Anatomy and Contemplation

created nausea and almost vomiting. I also immersed small fragments of white chalk into the vinegar, and I discovered that the particles of chalk in the vinegar excited just as great an effervescence with bubbles as if the crab stones had been immersed, and also that the sharp parts of the vinegar created an equal number of saline particles to that which I said before I had observed in the crab stones, and at the same time all acid flavor had completely vanished.

These experiments confirmed my opinion which I had hitherto cherished concerning saline particles: Namely, that from the many subtle and sharp saline particles existing in many liquids, when they enter our stomach and are coagulated there, none or very few tend toward and are carried away into our bloody mass or other parts of our body. For if it were true that some saline parts contained in wine or vinegar were not concentrated and fixed in the stomach, or did not change their shape, then I would firmly persuade myself that they would produce intolerable pricking and pains in our blood and its vessels, or even bring about death: and furthermore, if this were true, it would have been possible for me to observe them at some time in sweat, blood, or urine, which has not happened: and this the more so, because the saline particles contained in vinegar and wine, when breathing moist air, are not only gathered and increased, but because I had never observed the said saline parts, once gathered together, or increased in size that could be noted, in any constitution of the air, whether moist or cold, to have passed back into watery matter, but rather made more rigid than our common salt, which dissolves with even the lightest moist and cold air into watery matter. I also believe that if the mentioned salts of wine and vinegar were not broken down and changed in the stomach, famous wine drinkers would also return urine and feces of the bowels smelling of wine; although I would not want to deny that there are found men whose stomachs and intestines lack such power of transmuting, which particles