145 {Exe. 
aiford a mucts, this, as poured from the arteries 
into the follicles, being always a thin fluid, it may 
dilute the fluid in the follicles. and may make it 
to be poured out from these in a less viscid state, 
and may therefore be rendered more easy to be 
brought up by coughing. that is, to be more free- 
ly expectorated”—yet he does not ascribe any 
part of the coughing to the agency of the rem- 
edy, but deems it solely the natural effort of the 
lungs to disgorge their oppressive fluid. We are 
thas brought to his theory of the operation of ex- 
pectorants. And it is evidently a theory at direct 
variance with many of the definitions of the class 
by authors, and with the meaning assigned to it 
in the common parle of the profession. It is in- 
deed, rather than a theory to account for what he 
believes, one to render some attempt at a probable 
explanation of the belief of others. For his own 
part he circumscribes the operation of these reme- 
dies within a very narrow, but in my opinion a 
very proper sphere of action—simply, that ** they 
facilitate the bringing up the contents of the cavi- 
ty of the lungs.” After this concession to his ~ 
opinion, you need not be told, I do not believe in 
the specific agency of expectorants, or that I do 
_believe the chief of them act beneficially by a 
course widely remote from primary action on the 
lungs; by a course passing over numerous chords 
of sympathetic catenation, the vibrations of which, 
thus excited, are first and most sensibly perceived 
in other parts of the body than the lungs, which 
however they reach before their oscillations have 
ceased. Dr. Paris, notwithstanding he does not 
believe in the specific agency of expectorants, has 
attached too much importance to the class, by an 
analysis of the various modes by which ultimate- 
ly they act upon the lungs: an analysis which 
