h a salt
brine, very perceptible to the taste; my gums, as well as those of
another person in my family, began to swell, and grow painful, though
this had never happened before; and I was seized with violent pains in
the joints of my knees. I was then at a country-house fronting the sea,
and particularly exposed to the marine air. The swelling of our gums
subsided as the wind fell: but what was very remarkable, the
scurvy-spot on my hand disappeared, and did not return for a whole
month. It is affirmed that sea-salt will dissolve, and render the blood
so fluid, that it will exude through the coats of the vessels. Perhaps
the sea-scurvy is a partial dissolution of it, by that mineral absorbed
from the air by the lymphatics on the surface of the body, and by those
of the lungs in respiration. Certain it is, in the last stages of the
sea-scurvy, the blood often bursts from the pores; and this phaenomenon
is imputed to a high degree of putrefaction: sure enough it is attended
with putrefaction. We know that a certain quantity of salt is required
to preserve the animal juices from going putrid: but, how a greater
quantity should produce putrefaction, I leave to wiser heads to
explain. Many people here have scorbutical complaints, though their
teeth are not affected. They are subject to eruptions on the skin,
putrid gums, pains in the bones, lassitude, indigestion, and low
spirits; but the reigning distemper is a marasmus, or consumption,
which proceeds gradually, without any pulmonary complaint, the
complexion growing more and more florid, 'till the very last scene of
the tragedy. This I would impute to the effects of a very dry, saline
atmosphere, upon a thin habit, in which there is an extraordinary waste
by perspiration. The air is remarkably salt in this district, because
the mountains that hem it in, prevent its communication with the
circumambient atmosphere, in which the saline particles would otherwise
be diffused; and there is no rain, nor dew, to precipitate or dissolve
them. Such an air as I have described, should have no bad effect upon a
moist, phlegmatic constitution, such as mine; and yet it must be owned,
I have been visibly wasting since I came hither, though this decay I
considered as the progress of the tabes which began in England. But the
air of Nice has had a still more sensible effect upon Mr. Sch--z, who
laboured under nervous complaints to such a degree, that life was a
burthen to him. He had also a f