It may be asked, How this Part of the Milk comes to be serviceable in the Gout, and other scorbutick Disorders? Because its Parts are slimy, chalky, and earthy, they gently temper the Acrimony of the Humours, and imbibe and absorb it; and this is the Reason why the Milk of Nurses who feed upon Acids, or whose Blood hath a Tendency that Way, soon turns; for such acid Particles being separated in the Glands of the Breasts, by coagulating and thinning the Milk, by separating from the other Particles of the Milk, and staying behind, are the Occasion that the Milk comes out unfit for Nourishment. SECT. 10. The third Part of the Milk, which is serous, contains watry, gelatinous and nitrous Particles; if Milk sowres and coagulates out of the Body, the gelatinous Parts of the _Serum_, being somewhat thicker and more earthy, change their Motion and Situation, and being more closely mixed with the oily Particles, become that cheesy Substance we before took Notice of. The Power of the _Serum_ is to be attributed to its watry and abstersive nitrous Particles, by Means whereof it hath a Power of deterging, consolidating, sweetning and tempering the Acrimony of the Humours, and of increasing the Discharges by Urine and Siege; it removes Obstructions in the Bowels, heals Ulcers, and corrects the Sharpness of the Humours, in as much as it dilutes the acrid and volatile Salts, and fixes them by means of its nitrous Particles. It is of great use in feverish Heats, and by its alexipharmick Power is much esteemed in malignant Fevers, so that its Virtue in the Gout is less to be wondered at. In the Gout, the fixed morbid Matter sticking in the small Canals, and the Interstices of the Membranes and mucilaginous Glands, is very tough, viscid, sharp and austere; the serous Particles of the Milk easily pass through and pervade those Ducts and Canals, and by the watry Particles dilute those sharp Salts and stagnating Humours, and partly imbibe and absorb them; so that either by insensible Perspiration, Urine, or some other Discharge, they send them forth of the Body. For this End they correct and break them so as to make their Passage easier. It is observable, that the Salts of the _Serum_ easily assimilate themselves to other Salts, and upon this Account a difference of Food occasions different Milk. Goats that have fed upon purging Herbs, Spurge or Scammony, as in _Syria_ or other Countries where such Herbs grow wild, give Milk endowed with a strong purgative Power; and Saffron frequently given communicates both its Smell and Colour to the Milk. SECT. 11.