54 SORBENTIA. Art. IV, 2. 6. 6* 



6. It fecms paradoxical, that the fame treatment with chalyb- 

 eates, bitters, and opiates, which produces menftruation in chlo- 

 rotic patients, fhould reprefs the too great or permanent men- 

 ftruation, which occurs in weak conftitutions at the time of life 

 when it fhould ceafe, This complaint is a haemorrhage owing 

 to the debility of the abforbent power of the veins, and belongs 

 to the paragraph on venous abforption above defcribed, and is 

 thence curable by chalybeates, alum, bitters, and particularly by 

 the exhibition of a grain of opium every night with five grains 

 of rhubarb. 



As fteel is foluble in the gaftric acid, perhaps the bell: way of 

 giving it may be in fine filings, or in a fleel-powder prepared in 

 the following manner : diflblve green vitriol in water, add a few 

 bits of iron to the folution, to precipitate any copper which 

 may be accidentally in it ; precipitate this folution by fait of tar- 

 tar, kali preparatum. Add to the precipitate two or three times 

 its quantity of charcoal powder, mix and put them into a cruci* 

 ble covered with a tile, and give them a red heat for an hour* 

 An impalpable powder of iron will be produced, which ought 

 all of it to obey the magnet* 



7. Metallic falts fupply us with very powerful remedies for" 

 promoting abforption in dropfical cafes ; which frequently are 

 caufed by enlargement of the iiver. Firft, as they may be giv- 

 en in fuch quantities as to prove ftrongly cathartic, of which 

 more will be laid in the article on invertentia ; and then, when 

 their purgative quality ceafes, like the effecl: of rhubarb, their ab» 

 forbent quality continues to atl. The falts of mercury, filver, 

 copper, iron, zinc, antimony, have all been ufed in the dropfy ; 

 either fmgly for the former purpofe, or united with bitters for 

 the latter, and occafionally with moderate but repeated opiates. 



8. From a quarter of a grain to half a grain of blue vitriol 

 given every four or fix hours, is faid to be very efficacious in ob- 

 ftinate intermittents ; which alfo frequently arife from an en- 

 larged vifcus, as the liver or fpleen, and are thence owing to the 

 deficient abforption of the lymphatics of that vifcus. A quarter 

 of a grain of white arfenic, as I was informed by a furgeon of the 

 army, cures a quartan ague with great certainty, if it be given 

 an hour before the expected fit. This dole he faid was for a ro- 

 bufl man, perhaps one eighth of a grain might he given and re- 

 peated with greater la fety and equal efficacy. 



Dr. Fowler has given many fuccefsfu.l cafes in his trcatife 

 on this fubjecl:. He prepares it by boiling fixty-four grains of , 

 white arfenic in a Florence flafk along with as much pure vegeta- 

 ble fixed alkali in a pint of diftilled water till they are diflblv- 

 ed, and then adding as much diftilled water as will make the 



whole 



