These Things premised, I shall next examine how it comes to pass that
Milk is endued with this mighty Power; but it is necessary first to
enquire concerning the genuine Cause of the Gout. All the Symptoms
testify the first and nearest Cause to be some viscid, sharp Liquor,
endued with some acid or lixivial corrosive Salt, more or less fixed;
this Salt indeed occasions such a singular smart Pain, that it seems
to be specifick. I think it not only acid, but also somewhat austere,
from the different earthy, cheesy Particles it contains. Hence it fixes
its sharp stiff Points in the Membranes, Tendons and Nerves, and more
readily thickens and coagulates the lymphatick Juices. Where and how
this Liquor that causes the Gout is generated, I shall explain in a
few Words. First then the Stomach and Bowels, whether from too great
an use of Wine or Women, or from too sedentary a Life, and want of
due Exercise, or from the particular Disposition of the stomachick
Juices, or from bad Diet, become so affected, that by Degrees the
Digestion or Dissolution of the Food is lessened; the Chyle thence
produced, becomes more thick and viscid than formerly; so that this
Chyle, thus delivered into the Blood, renders its Mass thicker, and
of Consequence the several Secretions of the Humours, as the Lymph,
animal Spirits, the mucilaginous Juices about the Joints are more
slowly performed; thus the Stomach and Bowels become more tainted, the
stomachick Juices and those separated by the Glands of the Intestines
become more viscid, and the Difficulty of Digestion is increased; Part
of the Food turns to Flatulency, and viscid sharp Slime in the Bowels;
Part of the Chyle becomes infected with a corrosive acid Salt thence
produced, and being again thrown into the Blood, the Lymph and other
Juices become infected with the same acid Salt, which gives Birth to
many Distempers. It is observable these viscid Juices, thus stopped in
their Progress, and infected with this noxious Salt, so as to be more
liable to an intestine than a progressive Motion, are the most subject
to Corruption of any in the Body, and to contract a Thickness, and
Inaptitude to Motion. Such an Humour is the Lymph, and more especially
the mucilaginous Juice separated in the Glands of the Joints, in order
to keep them moist and smooth for Motion. If therefore a sufficient
Quantity of these acid Salts be brought into the Mass of the Blood,
or the Humours impregnated with them, be lodged about the nervous or
tendinous Membranes, and there acquire so extraordinary a Tenacity or
Sharpness, as to be coagulated, the Gout thence arises, as is evident
both from Reason and Experience. That this may more evidently appear, I
shall next explain the Figure, Situation and Structure of these Glands.