Page:Of the Gout - Stukeley - 1734.djvu/53

Rh agreeable to the exigency of the whole and of each limb. This oyl and this mucilage he compares to the artifice of carters and coachmen, who make in imitation thereof a composition of grease and tar, with which they besmear the inside of the naves of wheels and the extremitys of the axis upon which they move. Without this their swift rotation and continued action would set them on fire, as well as wear them away.

This smooth composition is useful not only to the extremitys of the bones and cartilages upon their articulation, but to the ligaments likewise, the bandages that keep them together. It preserves them from dryness and rigidity, plyable and conform to all the variety of necessary action.

The glands are small and numerous upon every membrane about a joint: likewise upon some particular parts of a membrane, where 'tis convenient. And in the sinus's of the bones in the joints, these glandules are so conglomerated, as to form remarkable glands. In some of the large joints there is only one and large as in the acetabulum of the thigh bone: in some, as in the knee, there are 4 or 5. the fabrick of them consists in several membranes superstrated one over another, set thick with small round bladders, which not only lye con-