TREATMENT. 509 



or a marked increase in the secretion of urine, when they may 

 be administered less frequently. 



When convalescence has been established, but considerable 

 systemic weakness and inappetence remain, benefit will often 

 be obtained from the administration twice daily of a ball com- 

 posed of thirty grains of sulphate of quinine, and from one to 

 two drachms each of powdered gentian and ginger. 



Local Apiilications. — In the local treatment of pneumonia 

 much benefit may be obtained by the employment of heat and 

 moisture through means of woollen cloths wrung from warm 

 water and retained around the chest for some hours daily. 

 When removed the parts ought to be well dried, and to avoid 

 the evil results of cooling had better be smartly rubbed with 

 soap liniment, or a compound of soap liniment and laudanum. 

 More active applications, as turpentine stupes, sinapisms, or 

 cantharides preparations, have by many been unhesitatingly 

 condemned as not merely worthless, but as likely to be pro- 

 ductive of evil results at any stage of the disease. 



Now, without entering into the vexed question of the mode 

 of operation of vesicants in such internal inflammations, I am 

 forced to acloiowledge, as the result of considerable experience, 

 that I have encountered many cases of these morbid actions in 

 the lungs and thoracic structures which have been much 

 benefited by vesication. The favourable action of these I have 

 in many instances observed in from twelve to twenty-four hours, 

 the number of the pulsations being lessened by one-third, and 

 the temperature lowered two and even three degrees. 



It is worthy of notice, that those cases of pneumonia which 

 are of the secondary character, or owe their existence to 

 epizootic causes, are exceedingly obnoxious to blood-letting or 

 other depletive measures ; and that there is nothing so sure as 

 that if we bleed and give purgatives, so will we greatly increase 

 the fatality from the disease, while those which may survive are 

 almost certain to make an indifferent recovery. 



