<^ DISEASES CLASS I. at. 3. 14; 



whence they are lefs at liberty to perform other offices, than to 

 the connexion of nerves mentioned in Seel:. XXIX. 5. 2. The 

 difficulty of fwallowing is owing to the comprefiion of the 

 cefophagus by the lymph in the cheft ; and the impoffibility o 

 breathing in a horizontal pofture originates from this, that if any 

 parts of the lungs muft'be rendered ufelefs, the inability of the 

 extremities of them muft be lefs inconvenient to refpiration j 

 fmce if the upper parts or larger trunks of the air-veflels mould 

 be rendered ufelefs by the compreffion of the accumulated lymph, 

 the air could not gain admitance to the other parts, and the ani- 

 mal muft immediately perifh. 



If the pericardium is the principal feat of the difeafe, the 

 pulfe is quick and irregular. If only the cavity of the thorax is 

 hydropic, the pulfe is not quick nor irregular. 



If one fide is more affected than the other, the patient leans 

 moft that way, and has more nurnbnefs in that arm. 



The hydrops thoracis is cliftinguifhed from the anafarca pul- 

 monum, as the patient in the former cannot lie down half a min- 

 ute ; in the latter the difficulty of breathing, which occafions 

 him to rife up, comes on more gradually ; as the tranfition of 

 the lymph in the cellular membrane from one part to another of 

 it is flower, than that of the eiTufed lymph in the cavity of the 

 cheft. 



The hydrops thoracis is often complicated with fits of con- 

 vulfive breathing ; and then it produces a difeafe for the time 

 very fimilar to the common periodic afthma, which is perhaps 

 owing to a temporary anafarca of the lungs ; or to an impaired, 

 venous abforption in them. Thefe exacerbations of difficult 

 breathing are attended with cold extremities, cold breath, cold 

 tongue, upright pofture with the mouth open, and a defire of 

 cold air, and a quick, weak, intermittent pulfe, and contracted 

 hands. 



Thefe exacerbations recur fometimes every two or three hours, 

 and are relieved by opium, a grain every hour for two or three 

 dofes, with ether about a dram in cold water 5 and feem to be a 

 convulfion of the mufcles of refpiration induced by the pain of the 

 dyfpncea. As in Clafs III. I. I. 9. 



M. M. A grain of dried fquill, and a quarter of a grain of 

 blue vitriol every hour for fix or eight hours, unlefs it vomit or 

 purge. A grain of opium. Blifters. Calomel three grains 

 every third day, with infufion of fenna. Bark. Chalybeates. 

 Pimhire in the fide. 



Can the fluctuation in the cheft be heard by applying the ear 

 to the fide, as Hippocrates aflerts ? Can it be felt by the hand or 

 by the patient before the difeafe is too great to admit of cure by 



the 



