INTUMESCENTIJE. 603 



have properly any diuretic power ; but the authority of the late 

 eminent and learned Werlhof cannot be declined. In the Com- 

 mercium literarium Norimbergense, Werlhof gives a remark- 

 able instance of the diuretic power of cantharides, and informs 

 us that he had frequently experienced the same in dropsy and 

 other diseases ; and upon such an authority I can no longer 

 doubt of the power in question. 



"It however may be considered, whether the obtaining the 

 diuretic effects of cantharides may not depend upon that admin- 

 istration of them which Werlhof employed. He gave a grain 

 of powdered cantharides for a dose, and repeated this every four 

 hours ; and it was only after the third dose, that a suppression 

 of urine, of many days standing, began to yield : and I will 

 give the rest of what relates to this subject in his own words, 

 Operum, pag. 699- ' Post tertium granum fluere urina parum 

 * grumosa sanguinolenta, dein pituitosa, tandem limpida coepit, 

 f cum dysuria. Continuavi, quia symptomata cetera statim 

 ' mitigata sunt, medicaminis usum, ad nonam usque dosin : quo 

 fc facto magis magisque, et tandem largissime ad plures in dies 

 ' mensuras, sine febre, dolore, prodiit urina limpida, imminutis 

 ' symptomatis omnibus, sensimque sola ejus remedii vftpgyi* 

 4 convaluit homo, jamque sanus vivit. 1 



" By accidental circumstances I have myself been prevented 

 from imitating this practice ; and I was less intent upon it, be- 

 cause Wichmann, the editor of Werlhof "s works, in a note on 

 this subject, observes that Werlhof himself did not continue the 

 use of cantharides in dropsy and other diseases. 



" All this, however, I thought necessary to lay before my 

 readers. 



" With respect to the whole of the Diuretic salts., it is to be 

 observed, in the first place, that as it seems to be determined by 

 the nature of the animal economy, that all saline substances re- 

 ceived into the mass of blood should soon pass out again by the 

 excretions, and particularly by that of urine, it will be obvious 

 that, as all saline matters are more or less stimulant, they 

 must all of them, in passing by the kidneys, be more or less 

 diuretic. 



" Accordingly their power in this way is a matter of com- 



