_December_ 8th. W---- B----, AEt. 60. A hard drinker. Diseased viscera;
ascites and anasarca. An infusion of Digitalis was directed, but it
had no other effect than to make him sick.
1779.
In the beginning of this year we had many dropsies in children, who
had suffered from the Scarlatina Anginosa; they all yielded very
readily to the Digitalis, but in some the medicine purged, and then it
did not prove diuretic, nor did it remove the dropsy until opium was
joined with it, so as to prevent it purging.--I did not keep notes of
these cases, but I do not recollect a single instance in which the
Digitalis failed to effect a cure.