By some learned Men this is observed to be the _Endemical Distemper_ of _England_; and indeed our _Weekly-Bills_ at once declare both the Strength of the Disease, and the Weakness of the Medicines wherewith it’s Cure hath been hitherto attempted. Besides, that which seems to justify this Observation, is the pernicious Custom of the Inhabitants of this island, who immoderately and unseasonably indulge their Appetites with several sorts of Meats and Drinks, whereby the Tone of the Stomach is so vitiated, as that it cannot perfectly ferment and volatilize the Chyle, which is commonly the internal procatartic Cause of most Distempers among us, and consequently of _Consumptions_ from those Distempers, from whence comes a Colliquation of the Chyle in _Lienteries_ and _Dysenteries_, tormenting _Cholic_ and _Iliac_ Pains, hypocondriac Melancholly, hysteric Fits, scorbutic Twitches, troublesome Catarrhs, sluggish Passage of the Chyle thro’ the milky Veins, scrophulous Tumours and Inflammations of the mesenteric Glands, spasmodic Contractions or Convulsions of the Nerves, preternatural Fermentation of the Blood and Spirits, _Cachexies_, _Atrophies_, Obstructions, Fevers hectical, inflammatory and putrid, Exulcerations of the Lungs and _Marasmus_, with many other Diseases, whence come they originally and for the most part, but from the Weakness, ill Habit and Indisposition of the Stomach? Now the proper Action of the Stomach is Chylification; for tho’ the Meat we take into our Mouths receives some Alteration there in Mastication, by the fermenting Juice that flows from the salivatory Glands, together with the acrimonious Particles, and fermentaceous Spirits of Liquors which we drink, yet it is not turned into a thick white Juice, ’till it hath passed down thro’ the _Oesophagus_, or Gullet, into the Stomach, where by the help of it’s Fibres it is closely embraced, and mixed with specific fermentaceous Juices, separated by it’s inner Coat, and impregnated by the Saliva, then by a convenient Heat there is made a mixture of all; for that the fermentaceous Particles entering into the Pores of the Meat, do pass thro’ agitate and eliquate it’s Particles, dissolving the whole _Compages_, in which the purer parts were intimately united with the Crass, and making them more fluid, so that they make another form of Mixture, and unite among themselves into the resemblance of a milky Cream, after which together with the thicker Mass with which they are yet involved, by the Constriction of the Stomach they pass down to the Guts, where by the Mixture of the Bile and Pancreatic Juice they are by another manner of Fermentation quite separated from the thicker Mass, and so are received by the Lacteal Vessels, as the thicker is ejected by Stool.