256 
CASE OF ANASARCA 
\ 
a considerable majority of the cases which have been entrusted 
to my care have recovered. But I have met with cases in which 
the change of food has caused the bowels to become rather con¬ 
stipated : this has been relieved by socotrine aloes, given in 
doses of a scruple to half a drachm, combined with the tartrate 
or supertartrate of potash and a few grains of powdered opium. 
In the more advanced symptoms, I have given digitalis, tartrate 
of antimony, acidulous salts, &c. without any apparent benefit. 
When diarrhoea has supervened, mucilaginous drinks or lime- 
water have been substituted for water; the decoction of oak bark 
has been given with prepared chalk, gum kino, or catechu, 
starch, opium, ammonia, &c. with similar results. 
In those patients that died of anasarca which I have dissected, 
the morbid appearances were, a yellowness and laxity of the mus¬ 
cular fibre, with an effusion into the cellular membrane, which 
appeared to be a mixture of lymph and serum. The pericar¬ 
dium and pleurse were also thickened with a similar effusion, 
which nearly collapsed the lungs, and impeded the action of the 
heart. The same adventitious deposit pervaded the abdomen, 
which rendered it difficult to distinguish the original structure of 
the omentum, mesentery, and peritoneum. In one subject the 
kidneys were destroyed, which is the only visceral change that I 
have observed; but this was a protracted case, and the disorga¬ 
nization probably may be attributed to the free use of saline 
diuretics, combined with digitalis. 
CASE OF ANASARCA ACCOMPANIED BY ASCITES. 
By the same. 
The subject of these attacks was an aged brown carriage- 
horse, which I attended on the 6th of January, 1832. The symp¬ 
toms, oedema in the sheath, throat, lips, and legs; the pulse 
feeble ; the membranes of the mouth, nose, and eyes, pallid; the 
skin dry, and hair staring; accompanied with loss of appetite. 
On inquiry, I learned that the horse had been very hardly worked 
previous to his illness (which had continued about a fortnight), 
and that the blacksmith had bled and physicked him. These 
facts tended, in some measure, to corroborate the impression that 
the oedema was the effect of debility ; and I ordered the horse to 
be put into a box, to have his sheath fomented with the decoc¬ 
tion of oak-bark, and to be supported by a towel put underneath 
it, and fastened upon the back; his legs to be hand-rubbed, and 
then bandaged ; carrots to be given him once a-day, while he was 
