49 {asr. 
Casesin which blood-letting must precede the use 
of astringents. Applied externally in hemorrha- 
ges, astringents are called styptics. ‘These are 
numerous, of ancient date, and some of them pow- 
erful and effective. Zs 
Astringents were formerly much used in dysen- 
tery, in which disease their efficacy has been stren- 
nously opposed by Cullen and others. They are 
inadmissible in this disease as it occurs in a 
variable and intemperate climate: under a tropical 
sun, they are useful, and proper in the second- 
ary stage, and under an intermitting type of fever, 
particularly the astringent tonics. — cr ee ee 
These remedies have been much at antili-- 
thics and certainly some of the class, though not 
those which are most conspicuously intense in 
their astringency, are serviceable in calculous af- 
fections, as the uva ursi. 
The most ancient employment of astringents, 
was most probably as a cure for intermtttent fe- 
vers: those of. the purest kind, do not appear so 
well calculated for this purpose. as those connect- 
ed with bitterness. Cullens’ opinion respecting the 
efficacy of the salts of iron, as astringents, in that 
“debilitated condition of the system, preceding 
- dropsy, considered. This practice at variance 
with the later received. pathology of that disease 
as taught by Rush and supported more recently by 
Ayre. The practice of exhibiting mineral as- 
tringents in solution, by injection, to check inor- 
dinate evacuations of the urethra, nearly obsolete, 
yeasons why dangerous. Vegetable astringents 
given in pyrosis, colliquative sweats of consamp- 
tion, and the wasting sweats of autumnal fevers, 
with benefit. Metallic astringent collyria, as of lead 
zinc and copper, used in certain kinds of op- 
thalmia with benefit; often injudiciously resorted 
: 1899. ae - 
