And this I take to be the reason of killing of Toads, Frogs, Effs, and
several Fishes, by strewing Salt on their backs (which Experiment was shewn
to the _Royal Society_ by a very ingenious Gentleman, and a worthy Member
of it) for those creatures having always a continual exsudation, as it
were, of slimy and watry parts, sweating out of the pores of their skin,
the _saline_ particles, by that means obtain a _vehicle_, which conveys
them into the internal and vital parts of the body.
This seems also to be the reason why bathing in Mineral waters are such
soveraign remedies for multitudes of distempers, especially chronical; for
the liquid & warm _vehicles_ of the Mineral particles, which are known to
be in very considerable quantities in those healing baths, by the body's
long stay in them, do by degrees steep and insinuate themselves into the
pores and parts of the skin, and thereby those Mineral particles have their
ways and passages open'd to penetrate into the inner parts, and mingle
themselves with the _stagnant_ juices of the several parts; besides, many
of those offensive parts which were united with those _stagnant_ juices,
and which were contrary to the natural constitution of the parts, and so
become irksome and painfull to the body, but could not be discharged,
because Nature had made no provision for such accidental mischiefs, are, by
means of this soaking, and filling the pores of the skin with a liquor,
afforded a passage through that liquor that fills the pores into the
ambient fluid, and thereby the body comes to be discharged.
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