Page:Of the Gout - Stukeley - 1734.djvu/70

Rh call a fitt, she separates it continually in a certain equable tenor, till she has reliev'd her self as perfectly as she can. She does not separate it all at once, because she knows one joint cannot supply the remedy at one onset. The secretion of glands is a gradual thing and matter of time. This humor thus thrown out, according to my former theory, upon the oyl-glands of the joints, is extinguish'd by the oyl whether natural or artificial, as fast as it comes: if the oyl be sufficient in quantity. The humour is generally detach'd to the most distant joints of any considerable bulk, first. I gave a reason in the first part, why it so frequently begins with the great toe. When the area of one joint gives it not scope enough to display its colors, it retires to the next and so on, according to the quantity of its forces. And thus the tragedy becomes more or less extensive. Since the cruel pain is the only remedy in the ordinary way, nature is oblig'd to divide her tortures and quarter them upon different limbs, to save the life, which is her chief care. And as 'tis impossible that the joint-glands, in a great fitt of the gout, should instantaneously find oyl sufficient for a remedy, she is oblig'd to accomplish her purpose by long time; by bringing a huge afflux of blood and humors, to damp and quiet for a while, that