r 3°3 ] 
on the diaphragm, and a quick pulfe, with a little 
more heat than ufual. 
On the 1 8th of December, I faw her, for the fir ft 
time, with Mr. Mills, a furgeon at Greenwich, when 
flie related to me the above complaints, now much 
augmented, having a fenfe of fulnefs in that fide ( which 
was ready to burft, as file termed it) and an evident 
fluctuation in the right cavity of the thorax. But her 
left fide was free from complaint. She made very 
little urine, and that limpid. The expectorant 
medicines (blifter and cathartic) were adminiftred 
without the leaffc relief; her fymptoms gradually 
increafing. 
On the i ft of January 1763, fhe could breathe in 
no other fituation than that of the thorax brought for- 
ward to the knees, in which pofture fhe continued 
till the 30th of January, when finding the ribs ele- 
vated exceedingly, and the right fide of the thorax 
uniformly diftended, with every other reafon tending 
to confirm the notion of a fluid’s being lodged there : 
we, in company with Mr. William Sharp (whofe 
opinion we had, this day, requefled) propofed the 
operation to her, which the prefent preffure of her 
difeafe, and the little probability of her living long in 
that ftate, determined her to confent to. 
I, then, in prefence of Mr. William Sharp, furgeon 
to St. Bartholemew’s, and Mr. Mills, made an incifion, 
about four inches long, between the fixth and feventh 
ribs, (reckoning upwards)and about half way between 
the fpine and fternum into the cavity of the thorax, 
and difcharged from thence feven pints of limpid 
ferum. Immediately the difficulty of breathing was 
removed, buta faintnefs fucceeding feemed toendanger 
her 
