STRAINS. 85 



mation ; as they can only Gontribiite to the 

 very reverse of the general intention, by re^ 

 laxing the system they are employed to con- 

 tract. 



I can have no doubt (notwithstanding the 

 dictatorial manner in which instructions were 

 formerly conveyed, amounting almost to a 

 degree of infallibility) but the majority of 

 readers who condescend to ruminate at all 

 upon the subject, will instantly admit the 

 great probability of receiving a greater por- 

 tion of relief from active liquids, that, by 

 their volatile and {>enetrative power, (assist- 

 ed by frequent and industrious application) 

 rush immediately into contact with the seat 

 of pain, than from a compound of mere sim- 

 ples formed into elaborate poultices or cata- 

 plasms, that are prevented by the nature of 

 the parts, (as the hair, and thickness of the 

 skin,) from bringing so inactive a mass'into 

 effect, with parts requiring restringents of 

 much greater stimulus and penetration. 



St rams in the ligamentary parts are in ge* 

 neral occasionedby sudden jerks, short turns, 

 pr sinking in deep ground, and forcible.exer- 



