to the belief that diseased excitement may be re- 
moved by causing a new and different excitement, 
though it may be even a morbid or at least an natu- 
ral one, in thesame part. And inthis way, those 
who entertain it, would account for the good effects 
of blisters in assuaging erysipelatous inflamma- 
tion: while others attribute this effect to their 
causing a direct evacuation of serum from the in- 
flamed vessels morbidly excited in that species of 
disease. The eflicacy of these remedies in remov- 
ing pain from the side when applied to it, in pleu- 
risy, has been attributed to an increased determi- 
nation to the surface, and in so doing, deriving 
morbid excitement from the pleura. Anciently 
they were supposed to convey out of the system, 
by their serous and puriform discharge, that 
morbific matter, or acrimony, which, according to 
the prevailing doctrines of the day, were the 
causes of disease within the body. As blisters 
had been observed to produce strangury: and as 
the internal use of cantharides is often character- 
ized by the same effect, it has been believed that 
their active principle is absorbed, taken into the 
course of the circulation, and by the change it 
effects in the blood, induces the healthful stimala- 
tion to the general system, which has been observ- 
ed often to follow their application. Many more 
hypothetical solutions of the mode of acting on 
the diseased system, have been suggested to ac- 
count for their curative, or alleviating effects. 
They have therefore been deemed stimulants act- 
ing by their rousing energy; evacuants, by their 
depleting power ; counter-stimulants, or irritants, 
by exciting new action to smother the old; revul- 
sives, by their determining morbid action to the 
surface ; antispasmodics by their relaxing cuta- 
“neous spasm ; cordials, in other words tonics, be- 
