The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1826-08-30
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From the Boston Medical Intelligencer.1
DROPSY.

DROPSY.
"Then HydfoPs next appears among the
throng,
B!oated and big. she slowly moves along,
But, like a miser, IN excess she's poor,
And pines for thirst amid her watery store.n
Exploded ideas of practice are not al
ways known to be such by the general
ty of the profession, till many years af-
ter they have been relinquished by the
most observing and scientific, There
still exists among many physicians no.
tion that dropsical patient must be de-
MED every kind of liquid. This notion
is wholly at war with every principle
of homeopathic. Ii has been found in
consistent also with the results of prac-
iice, and is now very properly given
up.
There are indeed cases in which II is
necessary TO prescribe copious pota-
tons; such are, when free use of iiq-
uids fails 10 produce any diuretic effect,
or when they seem 10 increase the de-
gree, or aggraVate any symptoms of the
disease. SO also we may say of solids,
if they aggravate the disease they must
be abandoned, and we know not why
solid food is not as likely TO do this as
liquid.
Because the diseased secretion is
aqueous, ii does not follow that it will
be increased by water taken into the
stomach. Brandy does does not spirit
uaIize the blood, any more than ii does
the disposition. Beef does not solidifu
the body in proportion to the quantity
taken, any more than il does the char
acter. On the contrary, those persons
who are the greatest gormandizers, are
usually lean and spare, and the round
est, fullest, latest, most oily kind of
men, are often those who eat the least.
Neither is il correct 10 argue that the
blood becomes aquefed by large guam
tlly OF drink, or that diseased effusion
of water is increased by taking liquids
into the stomach. On the contrary, by
drinking freely, we stimulate the organs
by which the aqueous parts of the blood
are carried off from the system, and
therefore fulfil one of the principal and
most important indications in the cure
of all kinds of dropsy.
Not only do liquids act as diuretics in
cases of droPsical effusion, but .hey are
frequently advantageous in producing
other effects rendered desirable by the
peculiarities of each case. If, for ex-
ample, the disease seems to depend on
Inflammation, and free perspiration is
considered indispensable TO a cure,
warm drinks tend greatly to facilitate
the accomplishment Of this object, and
when interdicted by the old notion of
their increasing the eff'usion, this object
is often effected with great difficulty,
and not perhaps without the administra-
ton Of some Of those slimuIants which
are more injurious by their heating
qualities, than their diaphoretic effects
can he beneficial. II, also, we wish to
produce an increase of the .excre;ions
generally, and thereby relieve the sys-
tenn of its load, nothing so much as a
free use of proper liquids answers our
purpose here; for they promote the
action of The bowels as we'll as OF the
kidneys and the skin.
On the whole, then, we think it worth
publishing, that the REIMBURSEMENT of
the old theory is founded on true piinci-
Piles, and is not the result of love OF
change. 1t is justified by practice as
well as by reasoning.