uit some tender skins.
The bladder is then kept constantly filled with carbonic acid gas, by means
of a pipe in the neck of it; and the matter let out at a small aperture
beneath.

17. _Arthrocele._ Swelling of the joints seems to have its remote cause in
the softness of the bones, for they could not swell unless they were
previously softened, see Class I. 2. 2. 14. The epiphyses, or ends of the
bones, being naturally of a looser texture, are most liable to this
disease, and perhaps the cartilages and capsular ligaments may also become
inflamed and swelled along with the heads of the bones. This malady is
liable to distort the fingers and knees, and is usually called gout or
rheumatism; the former of which is liable to disable the fingers by
chalk-stones, and thence to have somewhat a similar appearance. But the
arthrocele, or swelling of the joints, affects people who have not been
intemperate in the use of fermented or spirituous liquors; or who have not
previously had a regular gout in their feet; and in both these
circumstances differs from the gout. Nor does it accord with the
inflammatory rheumatism, as it is not attended with fever, and because the
tumors of the joints never entirely subside. The pain or sensibility, which
the bones acquire, when they are inflamed, may be owing to the new vessels,
which shoot in them in their soft state, as well as to the distention of
the old ones.

M. M. Half a grain of opium twice a day, gradually increased to a grain,
but not further, for many months. Thirty grains of powder of bark twice a
day for many months. Ten grains of bone-ashes, or calcined hartshorn, twice
a day, with decoction of madder? Soda phosphorata?

18. _Arthropuosis._ Joint-evil. This differs from the former, as that never
suppurates; these ulcers of the joints are generally esteemed to arise from
scrophula; but as scrophula is a disease of the lymphatic or absorbent
system, and this consists in the suppuration of the membranes, or glands,
or cartilages about the joints, there does not seem a sufficient analogy to
authorize their arrangement under the same name.

The white swelling of the knee, when it suppurates, comes under this
species, with variety of other ulcers attended with carious bones.

19. _Caries ossium._ A caries of the bones may be termed a suppuration of
them; it differs from the above, as it generally is occasioned by some
external injury, as in decaying teeth; or by venereal virus, as i