CLASS I. 2. 3. 15. OF IRRITATION. 



paracenrefis ? Does this dropfy of the cheft often c< 



!peripneumony ? Is it ever cured by making the p 

 by tincture of digitalis ? Could it be cured, if on one fide only, 

 i by the operation of puncture between the ribs, and afterwards 

 by inflaming the cavity by the admiffion of air for a time, like 

 cure of the hydrocele ; the pleura afterwards adhering whol- 

 ly to that lobe of the lungs, ib as to prevent any future effuiioa 

 of mucus ? 



I fufpecl: the anafarca of the lungs, as well as the hydrops 

 thoracis, to be molt frequently difeaies of thofe membranes on- 

 fy, and noc to depend on the general paralyfis of the abforbent 

 fyilem ; and that they are then not accompanied with fwelled 

 kgs, till the patient becomes univerfally weak ; and that they 

 have for their caufe a rheumatic or gouty peripneumony or pleu- 

 rify ; that is, that the lungs or pleura have been inflamed from 

 eir fympathy with fome other vifcus, and have depofited much 

 agulable lymph on the furface of their inflamed membranes, 

 hich could not readily become abforbed, and has thus caufed 

 the dropfy of the cavity of the cheft, like the coagulable lymph 

 cr chalky matter left after the gout and rheumatifm in other 

 parts ; or that the cellular membrane of the lungs becomes fill- 

 ed with a fluid from the prefent inaction of their abforbent vef- 

 fels, which had previoufly been excited too violently ; and that 

 the anafarca of the lungs is thus produced like the anafarca. 

 which, frequently in weak conftitutions, exifts after the gout in 

 the feet and knees, and after rheumatic inflammations of the 

 joints. See Peripneumonia, Clafs II. 1.2. 4. whence it appears, 

 why the hydrops thoracis and anafarca pulmonum fo generally 

 occur in gouty conftitutions. 



15. Hydrops ovaru. Dropfy of the ovary is another encyfted 

 dropfy, which feldom admits of cure. It is diftinguilhed .from 

 afcites by the tumour and pain, efpecially at the beginning, oc- 

 cupying one fide, and the fluctuation being iefs diftinclly per- 

 ceptible- When it happens to young fubjects it is Iefs liable to 

 be miftaken for afcites. Jt affects women of all ages, either 

 named or virgins ; and is produced by cold, fear, hunger, bad 

 food, and other debilitating caufes. I faw an elegant young la- 

 dy, who was fhortly to have been married to a fenfible man, with 

 great profpeft of happinefs ; who, on being overturned in a 

 chaife in the night, and obliged to walk two or three miles in 

 wet, cold, and darknefs, became much indifpofed, and gradually 

 afflicted with a fwelling and pain on one fide of the abdomen j 

 which terminated in a dropfy of the ovary, and deftroyed her in. 

 two or three years. Another young woman I recollect: feeing > 

 was about feventeen, and being of the very inferior clafs 



