The chief thing therefore is, how this Plant comes, by so slight a touch,
to create so great a pain; and the reason of this seems to be nothing else,
but the corrosive penetrant liquor contain'd in the small baggs or
bladders, upon which grow out those sharp Syringe-pipes, as I before noted;
and very consonant to this, is the reason of the pain created by the sting
of a Bee, Wasp, &c. as I elsewhere shew: For by the Dart, which is likewise
a pipe, is made a deep passage into the skin, and then by the anger of the
Fly, is his gally poisonous liquor injected; which being admitted among the
sensible parts, and so mix'd with the humours or _stagnating_ juices of
that part, does create an Ebullition perhaps, or _effervescens_, as is
usually observ'd in the mingling of two differing _Chymical saline_
liquors, by which means the parts become swell'd, hard, and very painfull;
for thereby the nervous and sensible parts are not onely stretch'd and
strain'd beyond their natural _tone_, but are also prick'd, perhaps, or
corroded by the pungent and incongruous parts of the intruded liquor.
And this seems to be the reason, why _Aqua fortis_, and other _saline_
liquors, if they come to touch the sensitive parts, as in a cut of the
skin, or the like, do so violently and intollerably _excruciate_ and
torment the Patient. And 'tis not unlikely, but the Inventors of that
Diabolical practice of poisoning the points of Arrows and Ponyards, might
receive their first hint from some such Instance in natural contrivances,
as this of the Nettle: for the ground why such poison'd weapons kill so
infallibly as they do, seems no other then this of our Nettle's stinging;
for the Ponyard or Dart makes a passage or entrance into the sensitive or
vital parts of the body, whereby the contagious substance comes to be
dissolv'd by, and mix'd with the fluid parts or humours of the body, and by
that means spreads it self by degrees into the whole liquid part of the
body, in the same manner, as a few grains of Salt, put into a great
quantity of Water, will by degrees diffuse it self over the whole.
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