Page:Of the Gout - Stukeley - 1734.djvu/64

Rh fans have upon us. And in the bite of the mad dog a proneness to anger is one of the symptoms, as Dr. Mead takes notice. He supposes that poyson to be fiery, saline particles thrown from the boyling blood into the saliva. He says, the dressing the wound of this poysonous bite with unguentum ægyptiacum scalding hot, and this alone timely apply'd has happily cured it. At the end of his account of poysonous minerals and herbs, he gives the indication of cure, such things as are of a smooth oily, lubricating substance. Thro' the whole course of his book, we find he assigns corrosive salts for the particles of infection and poyson. He makes animal juices of a fermentative, active nature, fiery and corrosive, and those of human bodies ranker and more abounding in active salts than those of other creatures, which are continually repair'd and nourish'd by the juices of animals. And I may reasonably add, that of those creatures juices, such are least corrosive and fiery as are nourish'd by vegetable substances only. But from the Doctor's reasoning much may be obtain'd to illustrate the nature of the gout, and much towards its relief and cure, its retardation or eradication.

In the cure of the gout, I likewise observe, mankind has very much insisted upon an an external