SECT. XXIX. 5. RETROGRADE ABSORBENTS. 377 



fame time, other branches of the lymphatic fyftem, 

 viz. thofe which open on the cellular membrane, 

 are brought into more energetic action, by the 

 fympathy above mentioned, and an increafe of their 

 abforption is produced. 



Hence repeated vomits, and cupreous falts, and 

 fmall dofes of fquill or foxglove, are fo efficacious 

 in this difeafe. And as draftic purges aft alfo by 

 inverting the motions of the la&eals ; and thence 

 the other branches of lymphatics are induced into 

 more powerful natural action, by fympathy, and 

 drink up the fluids from all the cells of the body ; 

 and by their anaftomofes, pour them into the lac- 

 teal branches ; which, by their inverted actions, 

 return them into the inteftines ; and they are thus 

 evacuated from the body : thefe purges alfo are 

 ufed with fuccefs in discharging the accumulated, 

 fluid in anafarca. 



II. The following cafes are related with defign 

 to afcertain the particular kinds of dropfy in which 

 the digitalis purpurea, or common foxglove, is 

 preferable to fquill, or other evacuants, and w r ere 

 firft publifhed in 1780, in a pamphlet entitled Ex- 

 periments on mucilaginous and purulent Matter, 

 &c. Cadell. London. Other cafes of dropfy, treat- 

 ed with digitalis^ were afterwards publimed by 

 Dr. Darwin in the Medical Tranfadions, vol. iii. in 

 which there is a miflake in refpect to the dofe of the 

 powder of foxglove, which mould have been from 

 five grains to one, inftead of from five grains to ' 

 ten. 



Anafarca of the Lungs. 



i. A lady, between forty and fifty years of age, 

 had been indifpofed fome time, was then feized 

 with cough and fever, and afterwards expectorated 



much 



