278 Mayow 



salts of vegetables, why should we not suppose that 

 that very intense working of nitro-aerial and 

 sulphureous particles excited in the spleen should 

 suffice to volatilise the fixed, or rather the nitrous, 

 salts of the chyle ? It tends in this direction also 

 that the saline-sulphureous particles in the spleen 

 become somewhat burnt and sooty, as we have 

 indicated above. We might here also show that 

 fermentations of all kinds excited in the bodies of 

 animals come from the working of nitro-aerial and 

 saline-sulphureous particles, if this were not foreign 

 to our present subject. 



OF THE DISEA SES WHICH HA VE TO DO WITH 

 AmMAL SPIRITS 



From the hypothesis as to the nature of animal 

 spirits stated above, we can at once say in what the 

 animal economy consists, and also can give an explana- 

 tion of many diseases which have to do with the 

 motive function. 



For properly keeping up the animal life, it is first 

 of all necessary that the lungs should be in a healthy 

 condition, so that the nitro-aerial particles may be 

 transmitted in sufficient abundance into the mass of 

 the blood and intimately mixed with its sulphureous 

 particles. Hence, if the lungs are corrupted or even 

 wasting and flaccid, the mass of the blood will not be 

 properly fermented, on account of the deficiency of 

 nitro-aerial particles : and so, as the motive particles 

 of both kinds would be deficient, there would follow 

 extreme lowering of the powers, and weakness, and 

 consumption of the body. 



Further, in order that the animal function should 

 be properly carried on, it is necessary that the nitro- 



