608 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



I shall conclude this subject with observing, that as there are 

 so many cases of dropsy absolutely incurable, the practice now 

 under consideration may often fail, yet in most cases it may be 

 safely tried ; and if it appear that the water taken in passes 

 readily by the urinary secretion, and especially that it increases 

 the urine beyond the quantity of drink taken in, the practice 

 may probably be continued with great advantage : but, on the 

 contrary, if the urine be not increased, or be not even in pro- 

 portion to the drink taken in, it may be concluded, that the 

 water thrown in runs off by the exhalents, and will augment 

 the disease. 



MDCLXXXVI. Another set of remedies which may be 

 employed for exciting a serous excretion, and thereby curing 

 dropsy, is that of sudorifics. Such remedies, indeed, have been 

 sometimes employed ; but however useful they may have been 

 thought, there are few accounts of their having effected a cure ; 

 and although I have had some examples of their success, in 

 most instances of their trial they have been ineffectual. 



Upon this subject it is proper to take notice of the several 

 means that have been proposed and employed for dissipating 

 the humidity of the body ; and particularly that of heat exter- 

 nally applied to the surface of it. Of such applications I have 

 had no experience : and their propriety and utility must rest 

 upon the credit of the authors who relate them. I shall offer 

 only this conjecture upon the subject : that if such measures 

 have been truly useful, as it has seldom been by the drawing 

 out of any sensible humidity, it has probably been by their re- 

 storing the perspiration, which is so often greatly diminished 

 in this disease ; or, perhaps, by changing the state of the skin, 

 from the imbibing condition which is alleged to take place, into 

 that of perspiring. 



MDCLXXXVII. When by the several means now men- 

 tioned, we shall have succeeded in evacuating the water of 

 dropsies, there will then especially be occasion for our third in- 

 dication, which is, to restore the tone of the system, the loss of 

 which is so often the cause of the disease. This indication, in- 

 deed, may properly have place from the very first appearance 

 of the disease ; and certain measures adapted to this purpose 

 may, upon such first appearance, be employed with advantage. 



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