m DISEASES Class I. 2. 3. 1^ 



whence they are leis at liberty to perform other offices, than ta 

 the connexion of nerves mentioned in Sect. XXIX. 5. 2. The 

 difficulty of fwallowing is owing to the cotnpreffion of the 

 oefophagus by the lymph in the cheft ; and the impoflibility c£ 

 breathing in a horizontal pofture originates from this, that if any 

 parts of the lungs mult be rendered ufelefs, the inability of the 

 extremities of them m-uft be lefs inconvenient to refpiration ; 

 fince if the upper parts or larger trunks of the air-yeffels mould 

 be rendered ufelefs by the compreffion of the accumulated lvmph, 

 the air could not gain admitance to the other parts, and the ani- 

 mal muft immediately perifh. 



If the pericardium is the principal feat of the difeafe, the 

 puife is quick and irregular. If only the cavity of the thorax is 

 hydropic, the pulfe is not quick nor irregular. 



If one fide is more affected than the ofher, the patient leans 

 mod that way, and has more numbnefs in that arm. 



The hydrops thoracis is diftinguimed from the anafarca pul- 

 monum, as the patient in the former cannot lie down half a min- 

 ute ; in the latter the difficulty of breathing, which occafions 

 him to rife up, comes on more gradually ; as the tranfition of 

 the lymph in the cellular membrane from one part to another of 

 it is flower, than that of the effufed lymph in the cavity of the 

 cheft. 



The hydrops thoracis is often complicated with fits of con« 

 Vulfive breathing •, and then it produces a difeafe for the time 

 very fimilar to the common periodic afthma, which is perhaps 

 owing to a temporary anafarca of the kings 5 ■ or to an impaired 

 venous abforption in them. Thefe exacerbations of difficult 

 breathing are attended with cold extremities, cold breath, cold 

 tongue, upright pofture with the mouth open, and a defire of 

 Id air, and a quick, weak, intermittent pulfe, and contracted 

 hands. 



Thefe exacerbations recur fometimes every two or three hours, 

 and are relieved by opium, a grain every hour for two or three 

 dofesj with ether about a dram in cold water ; and feem to be a 

 convulfion of the mufcles of refpiration induced by the pain of the 

 dyfpncea. As in Clafs III. 1. 1. 9. 



M. M. A grain of dried fquill, and a quarter of a grain of 

 blue vitriol every hour for fix or eight hours, u-nlefs it vomit or 

 pure -. A grain of opium. Blillers. Calomel three grains 

 every third day, with infuiion- of fenna. Bark. Chalybeates. 

 Puncture in the fide. 



Can the fluctuation in the cheft be heard by applying the ear' 



the fide, as Hippocrates afTerts ? Can it be felt by the hand or 



;■•; fch< nt before the difeafe is too great to admit of cure by 



the 



