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aggravate all syphilitic complaints , but they can be 

 tried, as touch -stone, in doubtful cases of that 

 morbid principle, which they generally awaken, if 

 dormant. I have seen them however stop chronic 

 and indolent blenorrheas , after the inflammatory and 

 painful period had ceased, when the gleet does not 

 proceed from strictures of the urethra, indurations of 

 the prostate and other organic disorders of the uri- 

 nary passages. 



They aggravate scorbutic affections, and accelerate 

 often the disorganization of abdominal scirrhous parts, 

 when too far advanced. They are in general dange- 

 rous in dropsy, though we have seen them succeed 

 in a few cases of anasarca, without visceral indu- 

 rations of too long standing. If a physician thinks 

 himself justified to try them in dropsical cases, 

 the utmost circumspection and very small doses are 

 necessary. The most delicate part of our practice is 

 to draw a line of demarcation, and to determine, 

 in abdominal diseases , whether the affected part is 

 already in a state of disorganization 5 and, where con- 

 sumptive and hectical symptoms have began, whether 

 the waters can be tried, or whether we must refuse 

 them to such individuals. I shall relate a most 

 remarkable case, where I tried them rather unwil- 

 lingly, following the axiom: Poiius remedium anceps 

 quam nuUum : 



An English lady, four and twenty years of age, 

 the last of a family swept off by consumption , had 

 enjoyed good health, till she married, in her seven- 



