GALL, in the animal economy. See BILE.
A great number of experiments have been made upon the gall of different animals, but few conclusions can be drawn from them with any certainty. Dr Percival, however, hath shewn, that putrid bile may be perfectly corrected and sweetened by an admixture of the vegetable acids, vinegar and juice of lemons. These, he observes, have this effect much more completely than the mineral ones: and hence, he thinks, arises the great usefulness of the vegetable acids in autumnal diseases; which are always attended with a putrescent disposition of the bile, owing to the heat of the preceding summer. On this occasion he takes notice of a common mistake among physicians, who frequently prescribe elixir of vitriol in those diseases, where vinegar or lemon juice would be much more effectual.
From this effect of acids on the gall, he also thinks, we may see why the immoderate use of acids is so pernicious to digestion. It is necessary to health that the gall should be in some degree acrid and alkaline: but as acids have the property of rendering it perfectly mild and sweet, they must be proportionably pernicious to the due concoction and assimilation of the food; which without an acrid bile cannot be accomplished. Hence the body is deprived of its proper nourishment and support, the blood becomes vapid and watery, and a fatal cachexy unavoidably ensues. This hath been the case with many unfortunate persons, who, in order to reduce their excessive corpulency, have indulged themselves in the too free use of vinegar. From the mild state of the gall in young children, Dr Percival also thinks it is, that they are so much troubled with acidities.