356 ON THE CURE OF DROPSY 



safe, but successful remedy in certain species of* dropsy, even 

 in ascites, where there was a fluctuation to be felt in the ab- 

 domen, depending perhaps solely on a relaxation and debility 

 of the whole system. As farther proofs of its good effects in 

 affections of this sort, I shall relate the two following cases. 



Case I. — John Maclaurin, aged fourteen years, son of a 

 poor Avoman in the town of Fcdmouth, on the north side of 

 Jamaica, from living by the side of a morass, had contracted 

 an intermittent, which lasted from August 1784, till April 

 1785, when it first degenerated into a remitting, and then in- 

 to a continued fever. He was rescued at length from this 

 dangerous state, by the skill and humanity of Dr Brown : 

 but after this fever had left him, he neither had appetite nor 

 recovered his strength. 



When I visited him about the middle of April, he was 

 very weak ; his face was pale and bloated ; his feet swelled 

 towards bed-time ; and his urine was scanty and highly col- 

 oured. 



From the duration of these fevers, I was at first led to 

 think that the hydropic symptoms were owing to visceral ob- 

 structions : I therefore ordered one grain of calomel, and 

 twenty drops of laudanum, to be given at going to bed. These 

 medicines were taken regularly for the space of a week, but 

 without success : for the anasarca became general ; the scro- 

 tum and penis were greatly distended ; the abdomen was 

 swelled, and there was a fluctuation of water in it to be felt. 



I now began to think that the opinion I had at first enter- 

 tained of the cause of the symptoms might not be well found- 

 ed, and that what I had at first ascribed to visceral obstruc- 

 tions might perhaps be merely the consequence of debility : 

 I therefore determined to vary the mode of treatment, and 

 to make trial of the blue vitriol, according to the following 

 formula : 



