disobedient to their natural
stimuli. Of those in daily use the great excess of common salt is probably
the most pernicious, as it enters all our cookery, and is probably one
cause of scrophula, and of sea-scurvy, when joined with other causes of
debility. See Botanic Garden, Part II. Canto IV. line 221. Spices taken to
excess by stimulating the stomach, and the vessels of the skin by
association, into unnecessary action, contribute to weaken these parts of
the system, but are probably less noxious than the general use of so much
salt.

II. OBSERVATIONS ON THE SECERNENTIA.

I. 1. Some of the medicines of this class produce absorption in some
degree, though their principal effect is exerted on the secerning part of
our system. We shall have occasion to observe a similar circumstance in the
next class of medicines termed Sorbentia; as of these some exert their
effects in a smaller degree on the secerning system. Nor will this surprise
any one, who has observed, that all natural objects are presented to us in
a state of combination; and that hence the materials, which produce these
different effects, are frequently found mingled in the same vegetable. Thus
the pure aromatics increase the action of the vessels, which secrete the
perspirable matter; and the pure astringents increase the action of the
vessels, which absorb the mucus from the lungs, and other cavities of the
body; hence it must happen, that nutmeg, which possesses both these
qualities, should have the double effect above mentioned.

Other drugs have this double effect, and belong either to the class of
Secernentia or Sorbentia, according to the dose in which they are
exhibited. Thus a small dose of alum increases absorption, and induces
costiveness; and a large one increases the secretions into the intestinal
canal, and becomes cathartic. And this accounts for the constipation of the
belly left after the purgative quality of rhubarb ceases, for it increases
absorption in a smaller dose, and secretion in a greater. Hence when a part
of the larger dose is carried out of the habit by stools, the small
quantity which remains induces costiveness. Hence rhubarb exhibited in
small doses, as 2 or 3 grains twice a day, strengthens the system by
increasing the action of the absorbent vessels, and of the intestinal
canal.

2. Diaphoretics. The perspiration is a secretion from the blood in its
passage through the capillary vessels, as other secretions are produced in