n, by their not being attended by increase of heat, which always
accompanies increased secretion. 2. They may be distinguished from those
fluids, which are the consequence of deficient absorption, by their not
possessing the saline acrimony, which those fluids possess; which inflames
the skin or other membranes on which they fall; and which have a saline
taste to the tongue. 3. They may be distinguished from those fluids, which
are the consequence both of increased secretion and absorption, as these
are attended with increase of warmth, and are inspissated by the
abstraction of their aqueous parts. 4. Where chyle, or milk, are found in
the feces or urine, or when other fluids, as matter, are translated from
one part of the system to another, they have been the product of retrograde
action of lymphatic or other canals. As explained in Sect. XXIX. 8.

SPECIES.

1. _Ruminatio._ In the rumination of horned cattle the retrograde motions
of the oesophagus are visible to the eye, as they bring up the softened
grass from their first stomach. The vegetable aliment in the first stomach
of cattle, which have filled themselves too full of young clover, is liable
to run into fermentation, and distend the stomach, so as to preclude its
exit, and frequently to destroy the animal. To discharge this air the
farmers frequently make an opening into the stomach of the animal with
success. I was informed, I believe by the late Dr. Whytt of Edinburgh, that
of twenty cows in this situation two had died, and that he directed a pint
of gin or whisky, mixed with an equal quantity of water, to be given to the
other eighteen; all of which eructed immense quantities of air, and
recovered.

There are histories of ruminating men, and who have taken pleasure in the
act of chewing their food a second time. Philos. Transact.

2. _Ructus._ Eructation. An inverted motion of the stomach excluding
through its upper valve an elastic vapour generated by the fermentation of
the aliment; which proceeds so hastily, that the digestive power does not
subdue it. This is sometimes acquired by habit, so that some people can
eruct when they please, and as long as they please; and there is gas enough
generated to supply them for this purpose; for by Dr. Hale's experiments,
an apple, and many other kinds of aliment, give up above six hundred times
their own bulk of an elastic gas in fermentation. When people voluntarily
eject the fixable air from their stomachs, the f