Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. II

by Erasmus Darwin

M. M. Mucilage, as isinglass, hartshorn jelly, gum arabic. Ten grains of rhubarb every night. Callico or flannel shift, opium, balsams. See Class [I. 2. 3. 7].

[12]. Hæmorrhois alba. White piles. An increased discharge of mucus from the rectum frequently mistaken for matter; is said to continue a few weeks, and recur like the bleeding piles; and to obey lunar influence. See Class [I. 2. 1. 6].

M. M. Abstinence from vinous spirit. Balsam of copaiva. Spice swallowed in large fragments, as ten or fifteen black pepper-corns cut in half, and taken after dinner and supper. Ward's paste, consisting of black pepper and the powdered root of Helenium Enula.

[13]. Serum e vesicatorio. Discharge from a blister. The excretory ducts of glands terminate in membranes, and are endued with great irritability, and many of them with sensibility; the latter perhaps in consequence of their facility of being excitable into great action; instances of this are the terminations of the gall-duct in the duodenum, and of the salivary and lachrymal glands in the mouth and eye; which produce a greater secretion of their adapted fluids, when the ends of their excretory ducts are stimulated.

The external skin consists of the excretory ducts of the capillaries, with the mouths of the absorbents; when these are stimulated by the application of cantharides, or by a slice of the fresh root of bryonia alba bound on it, the capillary glands pour an increased quantity of fluid upon the skin by their increased action; and the absorbent vessels imbibe a greater quantity of the more fluid and saline part of it; whence a thick mucous or serous fluid is deposited between the skin and cuticle.

[14]. Perspiratio fœtida. Fetid perspiration. The uses of the perspirable matter are to keep the skin soft and pliant, for the purposes of its easier flexibility during the activity of our limbs in locomotion, and for the preservation of the accuracy of the sense of touch, which is diffused under the whole surface of it to guard us against the injuries of external bodies; in the same manner as the secretion of tears is designed to preserve the cornea of the eye moist, and in consequence transparent; yet has this cutaneous mucus been believed by many to be an excrement; and I know not how many fanciful theories have been built on its supposed obstruction. Such as the origin of catarrhs, coughs, inflammations, erysypelas, and herpes.

To all these it may be sufficient to answer, that the antient Grecians oiled themselves all over; that some nations have painted themselves all over, as the Picts of this island; that the Hottentots smear themselves all over with grease. And lastly, that many of our own heads at this day are covered with the flour of wheat and the fat of hogs, according to the tyranny of a filthy and wasteful fashion, and all this without inconvenience. To this must be added the strict analogy between the use of the perspirable matter and the mucous fluids, which are poured for similar purposes upon all the internal membranes of the body; and besides its being in its natural state inodorous; which is not so with the other excretions of feces, or of urine.

In some constitutions the perspirable matter of the lungs acquires a disagreeable odour; in others the axilla, and in others the feet, emit disgustful effluvia; like the secretions of those glands, which have been called odoriferæ; as those, which contain the castor in the beaver, and those within the rectum of dogs, the mucus of which has been supposed to guard them against the great costiveness, which they are liable to in hot summers; and which has been thought to occasion canine madness, but which, like their white excrement, is more probably owing to the deficient secretion of bile. Whether these odoriferous particles attend the perspirable matter in consequence of the increased action of the capillary glands, and can properly be called excrementitous; that is, whether any thing is eliminated, which could be hurtful if retained; or whether they may only contain some of the essential oil of the animal; like the smell, which adheres to one's hand on stroking the hides of some 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.

M. M. Wash the parts twice a day with soap and water; with lime water; cover the feet with oiled silk socks, which must be washed night and morning. Cover them with charcoal recently made red hot, and beaten into fine powder and sifted, as soon as cold, and kept well corked in a bottle, to be warned off and renewed twice a day. Internally rhubarb grains vi. or viii. every night, so as to procure a stool or two extraordinary every day, and thus by increasing one evacuation to decrease another. Cool dress, diluting liquids?

[15]. Crines novi. New hairs. The black points on the faces of some people consist of mucus, which is become viscid, and which adheres in the excretory ducts of the glands of the skin; as described in Class [I. 2. 2. 9]. and which may be pressed out by the fingers, and resembles little worms. Similar to this would seem the fabrication of silk, and of cobweb by the silk worm and spider; which is a secreted matter pressed through holes, which are the excretory ducts of glands. And it is probable, that the production of hair on many parts of the body, and at different periods of life, may be effected by a similar process; and more especially as every hair may be considered as a slender flexible horn, and is an appendage of the skin. See Sect. XXXIX. 3. 2. Now as there is a sensitive sympathy between the glands, which secrete the semen, and the throat, as appears in the mumps; see Hydrophobia, Class [IV. 1. 2. 7]. and Parotitis, Class [IV. 1. 2. 19]. The growth of the beard at puberty seems to be caused by the greater action of the cutaneous glands about the chin and pubes in consequence of their sympathy with those of the testes. But this does not occur to the female sex at their time of puberty, because the sensitive sympathy in them seems to exist between the submaxillary glands, and the pectoral ones; which secrete the milk, and afford pleasure both by that secretion, and by the erection of the mamulæ, or nipples; and by delivering the milk into the mouth of the child; this sensitive sympathy of the pectoral and submaxillary glands in women is also observable in the Parotitis, or mumps, as above referred to.