460 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



This reasoning is intended to apply principally 

 to inflammation supposed to be accompanied by 

 an increased action in the vessels affected, and 

 not when these are particularly oppressed by 

 congestion. If the latter condition be imagined 

 to be present, vomiting will be beneficial, as the 

 efficacy of its operation is communicated to the 

 circulation and properties of the blood, improv- 

 ing the irregularity of the one and the deficient 

 stimulating agency of the other. 



DLXII. If we, for a moment, lay aside the 

 theories of inflammation, and also the considera- 

 tion of the manner in which different causes act, 

 that predispose to or excite dropsy, there are 

 two states of the system which co-exist with, or 

 characterize, the different species of this general 

 class of diseases, too important to be overlooked. 

 In the one, we have unequivocal symptoms of in- 

 flammation ; in the other, the absence of every 

 sign indicative of excited action. The former has 

 been proved to be most successfully treated by 

 those medicines and measures that lessen the 

 inflammatory action, such as by digitalis, squills, 

 and tobacco, and also by the frequent abstrac- 

 tion of blood. The latter, apparently depending 

 on manifest debility, has been prescribed for in 

 almost every possible way. In regard to this 

 the treatment is continually changing, as no par- 

 ticular line of practice has been discovered to 

 authorise the physician to persevere long with 



