eated to 120
or 130 degrees, which would probably excite a great general diaphoresis,
and a general cellular absorption both from the lungs and every other part.
And that air of so great heat may be borne for many minutes without great
inconvenience was shewn by the experiments made in heated rooms by Dr.
Fordyce and others. Philos. Trans.

Another experiment of using warmth in anasarca, or in other diseases, might
be by immersing the patient in warm air, or in warm steam, received into an
oil-skin bag, or bathing-tub of tin, so managed, that the current of warm
air or steam should pass round and cover the whole of the body except the
head, which might not be exposed to it; and thus the absorbents of the
lungs might be induced to act more powerfully by sympathy with the skin,
and not by the stimulus of heat. See Uses of Warm Bath, Art. II. 2. 2. 1.

IV. 1. Venous absorption. Cellary, water-cresses, cabbages, and many other
vegetables of the Class Tetradynamia, do not increase the heat of the body
(except those whose acrimony approaches to corrosion), and hence they seem
alone, or principally, to act on the venous system; the extremities of
which we have shewn are absorbents of the red blood, after it has passed
the capillaries and glands.

2. In the sea-scurvy and petechial fever the veins do not perfectly perform
this office of absorption; and hence the vibices are occasioned by blood
stagnating at their extremities, or extravasated into the cellular
membrane. And this class of vegetables, stimulating the veins to perform
their natural absorption, without increasing the energy of the arterial
action, prevents future petechiae, and may assist the absorption of the
blood already stagnated, as soon as its chemical change renders it proper
for that operation.

3. The fluids, which are extravasated, and received into the cells of the
cellular membrane, seem to continue there for many days, so as to undergo
some chemical change, and are then taken up again by the mouths of the
cellular absorbents. But the new vessels produced in inflamed parts, as
they communicate with the veins, are probably absorbed again by the veins
along with the blood which they contain in their cavities. Hence the blood,
which is extravasated in bruises or vibices, is gradually many days in
disappearing; but after due evacuations the inflamed vessels on the white
of the eye, if any stimulant lotion is applied, totally disappear in a few
hours.

A