Page:Of the Gout - Stukeley - 1734.djvu/50

Rh  like, for the fierce vultur to prey upon his bowels, fortifys himself with the cold comfort remaining, of stoical apathy. Nullus dubito (says he) ''prudentissimos quosque eorum, qui cum hoc morbo diu conflixere, de omnimoda curatione desperantes, Choro qui istius dramatis (sc. Luciani Tragopodagra) catastrophen facit, suffragaturos. Lenem O obique gentium celebrata afferas nobis dolorem, O podagra, levem, facilem, non acutum, brevem, haud sœvientem, &c. Hippocrates'' the father of the greek medicin says the inflammation ceases in 40 days. This we would suffer contentedly, were it but a single decumbiture in a man's life. But alas in our clime, 'tis not content with that allowance, and even then will make but short intervals, before it repeats its unwelcome visit.

If we examin curiously into nature's arts, in forming the bodys of animals, which are design'd for motion and action, we may remark, one of them provides for the slipperyness of every part, where any motion is performed. This is in order to prevent grating, heat and friction. Thus the membranes that cover the inner cavity of the chest, and belly, which we call pleura and peritonœum, the membrane that incloses the heart call'd pericardium, are altogether glandular; the one to favor the ceaseless motion of the lungs, the other the