OBSERVATIONS ON THE URINE. 77 



This action may sometimes be induced by cloths soaked in the 

 infusion being laid upon the abdomen.* 



As a sedative it requires great care, and, when the circula- 

 tion fails, the remedy should be remitted ; and though Sir 

 H. Holland thinks that doctors are too much afraid of the 

 intermittence caused by digitalis, I think it is a wholesome 

 dread, and that when this sign appears they should at once stop 

 the medicine, and have stimulants at hand in case of need. The 

 tincture in doses of 30 minims is of great service in nervous 

 palpitation, probably, I think, by inducing contraction in the 

 capillaries, and, by thus raising the arterial tension, restoring 

 the normal circulation. 



With just one word of warning, I will close this brief sum- 

 mary of the therapeutical applications of digitalis, and that is 

 to those who, thinking that there can be no danger in giving 

 digitalis to those with very weak hearts, and that indeed it is 

 the best thing for them to use it indiscriminately. I believe 

 that I have proved that it increases the force of the cardiac 

 pulsations ; but if, while the motor nerves were stimulating it 

 to contract, and the capillaries at the same time were opposing 

 a resistance, the fibres of the heart itself were not composed of 

 sound muscle, but were fatty and friable, some of them would 

 be pretty sure to rupture, and the results would be disastrous. 

 I therefore think that, in cases of fatty heart, great caution is 

 necessary in administering it. 



OBSEEYATIONS ON THE URINE. 



Within late years the attention of physicians has been turned 

 much more than formerly to the observation of the urine for 

 purposes of diagnosis, and physiologists have carefully noted 

 the changes it undergoes in various circumstances, for the pur- 

 pose of determining the way in which these circumstances 

 affect the interchange of material in the living body. 



Having lately made a very extensive series of observations on 



♦ Christison, Dispensatory. 



