Sec. 1. The anasarca is generally curable when seated in the
sub-cutaneous cellular membrane, or in the substance of the lungs.
Sec. 2. When the abdominal viscera in general are greatly enlarged, which
they sometimes are, without effused fluid in the cavity of the
abdomen; the disease is incurable. After death, the more solid viscera
are found very large and pale. If the cavity contains water, that
water may be removed by diuretics.
Sec. 3. In swollen legs and thighs, where the resistance to pressure is
considerable, the tendency to transparency in the skin not obvious,
and where the alteration of posture occasions but little alteration in
the state of distension, the cure cannot be effected by diuretics.
Is this difficulty of cure occasioned by spissitude in the effused
fluids, by want of proper communication from cell to cell, or is the
disease rather caused by a morbid growth of the solids, than by an
accumulation of fluid?
Is not this disease in the limbs similar to that of the viscera (Sec. 2)?
Sec. 4. Anasarcous swellings often take place in palsied limbs, in arms
as well as legs; so that the swelling does not depend merely upon
position.
Sec. 5. Is there not cause to suspect that many dropsies originate from
paralytic affections of the lymphatic absorbents? And if so, is it not
probable that the Digitalis, which is so effectual in removing dropsy,
may also be used advantageously in some kinds of palsy?