This disease consists in the accumulation of fluid in a cavity of the
body, as the abdomen or belly, the chest, and ventricles of the brain,
or in the cellular membrane under the skin. As the treatment of the
several forms of dropsy requires that the same indications shall be
fulfilled,--viz., to equalize the circulation, invite action to the
surface, promote absorption, and invigorate the general system,--so it
matters but little whether the effusion takes place under the skin,
producing anasarca, or within the chest or abdomen. The popular
treatment, which comprehends blood-letting, physicking, and the use of
powerful diuretics, has proved notoriously unsuccessful. Blood-letting
is charged as one of the direct causes of dropsy: how then can it be
expected that a system that will produce this form of disease can ever
cure it? In reference to physicking, if the bowels are forced to remove
the excess of fluids in a short time, they become much exhausted, lose
their tone, and do not recover their healthy power for some time. Dr.
Curtis says, "May we not give diuretics and drastic cathartics in
dropsy? I answer, if you do, and carry off the fluids of the body in
those directions, as you sometimes may, you have not always removed the
cause of the disease, which was the closing of the surface, or stoppage
of some natural secretion, while you have rendered the patient liable to
other forms of disease, quite as much to be dreaded as the dropsy which
was exchanged for it." Mild diuretic medicines may, however, be given,
provided attention he paid at the same time to the lungs and external
surface. The kidneys, lungs, and external surface constitute the great
outlets through which the excess of fluids finds egress; and if one of
these functions be excited to dislodge an accumulation of fluid, without
the cooeperation of the rest, the excessive action is sure to injure the
organ; hence it is an injurious practice, and ought to be rejected.
_Causes._--Dropsy will occasionally be produced by the sudden stopping
of any evacuation; for example, if a diarrhoea be checked too
suddenly, it frequently results in dropsy of the belly. In pleurisy, and
when blood-letting has been practised to any extent, dropsy of the chest
will be the consequence. Exposure, poor diet, diseases of the liver and
spleen, want of exercise, and poisonous medicines are among the general
causes of dropsy.
_Treatment._--It is a law of the animal economy that all fluids are
determined to those surfaces from which they can most readily escape.
Now, instead of cramming down nauseous and poisonous drugs, with a view
of carrying off the fluid by the kidneys, we should restore the lost
function of the external exhalents, by warmth, moisture, friction, and
the application of stimulating embrocations to the general surface. The
following embrocation may be applied to the spine, ears, belly, and
legs:--
Oil of cedar, 1 ounce.
Oil of juniper, 1 ounce.
Soft soap, 1 pound.
A portion of the above should be rubbed in twice a day.