contagion a great quantity of the humors; to partake of its own quality. So that beginning with our oyls upon the first attack, extinguishes the spark, before it makes the conflagration extensive. In an ordinary fitt of the gout, we observe plainly, it takes several hours to raise the pain and swelling to a considerable height. And those who have succeeded with the moxa, let out at first this fiery and contagious drop, and thereby cut off its beginnings. And this must be done in using the oyls. Whether these oyls act further beneficially, after having deaden'd its violence, by carrying it back into the habit, and thence forwarding its extermination, thro' the cuticular glands of the whole body; we may perhaps not without reason imagin: for the very breath and the pores of the body shall smell strong of them, after properly using. Or perhaps it may prepare that matter to be sent off by the excretory ducts of the kidneys in urine. But if this use of them does not act by promoting any sensible or insensible excretion, only by extinguishing the matter of nature's crisis pro hac vice tantùm: therein it differs not from the mode of operation, which we observe in the famous peruvian febrifuge. It performs the cure without any apparent evacuation, and for one turn only. These oyls may
