16 DISEASES CLASS 1. 1.2. 14. 



In fome conftitutions the perfpirable matter of the lungs ac- 

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

 the feet, emit difguilful effluvia ; like the fecretions of thofe 

 glands, which have been called odoriferse ; as thofe, which con- 

 tain the. caftor in the beaver, and thofe within the rectum of 

 dogs, the mucus of which has been fuppofed to guard them 

 again f I the great coftivenefs, which they are liable to in hot 

 fummers ; and which has been thought to occafion canine mad- 

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

 owing to the deficient fecretion of bile. Whether thefe odorif- 

 erous particles attend the perfpirable matter in confequence of 

 the increafed action of the capillary glands, and properly be 

 called excrementitious ; that is, whether any thing is elimina- 

 ted, which could be hurtful if retained ; or whether they may 

 only contain fome of the eflential oil of the animal ; like the 

 fmdl, which adheres to one's hand on {broking the hides of 

 fome 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 fome parts of the fkin are liable to more 

 profufe perfpiration than other parts without poffeiling any fetid 

 fcent, as the {kin of the face, on any more violent exercife. This 

 feenis to have been obferved very early in the hiftory of man- 

 kind, as it was faid, that our firft parents mould earn their bread 

 by the fweat of their brow. Why this circumftance does not 

 attend other animals is a curious inquiry. Mankind foon learn- 

 ed to cover their bodies, except their faces, with clothes , when 

 the face, by being more frequently expofed to greater variations 

 of heat and cold, acquired greater irritability, or fenfibility, or 

 afibciability, and thus has become more excitable into greater ac- 

 tion by the ftimulus of exercife, or by that of food, or by the va- 

 riolus infection, than other parts of the fkin, as fpoken of m 

 Ciafs IV. i. 2. 1 2-, which alfo appears by its fympathy with 

 difeafes of the liver or ftomach by fenfitive aiTociations, as in the 

 gutta rofea. From all thefe analogous facts the profufe fweat, 

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

 an excrementitious fluid, but fimply the confequence of more 

 violent action of the cutaneous or perfpirative glands. 



M. M. Wafh the parts twice a day with foap and water ; 

 \vith lime water ; cover the feet with oiled filk locks, which 

 mult be waihed night and morning. Cover them with charcoal 

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

 as foon as cold, and kept well corked in a bottle, to be waflic-d 



off 



