(seq. 571)

564

Materia Medica

Diuretics

no harm. Lead sometimes produces the same effect, but the Digitalis
is not so usefull as that article in Hemorrhages. I think with Dr
Withering that Insanity has a greater connection with a serous affusion
than might be supposed, Epilepsy certainly is, we should therefore
suppose in many cases of Insanity our medicine would be usefull, and
accordingly it is often found to be so in one case of Puerperal Mania,
I affected a cure with it in the Pennsylvania Hospital. I used to
bring down the pulse in Mania by moderately nauseating doses
of Digitalis in the Mania occurring in young and Plethoric people
and when combined with fever and even where there is effusion the
Digitalis is highly proper, among the varieties of medicines that
have been proposed in Epilepsy Digitalis has also obtained a place,
however it has never made complete cure although it has often
proved verry beneficial and more especially in those cases where the pulse
was irretable [irritable], of the of Digitalis in Pulmonary Consumption
I have had but little experience. I have however employ’d it in the
Pennsylvania Hospital but without any benefit. I therefore think
it cannot produce any perminent advantage, it has it is true
alleviated the symptoms, but then the practice is a difficult one. In
Catarrh I have found it of much benifit, in one case which was