f them, as in the other end of the urethra,
when a stone stimulates the neck of the bladder. And why inflammations
frequently arise in parts distant from their cause, as the gutta rosea of
drinking people, from an inflamed liver.

The inflammation of a part is generally preceded by a torpor or quiescence
of it; if this exists in any large congeries of glands, as in the liver, or
any membranous part, as the stomach, pain is produced and chilliness in
consequence of the torpor of the vessels. In this situation sometimes an
inflammation of the parts succeeds the torpor; at other times a distant
more sensible part becomes inflamed; whose actions have previously been
associated with it; and the torpor of the first part ceases. This I
apprehend happens, when the gout of the foot succeeds a pain of the biliary
duct, or of the stomach. Lastly, it sometimes happens, that the pain of
torpor exists without any consequent inflammation of the affected part, or
of any distant part associated with it, as in the membranes about the
temple and eye-brows in hemicrania, and in those pains, which occasion
convulsions; if this happens to gouty people, when it affects the liver, I
suppose epileptic fits are produced; and, when it affects the stomach,
death is the consequence. In these cases the pulse is weak, and the
extremities cold, and such medicines as stimulate the quiescent parts into
action, or which induce inflammation in them, or in any distant part, which
is associated with them, cures the present pain of torpor, and saves the
patient.

I have twice seen a gouty inflammation of the liver, attended with
jaundice; the patients after a few days were both of them affected with
cold fits, like ague-fits, and their feet became affected with gout, and
the inflammation of their livers ceased. It is probable, that the uneasy
sensations about the stomach, and indigestion, which precedes gouty
paroxysms, are generally owing to torpor or slight inflammation of the
liver, and biliary ducts; but where great pain with continued sickness,
with feeble pulse, and sensation of cold, affect the stomach in patients
debilitated by the gout, that it is a torpor of the stomach itself, and
destroys the patient from the great connexion of that viscus with the vital
organs. See Sect. XXV. 17.

* * * * *

SECT. XXV.

OF THE STOMACH AND INTESTINES.

1. _Of swallowing our food. Ruminating animals._ 2. _Action of the