374 RETROGRADE ABSORBENTS. SECT. XXIX. s . 



ed or inverted by violent ftimulus, and by their too 

 great fympathy with each other, they become at 

 length either entirely paralytic, or are only fufcep- 

 tible of motion from the ftimulus of very acrid 

 materials ; as every part of the body, after having 

 been ufed to great irritations, becomes lefs affe&ed 

 by fmaller ones. Thus we cannot diftinguim ob- 

 je&s in the night, for fome time after we come out 

 of a ftrong light, though the iris is prefently dila- 

 ted; 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 drqpfy may 

 not be produced, if the lymphatics ceafe to abforb 

 that mucila /inous fluid, which is perpetually de- 

 pofited in them, for the purpofe of lubricating their 

 furfaces. 



If the lymphatic branch, which opens into the 

 cellular membrane, either does its office imperfect- 

 ly, or not at all ; thefe cells become replete with a 

 mucilaginous fluid, which, after it has ftagnated 

 fome time in the cells, will coagulate over the fire ; 

 and is erroneoufly called water. Wherever the 

 feat of this difeafe is, (uniefs in the lungs or other 

 pendent vifcera) the mucilaginous liquid above 

 mentioned will fubfide to the mod depending parts 

 of the body, as the feet and legs, when thofe are 

 lower than the head and trunk ; for all thefe qells 

 have communications with each other. 



When the cellular abforbents are become infen- 

 ble to their ufual irritations, it mod frequently hap- 

 pens, but not always, that the cutaneous branch 

 of abforbents, which is ftridtly afibciated with them, 

 fuffers the like inability. And then, as no water 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 



