

 after having been ufed to great irritations, becomes lefs affected 

 by fmaller ones. Thus we cannot diftinguifh obje&s in the 

 night, for fome time after we come out of a ftrong light, though 

 the iris is prefently dilated ; and the air of a fummer evening 

 appears cold, after we have been expofed to the heat of the day. 



There are no cells in the body, where dropfy may not be pro- 

 duced, if the lymphatics ceafe to abiorb that mucilaginous fluid, 

 which is perpetually depofited in them, for the purpofe of lubri- 

 cating their furfaces. 



If the lymphatic branch, which opens into the cellular mem- 

 brane, either does its office imperfe6lly, or not all ; thefe cells 

 become replete with a mucilaginous fluid, which, after it has 

 ftagnated iome time in the cells, will coagulate over the fire ; 

 and is trroneoufly called water. Wherever the feat of this dif- 

 eafe is, (unlefs in the lungs or other pendent viicera) the mucilag- 

 inous liquid above mentioned will fubfide to the moft depend- 

 ing parts of the body, as the feet and legs, when thofe are lower 

 than the head and trunk ; for all thefe cells have communica- 

 tions with each other. 



When the cellular abforbents are become infenfible to their 

 ufual irritations, it moft frequently happens, but not always, 

 that the cutaneous branch of abforbents, which is flriclly afibci- 

 ated with them, fufFers the like. inability. And then, as no wa- 

 ter is abforbed from the atmofphere, the urine is not only lefs 

 diluted at the time of its fecretion, and confequently in lefs 

 quantity and higher coloured : but great thirft is at the fame 

 time induced, for as no water is abforbed from the atmofphere 

 to dilute the chyle and blood, the Ia6leal& and other abforbent 

 veflels, which have not loft their powers, are excited into more 

 conftant or more violent adion, to fupply this deficiency ; 



whence 



