The third Part of the Milk, which is serous, contains watry, gelatinous
and nitrous Particles; if Milk sowres and coagulates out of the Body,
the gelatinous Parts of the _Serum_, being somewhat thicker and more
earthy, change their Motion and Situation, and being more closely mixed
with the oily Particles, become that cheesy Substance we before took
Notice of. The Power of the _Serum_ is to be attributed to its watry
and abstersive nitrous Particles, by Means whereof it hath a Power
of deterging, consolidating, sweetning and tempering the Acrimony of
the Humours, and of increasing the Discharges by Urine and Siege;
it removes Obstructions in the Bowels, heals Ulcers, and corrects
the Sharpness of the Humours, in as much as it dilutes the acrid and
volatile Salts, and fixes them by means of its nitrous Particles. It
is of great use in feverish Heats, and by its alexipharmick Power is
much esteemed in malignant Fevers, so that its Virtue in the Gout
is less to be wondered at. In the Gout, the fixed morbid Matter
sticking in the small Canals, and the Interstices of the Membranes and
mucilaginous Glands, is very tough, viscid, sharp and austere; the
serous Particles of the Milk easily pass through and pervade those
Ducts and Canals, and by the watry Particles dilute those sharp Salts
and stagnating Humours, and partly imbibe and absorb them; so that
either by insensible Perspiration, Urine, or some other Discharge, they
send them forth of the Body. For this End they correct and break them
so as to make their Passage easier. It is observable, that the Salts
of the _Serum_ easily assimilate themselves to other Salts, and upon
this Account a difference of Food occasions different Milk. Goats that
have fed upon purging Herbs, Spurge or Scammony, as in _Syria_ or other
Countries where such Herbs grow wild, give Milk endowed with a strong
purgative Power; and Saffron frequently given communicates both its
Smell and Colour to the Milk.