PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



cured by giving an opiate at the same time ; and for the utility 

 of this practice, See Dr. Mead on the subject of Dropsy. M. M. 



MDCLXXXV. It deserves to be particularly observed here, 

 that there is hardly any diuretic more certainly powerful than a 

 large quantity of common water taken in by drinking. I have 

 indeed observed above in MDCLVIII., that a large quantity 

 of water, or of watery liquors, taken in by drinking, has some- 

 times proved a cause of dropsy ; and practitioners have been 

 formerly so much afraid that watery liquors taken in by drink- 

 ing might run off into dropsical places and increase the disease, 

 that they have generally enjoined the abstaining, as much as 

 possible, from such liquors. Nay, it has been further asserted, 

 that by avoiding this supply of exhalation, and by a total ab- 

 stinence from drink, dropsies have been entirely cured. What 

 conclusion is to be drawn from these facts, is, however, very 

 doubtful. A dropsy arising from a large quantity of liquids 

 taken into the body has been a very rare occurrence ; and there 

 are, on the other hand, innumerable instances of very large quan- 

 tities of water having been taken in, and running off again very 

 quickly by stool and urine, without producing any degree of 

 dropsy. With respect to the total abstinence from drink, it is 

 a practice of the most difficult execution ; and therefore has 

 been so seldom practised, that we cannot possibly know how far 

 it might prove effectual. The practice of giving drink very 

 sparingly, has indeed been often employed ; but in an hundred 

 instances I have seen it carried to a great length, without any 

 manifest advantage ; while, on the contrary, the practice of giv- 

 ing drink very largely has been found not only safe, but very 

 often effectual in curing the disease. The ingenious and learn- 

 ed Dr. Milman has, in my opinion, been commendably em- 

 ployed in restoring the practice of giving large quantities of 

 watery liquors for the cure of dropsy. Not only from the in- 

 stances he mentions from his own practice, and from that of 

 several eminent physicians in other parts of Europe, but also 

 from many instances in the records of physic, of the good effects 

 of drinking large quantities of mineral waters in the cure of 

 dropsy, I can have no doubt of the practice recommended by 

 Dr. Milman being very often extremely proper. I apprehend 



