5 o SORBENTIA. ART. IV. 2.3.9, 



great inconvenience was (hewn by the experiments made in 

 heated rooms by Dr. Fordyce and others. Philof. Tranf. 



Another experiment of ufing warmth in anafarca, or in oth- 

 er difcates, might be by immerfing the patient in warm air, or 

 in warm fleam, received into an oil-fkin bag, or bathing-tub of 

 tin, fo managed, that the current of warm air or fleam fhould 

 pals round and cover the whole of the body except the head, 

 which might not be expofed to it ; and thus the abforbents of 

 the lungs might be induced to aft more powerfully by 1'ympa- 

 thy with the fkin, and not by the flimulus of heat. See Ufes 

 of Warm Bath, Art. II. 2. 2. i. 



A warm faline pediluvium has often been ufed with fuccefs 

 to remove fwellings of the legs from deficient action of the ab- 

 forbents of the lower extremities ; the quantity of fea-falt fhould 

 be about one thirtieth part of the water* which with about one 

 eightieth part of fulphuric magnefian fait, called magnefia vitri- 

 olata, or bitter cathartic fait, conftitutes the medium flrength of 

 the fea-water round this iiland, according to the experiments of 

 Mr. Brovvnrig. In fuch a pediluvium the fwelled legs fbould 

 be immerfed for half an hour every night for a fortnight, at the 

 heat of about go or 98 degrees. 



Dr. Reid, in a Treatife on Sea-bathing ; Cadell and Davis, 

 London , recommends an univerfal warm-bath of fea-water, in 

 cedematous fwellings, apparently with great fuccefs, and well 

 advifes friction to be diligently ufed in the bath on the tumid 

 limbs, always rubbing them from their extremities towards the 

 trunk of the body, and not the contrary way ; as this mufl mofi 

 facilitate the progrefs of the fluids in the abforbent fyflem ; 

 though thefe veflels are furnifhed with valves to prevent its re- 

 turn. In thefe baths the flimulus of the fait is added to that of 

 the heat. See Art. II. 2 2. i. 



9. Another method of increafing abforption from the cellu- 

 lar membrane, which has been ufed in dropfies, has been by the 

 great or total abflinence from fluids. This may in fome degree 

 be ufed advantageoufly in fubjefts of too great corpulency, but 

 if carried to excefs may induce fevers, and greater evils than 

 it is defigned to counteract, befides the perpetual exiflence 

 of a painful thirft. In moft dropfies the thirfl already exifling 

 {hews, that too little diluent fluid, and not too much, is prefent 

 Jn the circulation. 



IV. i. Venous abforption. Cellery, watercrefTes, cabbages, 

 and many other vegetables of the clafs tetradynamia, do not in- 

 creafe the heat of the body (except thofe, the acrimony of which 

 approaches to coirofion, and hence they feern alone, or princi- 

 pally, to aft on the venous fyftem - ? the extremities of which we 



have 



