115 [EMo- 
EMOLLIENTS, 
eee 
Mechanical remedies which soften and lubri- 
cate the skin, and thence extend their relaxing 
quality to the continuous and adjacent teguments, 
vascular and nervous structure. Their agency is, 
when ofa watery kind, promoted by a heat above 
62 of Farenheit, and under that exaltation which 
would cause the sensation of pain. The same ob- 
servation applies to bland watery mixtures as 
milk and water, flaxseed tea, barley water, and 
similar articles. But it is doubtful whether ad- 
ditional heat be requisite to ensure or enhance the 
emollient effect of oils or oleaginous substances 
er mixtures. Emollients may be water of the 
raised temperatures mentioned, or ina state of 
vapour, or even ina state of reduced temperature 
applied by dropping or pouring it from a distance, 
by what the French term douche. The pumping 
of cold water on an inflamed and rigid or sprain- 
ed joint has the same effect of softening the part, by 
the additional power of velocity, by which the 
parts are mechanically excited to a more healthy 
and equable action. Cullen’s explanation of this 
mode of applying water as an emollient, appears to 
me incorrect; and the insufficiency of bis theory of 
emollients generally, toexplain the action of mild 
cataplasms and fomentations, is plain. His theory 
stated. Dr. Paris attributes the tendency of these 
**to the relaxing effects of heat and moisture on 
the extreme vessels of the surface, propagated by 
: ge ad sympathy to the deeper seated organs.” 
