je SORBENTIA. Art, IV. 2. 3. 9, 



great inconvenience was fhewn by the experiments made in 

 heated rooms by Dr. Fordyce and others. Philof. Tranf. 



Another experiment of ufing warmth in anafarca, or in oth- 

 er difeafes, might be by immernng the patient in warm air, or 

 in warm fleam, received into an oil-fkin bagj> or bathing-tub of 

 tin, fo managed, that the current of warm air or fleam (hould 

 pafs round and cover the whole of the body except the head, 

 which might not be expofed to it \ and thus the abforbents of 

 the lungs might be induced to act more powerfully by fympa- 

 thy with the fkin, and not by the ftimulus of heat. See Ufes 

 of Warm Bath, Art. II. 2. 2. 1. 



A warm faline pediluvium has often been ufed with fuccefs, 

 to remove fwellings of the legs from deficient adtion of the ab- 

 forbents of the lower extremities - y the quantity of fea-falt fhould 

 be about one thirtieth part of the water, which with about one 

 eightieth part of fulphuric magnefian fait, called magnefia vitri- 

 olata, or bitter cathartic fait, conftitutes the medium flrength of 

 the fea-water round this ifland, according to the experiments of 

 Mr. Brownrig. In fuch a pediluvium the fwelled legs fhould 

 be immerfed for half an hour every night for a fortnight, at the 

 heat of about 90 or 98 degrees. 



Dr. Reid, in a Treatife on Sea-bathing °, Cadell and Davis, 

 London \ recommends an univerfal warm-bath of fea-water, in 

 cedematous fwellings, apparently with great fuccefs, and well 

 advifes friction to be diligently ufed in the bath on the tumid 

 limbs, always rubbing them from their extremities towards the 

 trunk of the body, and not the contrary way ; as this mud moft 

 facilitate the progrefs of the fluids in the abforbent fyilem ; . 

 though thefe veiTels are furnifhed with valves to prevent its re- 

 turn. In thefe baths the ftimulus of the fait is added to that of 

 the heat. See Art. II. 2. 2. 1. 



9. Another method of increafing abforption from the cellu- 

 lar membrane, which has been ufed in dropfies, has been by the 

 great or total abftinence from fluids. This may in fome degree 

 be ufed advantageoufly in fubjecls of too great corpulency, but 

 if carried to excefs may induce fevers, and greater evils than 

 it is defigned to counteract, befides the perpetual exiflence 

 of a painful third. In mofl dropfies the third already exiding 

 ihews, that too little diluent fluid, and not too much, is prefent 

 in the circulation, 



IV. 1 . Venous abforption. Cellery, watercrcflcs, cabbages, 

 and many other vegetables of the clafs tetradynamia, do -not in- 

 crezfc the heat of the body (except thofe, the acrimony of which 

 approaches to corrofion), and hence they feem alone, or princi- 

 pal to act on the venous fydem j the extremities of which we 



ha\ r o 



