SECT. 2.
These Things premised, I shall next examine how it comes to pass that Milk is endued with this mighty Power; but it is necessary first to enquire concerning the genuine Cause of the Gout. All the Symptoms testify the first and nearest Cause to be some viscid, sharp Liquor, endued with some acid or lixivial corrosive Salt, more or less fixed; this Salt indeed occasions such a singular smart Pain, that it seems to be specifick. I think it not only acid, but also somewhat austere, from the different earthy, cheesy Particles it contains. Hence it fixes its sharp stiff Points in the Membranes, Tendons and Nerves, and more readily thickens and coagulates the lymphatick Juices. Where and how this Liquor that causes the Gout is generated, I shall explain in a few Words. First then the Stomach and Bowels, whether from too great an use of Wine or Women, or from too sedentary a Life, and want of due Exercise, or from the particular Disposition of the stomachick Juices, or from bad Diet, become so affected, that by Degrees the Digestion or Dissolution of the Food is lessened; the Chyle thence produced, becomes more thick and viscid than formerly; so that this Chyle, thus delivered into the Blood, renders its Mass thicker, and of Consequence the several Secretions of the Humours, as the Lymph, animal Spirits, the mucilaginous Juices about the Joints are more slowly performed; thus the Stomach and Bowels become more tainted, the stomachick Juices and those separated by the Glands of the Intestines become more viscid, and the Difficulty of Digestion is increased; Part of the Food turns to Flatulency, and viscid sharp Slime in the Bowels; Part of the Chyle becomes infected with a corrosive acid Salt thence produced, and being again thrown into the Blood, the Lymph and other Juices become infected with the same acid Salt, which gives Birth to many Distempers. It is observable these viscid Juices, thus stopped in their Progress, and infected with this noxious Salt, so as to be more liable to an intestine than a progressive Motion, are the most subject to Corruption of any in the Body, and to contract a Thickness, and Inaptitude to Motion. Such an Humour is the Lymph, and more especially the mucilaginous Juice separated in the Glands of the Joints, in order to keep them moist and smooth for Motion. If therefore a sufficient Quantity of these acid Salts be brought into the Mass of the Blood, or the Humours impregnated with them, be lodged about the nervous or tendinous Membranes, and there acquire so extraordinary a Tenacity or Sharpness, as to be coagulated, the Gout thence arises, as is evident both from Reason and Experience. That this may more evidently appear, I shall next explain the Figure, Situation and Structure of these Glands.