in the calculi analysed by
Scheel and Bergman. The waters of Matlock and of Carlsbad, both which cover
the moss, which they pass through, with a calcareous crust, are so far from
increasing the stone of the bladder or kidnies, that those of Carlsbad are
celebrated for giving relief to those labouring under these diseases.
Philos. Trans. Those of Matlock are drank in great quantities without any
suspicion of injury; and I well know a person who for above ten years has
drank about two pints a day of cold water from a spring, which very much
incrusts the vessels, it is boiled in, with calcareous earth, and affords a
copious calcareous sediment with a solution of salt of tartar, and who
enjoys a state of uninterrupted health.

V. 1. As animal bodies consist much both of oxygen and azote, which make up
the composition of atmospheric air, these should be counted amongst
nutritious substances. Besides that by the experiments of Dr. Priestley it
appears, that the oxygen gains admittance into the blood through the moist
membranes of the lungs; and seems to be of much more immediate consequence
to the preservation of our lives than the other kinds of nutriment above
specified.

As the basis of fixed air, or carbonic acid gas, is carbone, which also
constitutes a great part both of vegetable and animal bodies; this air
should likewise be reckoned amongst nutritive substances. Add to this, that
when this carbonic acid air is swallowed, as it escapes from beer or cyder,
or when water is charged with it as detruded from limestone by vitriolic
acid, it affords an agreeable sensation both to the palate and stomach, and
is therefore probably nutritive.

The immense quantity of carbone and of oxygen which constitute so great a
part of the limestone countries is almost beyond conception, and, as it has
been formed by animals, may again become a part of them, as well as the
calcareous matter with which they are united. Whence it may be conceived,
that the waters, which abound with limestone in solution, may supply
nutriment both to animals and to vegetables, as mentioned above.

VI. 1. The manner, in which nutritious particles are substituted in the
place of those, which are mechanically abraded, or chemically decomposed,
or which vanish by animal absorption, must be owing to animal appetency, as
described in Sect. XXXVII. 3. and is probably similar to the process of
inflammation, which produces new vessels and new fluids; or to that wh