610 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



vent that cedematous swelling which much standing, and even 

 sitting, would have brought on. 



MDCXCII. These measures, however, although they may 

 be useful at the coming on of a dropsy, whose causes are not 

 very powerful, will be often insufficient in a more violent dis- 

 ease ; and such therefore will require more powerful remedies. 

 These are, exercise and tonic medicines ; which may be employ- 

 ed both during the course of the disease, and especially after 

 the water has been evacuated. 



MDCXCIII. Exercise is suited to assist in every function 

 of the animal economy, particularly to promote perspiration, and 

 thereby prevent the accumulation of watery fluids in the body. 

 I apprehend also, that it may be the most effectual means for 

 preventing the skin from being in an imbibing state ; and, as it 

 has been hinted above on the subject of emaciation (MDCVIL), 

 I am persuaded, that a full and large perspiration will always 

 be a means of exciting absorption in every part of the system. 

 Exercise, therefore, promises to be highly useful in dropsy; 

 and any mode of it may be employed that the patient can most 

 conveniently admit of. It should, however, always be as much 

 as he can easily bear : and in anasarca, the share which the ex- 

 ercise of muscles has in promoting the motion of the venous 

 blood, induces me to think that bodily exercise, to whatever de- 

 gree the patient can bear it, will always be the most useful. 

 From some experience also, I am persuaded, that by exercise 

 alone, employed early in the disease, many dropsies may be 

 cured. 



MDCXCIV. Besides exercise, various tonic remedies are 

 properly employed to restore the tone of the system. The 

 chief of these are, chalybeates, the Peruvian bark, and vari- 

 ous bitters. These are not only suited to restore the tone of 

 the system in general, but are particularly useful in strengthen- 

 ing the organs of digestion, which in dropsies are frequently 

 very much weakened : and for the same purpose also aromatics 

 may be frequently joined with the tonics. 



MDCXCV. Cold bathing is upon many occasions the most 

 powerful tonic we can employ ; but at the beginning of dropsy, 

 when the debility of the system is considerable, it can hardly be 



