i84 M E M O IR S of the 
in that cafe the operation fliould not be performed ; for generally 
the Fifrera are corrupted. When you find it advilable to per- 
form this operation, cxtraft the water by degrees, and not all at 
once, elfe you endanger the patient's life 5 for fcarcely does one 
in a hundred efcape, that is otherwife managed. 
The true caufe of the dropfy Dr. "Prefton takes to anfe from 
the mechanical ftruaure of the parts, and the difpofition of the 
bloody which are, firft, the relaxation of the fibres and pores of 
the veffels, or the Vefiridte between the arteries and the veins 5 
or, fecondly, a compreffion of the vefTels^ for the Lymphatics 
take their rife from the membranes, which cover the muicles, 
fifcera-dnd glands; therefore, yfjhen the Feftc idee are too much 
ftraitned with ferofity, their fibres lofe their natural force, and 
become uncapable of expelling the too great quantity of water; 
but the VeficuU are daily more and more enlarged, till their 
fibres fuffer fo great an extenfion as even to break; from hence 
is the fource of thefe waters; it fometimes alio happens, that the 
pores of the faid VeficuU are fo widened, that the Lympha 
runs out into the cavity of the belly, or the interftices of the 
mufcles. The caufe from the difpofition of the blood, is either 
when it is too thin, or too vifcid ; too thin, that it paffes eafily 
thro* the pores of the veficles ; too vifcid, that it cannot pals 
thro' the capillary vefTels, and by confequence, it comprefles the 
adjacent parts and fo caules obftru6lions. 
^he Way of Cutting for the Stone in ^ the Kidneys ; by 
Mr. Charles Bernard. Phil. Tranf N° 223. p. 533. 
MR. Hohfon, who was Conful for the Englifo at Venice, hav- 
ing been lona affliaed with the ftone in the kidney, was 
at lenath attacked with a fit of that duration and violence, that 
it reduced him almoft to delpair; and finding no relief from any 
means that had been ufed, and being under the greateft extremity 
of pain imaginable, he addreffcd himielf to Qjomintcus de Mar- 
chettis, a famed and experienced phyfician at Padua, begging of 
him, that he would be picaied to cut the ftone out of his kid- 
ney, being pcrfuaded that there remamed no other method capa- 
ble of relieving him; adding, that he was not inienfib e of the 
danoer, but that death irfelf was infinitely more eligible than a 
life m that milery; Marchetti leemed very deiirous to have de- 
clined it, reprelenting not only the extreme hazard, bur, as he 
feared, the impraaicablenels of the operation; that it was wh:jt 
he had never attempted, and that to proceed to it, was in ehect 
to dcflroy him 3 but JMarchctti was at length prevailed upon by 
