3. The blood is as it were the complex of all things that exist in the world, and the storehouse and seminary of all that exist in the body. It contains salts of every kind, both fixed and volatile, and oils, spirits, and aqueous elements; in fine, whatever is created and produced by the three kingdoms of the world, the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral. Moreover, it imbibes the treasures that the atmosphere carries in its bosom, and to this end exposes itself to the air through the medium of the lungs.
