Class I. 2. 3. 15. OF IRRITATION. $t 



the paracentefis ? Does this dropfy. of the cheft often come on af- 

 ter peripneumony ? Is it ever cured by making the patient fick 

 by tincture of digitalis ? Could it be cured, if on one fide only, 

 by the operation of puncture between the ribs, and afterwards 

 by inflaming the cavity by the admiflion of air for a time, like 

 the cure of the hydrocele ; the pleura afterwards adhering whol- 

 ly to that lobe of the lungs, fo as to prevent any future eitufioa. 

 of mucus ? 



I fufpecl the anafarca of the lungs, as well as the hydrops 

 thoracis, to be mod frequently difeafes of thofe membranes on- 

 ly, and not to depend on the general paralyfis of the abforbent 

 fvftem ; and that they are then not accompanied with fwelied 

 legs, till the patient becomes univerfaliy weak 5 and that they 

 iiave for their caufe a rheumatic or gouty peripneumony or pleu- 

 rify ; that is, that the lungs or pleura have been inflamed from 

 their (ympathy with fome other vifcus, and have depofited much 

 coagulable lymph on the furface of their inflamed membranes, 

 which could not readily become abiorbed, and has thus caufed 

 the dropfy of the cavity of the cheft, like the coagulable lymph 

 or chalky matter left after the gout and rheumatifm in other 

 parts ; or that the cellular membrane of the lungs becomes fill- 

 ed with a £uid from the prefent inaction of their abforbent vef- 

 fels, which had prevbufiy been excited too violently ; and that 

 the anafarca of the lungs is thus produced like the anafarca 

 which, frequently in weak conftitiitions, exiffs after the gout in 

 the feet and knees, and after rheumatic inflammations of the 

 joints. See Peripneumonia, Clafs II. 1.2. 4. whence it appears, 

 why the hydrops thoracis and anafarca pulmonum fo generally 

 occur in gouty co.iiftitutiocs. 



15. Hydrops ovarii, Dropfy of the ovary is another encyfted 

 dropfy, which feldom admits of cure. It is diftinguiihed from 

 afcites by the tumour and pain, efpecially at the beginning, oc- 

 cupying one fide, and the fluctuation being lefs diftinctly per- 

 ceptible. When it happens to young fnbjects k is lefs liable to 

 be miftaken for afcites. it affects women of all ages, either 

 married or virgins ; and is produced by cold, fear, hunger, bad 

 food, and other debilitating caufes. I faw an elegant young la- 

 dy, who was thortly to have been married to a feniible man, with 

 great profpect of happinefs ; who, on being overturned in a 

 chaife in the night, and obliged to walk two or three miles in 

 wet, cold, and darknefs, became much indifpofed, and gradually 

 afflicted with a fwelling and pain on one fide of the abdomen 5 

 which terminated in a dropfy of the ovary, and deftroyed her in 

 two or three years. Another young woman I recollect feeing, 

 who was about feventeen, and being of the very inferior clafs 



