INCITANTIA. A*t. II. 2. 2. 2. 



fyftem at the fame time that it ftimulates it, and caufes abforp- 

 tion more than exhalation. 



Thoie who have remained half an hour in a warm bath, when 

 they have previoufly been exhaufted by exercife, or abflinence 

 from food or fluids, have abforbed fo much as to increafe their 

 weight confiderably. Dr. Jurm found an increafe of weight to 

 1 8 ounces by lleeping in a cool room after a day's exercife and 

 abftinence, fo much in that Situation was abforbed from the at- 

 mofphere. But it has lately been obferved by Dr. Rollo and by 

 Dr. Currie, that fome patients did not weigh heavier after com- 

 ing out of the warm bath, and being wiped dry. From whence 

 we may conclude, that ihefe patients were not previoufly in a 

 ftate of inannition •, or that they had remained fo long in the 

 bath as to lofe fomewhat by the perpetual wafte of the fyftem 

 by digeftion, circulation, and fecretion. And certainly as no 

 wafte occurs by the ufe of the warm bath, this mult be the molt 

 harmlefs, confequently the mod falutary of all increafed ftimuli. 

 See Clafs I. 1. 2. 3. 



2. The effect of the paffage of an electric (hock through a 

 paralytic limb in caufing it to contract, befides the late experi- 

 ments of Galvani and Volta on frogs, entitle it to be clafled, 



^ongft univerfal ftimulants. Electric (hocks frequently re- 

 peated daily for a week or two remove chronical pains, as the 

 pleurodyne chronica, Clafs I. 2. 4. 14. and other chronic pains, 

 which are termed rheumatic, probably by promoting the abforp- 

 tion of fome extravafated material. Scrofulous tumours are 

 fometimes abforbed, and fometimes brought to fuppurate by 

 pailing electric (hocks through them daily for two or three weeks. 



Mils -, a young lady about eight years of age, had a 



f welling about the fize of a pigeon's egg on her neck- a little 

 below her ear, which long continued in an indolent (tate„ 

 Thirty or forty fmall electric (hocks were parTed through it once 

 or twice a day for two or three weeks, and it then fuppurated and 

 healed without difficulty. For this operation the coated jar of 

 the electric machine had on its top an electrometer, which 

 meafured the ihocks by the approach of a brafs knob, which 

 Communicated with the external coating to another, which 

 communicated with the internal one, and their diftance was ad- 

 justed by a fcrew. So that the (hocks were fo fmall as not to 

 alarm tixe child, and the accumulated electricity was frequently 

 discharged as the wheel continued turning. The tumour was 

 cnclofed between two other brafs knobs, which were fixed on 

 wires, which pafled through glafs tubes ; the tubes were cement* 

 in two grooves on a board, fo that at one end they were 



nearer 



