CLASS I. 2. 3. 14. OF IRRITATION. 89 



tensive sponge-like system of cells, which connects all the solid 

 parts of the body, may have its power of absorption impaired, 

 at the same time that some other part of it may still retain that 

 power, or perhaps possess it in an increased degree; and as all 

 these cells communicate with each other, the fluid, which abounds 

 in one part of it, can be transferred to another, and thus be re- 

 absorbed into the circulation. 



In the ascites, cream of tartar has sometimes been attended 

 with success; a dram or two drams are given every hour in a 

 morning till it operates, and this is to be repeated for several 

 days; but the operation of tapping is generally applied to at last. 

 Dr. Sims, in the Memoirs of the Medical Society of London, 

 Vol. III. has lately proposed, what he believes to be a more suc- 

 cessful method of performing this operation, by making a punc- 

 ture with a lancet in the scar of the navel, and leaving it to dis- 

 charge itself gradually for several days, without introducing a 

 canula, which he thinks injurious, both on account of the too 

 sudden emission of the fluid, and the danger of wounding or stimu- 

 lating the viscera. This operation I have twice known per- 

 formed with less inconvenience, and I believe with more benefit 

 to the patient, than the common method. 



After the patient has been tapped, some have tried injections 

 into the cavity of the abdcmen but hitherto I believe with ill 

 event. Nor are experiments of this kind very promising of suc- 

 cess. First, because the patients are generally much debilitated, 

 most frequently by spirituous potation, and have generally a dis- 

 ease of the liver, or of other viscera. And secondly, because the 

 quantity of inflammation, necessary to prevent future secretion of 

 mucus into the cavity of the abdomen, by uniting the peritoneum 

 with the intestines or mesentery, as happens in the cure of the 

 hydrocele, would, I suppose, generally destroy the patient, either 

 immediately, or by the consequence of such adhesions. 



This however is not the case in respect to the dropsy of the 

 ovarium, or in the hydrocele. 



14. Hy drops thoracis. The dropsy of the chest commences 

 with loss of flesh, cold extremities, pale countenance, high co- 

 loured urine in small quantity, and general debility, like many 

 other dropsies. The patient next complains of numbness in the 

 arms, especially when elevated, with pain and difficulty of swal- 

 lowing, and an absolute impossibility of lying down for a few 

 minutes, or with sudden starting from sleep, with great difficulty 

 of breathing and palpitation of his heart. It is often confounded 

 with anasarca pulmonem, which see. 



The numbness of the arms is probably owing more frequently to 

 the increased action of the pectoral muscles in respiration, 



VOL, ii. y 



