HYDROTHORAX.
§ 18. Under this name I also include the dropsy of the pericardium.
The intermitting pulse, and pain in the arms, sufficiently distinguish this disease from asthma, and from anasarcous lungs.
It is very universally cured by the Digitalis.
§ 19. I lately met with two cases which had been considered and treated as angina pectoris. They both appeared to me to be cases of hydrothorax. One subject was a clergyman, whose strength had been so compleatly exhausted by the continuance of the disease, and the attempts to relieve it, that he did not survive many days. The other was a lady, whose time of life made me suspect effusion. I directed her to take small doses of the pulv. Digitalis, which in eight days removed all her complaints. This happened six months ago, and she remains perfectly well.