RETROGRADE SECT. XXIX. 5. 2 . 



farca of his legs, thighs, and hands, and confiderable tumour, 

 with evident fluctuation of his abdomen ; his pulfe was equal ; 

 his urine in fmall quantity, of deep colour, and turbid. Thefe 

 fwellings had been twice confiderably abated by draiVic cathar- 

 tics. He took three ounces of a deception of foxglove (made 

 by boiling one ounce of the frefh leaves in a pint of water) every 

 three hours, for two whole days ; it then began to vomit and 

 purge him violently, and promoted a great flow of urine ; he 

 was by thefe evacuations completely emptied in twelve hours. 

 After two or three months all thefe fymptoms returned, and 

 were again relieved by the ufe of the foxglove : and thus in the 

 fpace of about three years he was about ten times evacuated, 

 and continued all that tirr^e his ufual potations : excepting at 

 firit, the medicine operated only by urine, and did not appear 

 confiderably to weaken him. The lad time he took it, it had 

 no effect ; and a few weeks afterwards he vomited a great quan- 

 tity of blood, and expired, 



QUERIES. 



1. As the firfl fix of thefe patients had a due difcharge of 

 urine, and of the natural colour, was not the feat of the difeafe 

 confined to feme part of the thorax, and the fwelling of the legs 

 rather a fymptom of the obftrufted circulation of the blood, 

 than of a paralylisof the cellular lymphatics of thofe parts ? 



2. When the original difeafe is a general anafarca, do not the 

 cutaneous lymphatics always become paralytic at the fame time 

 with the cellular ones, by their greater fympathy with each oth- 

 er ? and hence the paucity of urine, and the great third, diftin- 

 guiih this kind of dropfy ? 



3. In the anafarca of the lungs, when the difeafe is not very 

 great, through the patients have confiderable difficulty of breath- 

 ing at their firft lying down, yet after a minute or two their 

 breath becomes eafy again ; and the fame occurs at their firfl 

 rifing. Is not this owing to the time necefTary for the fluid in 

 the cells of the lungs to change its place, fo as the lead to incom- 

 mode refpiration in the new attitude ? 



4. In the dropfy of the pericardium does not the patient bear 

 the horizontal or perpendicular attitude with equal eafe ? Does 

 this circumftance diftinguim the dropfy of the pericardium from 

 that of the lungs and of the thorax ? 



5. Do the univerfal fweats diftinguifh the dropfy of the peri- 

 cardium, or of the thorax ? and thofe, which cover the upper 

 parts of the, body only, the anafarca of the lungs ? 



6. When in the dropiy of the thorax, the patient endeavours 



to 



