t; the sea-scurvy is
evidently caused by it in long voyages; and I suspect the scrofula,
and consumption, to arise in the young progeny from the debility of
the lymphatic and venous absorption produced in the parent by this
innutritious fossile stimulus. The petechiae and vibices in the
sea-scurvy and occasional haemorrhages evince the defect of venous
absorption; the occasional haemoptoe at the commencement of pulmonary
consumption, seems also to arise from defect of venous absorption; and
the scrofula, which arises from the inactivity of the lymphatic
absorbent system, frequently exists along with pulmonary as well as
with mesenteric consumption. A tendency to these diseases is certainly
hereditary, though perhaps not the diseases themselves; thus a less
quantity of ale, cyder, wine, or spirit, will induce the gout and
dropsy in those constitutions, whose parents have been intemperate in
the use of those liquors; as I have more than once had occasion to
observe.

Finally the art to improve the sexual progeny of either vegetables or
animals must consist in choosing the most perfect of both sexes, that
is the most beautiful in respect to the body, and the most ingenious
in respect to the mind; but where one sex is given, whether male or
female, to improve a progeny from that person may consist in choosing
a partner of a contrary temperament.

As many families become gradually extinct by hereditary diseases, as
by scrofula, consumption, epilepsy, mania, it is often hazardous to
marry an heiress, as she is not unfrequently the last of a diseased
family.

ADDITIONAL NOTES. XII.

CHEMICAL THEORY OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM.

Then mark how two electric streams conspire
To form the resinous and vitreous fire.
CANTO III. l. 21.

I. _Of Attraction and Repulsion._

The motions, which accomplish the combinations and decompositions of
bodies, depend on the peculiar attractions and repulsions of the
particles of those bodies, or of the sides and angles of them; while
the motions of the sun and planets, of the air and ocean, and of all
bodies approaching to a general centre or retreating from it, depend
on the general attraction or repulsion of those masses of matter. The
peculiar attractions above mentioned are termed chemical affinities,
and the general attraction is termed gravitation; but the peculiar
repulsions of the particles of bodies, or the general repulsion of