́ter the mercurials, I efteem these the most powerful anthelminthics.

To thefe fpecific anthelminthics, may be added, a variety of other remedies, recommended by feveral authors. These are, 1. Corallin, a fea mofs, or kind of plant; it is bitter and absorbent, and may be exhibited in powder, to half a scruple or one scruple. It may be alfo added to the oily potions abovementioned. 2. Prepared harts-horn, or the fhavings of harts-horn, in proper decoctions, 3. Worms reduced to powder are celebrated as a great fpecific by fome, but others fay this powder engenders worms. However, I would not recommend this remedy. The following waters are much in efteem for this purpose, viz. the water of purslain, that of fuccory, that of woodforrel, that of germainder, that of lemon juice, and that of dogs-grafs. The powder of harts-horn, or of corallin, may be added to these waters, or made into bolufes, lozenges, &c. Finally, garlic and fcordium are highly recommended; the former is an excellent remedy, and much in use among country people; the latter is alfo good, for

1

it approaches very much to the qualities of the former by its fiell, &c.

.

Befides all the foregoing remedies employed to kill worms, clyfters likewise are to be injected: these are of two forts, in the beginning fweet ones are used, to attract the worms into the rectum. They are made of milk, or a decoction of febeftens, fat figs, and currants, with the addition of fugarcandy, honey, &c. After the use of these, bitter clyfters are thrown up, as decoction of worm-wood, with an addition of hiera picra, or two drams of aloes; for these kill the worms, and I like very much this practice but you are to depend more upon the mercurials, efpecially the mercurius dulcis.

CHA P. XXIV.

Of the SCROPHULA, or KING'S-EVIL.

NOW we come to the univerfal diforders of children, which are the fcro

phula, rickets and marafmus. As to the fcrophulæ, they are tumours of the conglobate lymphatic glands of moft parts of the

body.

body. They become larger and harder than before; yet they are not fcirrhous, and all this without any fenfible change in the fkin, without redness, pain, or heat. As this disorder is in the lymphatic glands, the peccancy of the lymph must have given rife to it. They are very manifeft in the neck, arm-pits, groins, all the articulations, in the centre particularly of the mefentery, or pancreas afellii, in the lungs, brain, especially in the plexus choroideus; yet all the glands of each of the mentioned parts are not obstructed at the same time, but by degrees; so that fome are very small, whilft others, which were first obftructed, are of a confiderable volume, the whole resembling a bunch of grapes. From the bulk of a pepper-corn they fometimes grow to the bignefs of a pidgeon's egg. If the disorder be malignant, the bones become very often carious.

DIFFERENCES. The fcrophula are diftinguished, 1. into external and internal. When the internal glands, or those of the different vifcera above-mentioned are obstructed, the disorder is internal, and feveral other diseases follow, as dropfy of the breast and head, fluxes, colics, &c. The scrophula

are called external, if the above-mentioned glands of the neck, arm-pits, &c. are ob. ftructed. These the antients called emunctories, and thought that all the malignant humours of the body were discharged by them, as the virulence of the pox by the glands of the groin, &c. the virulence of a malignant fever by the parotids, &c. But all this theory is exploded, and has loft its credit. 2. A most important diftinction is from the state of the fcropulæ, which may be inflammatory fcirrhous, or fimple; for the glands may be hard as a stone, painful and red, or afflicted with a fuppuration, which continues very long in these glands, through the inactivity and mucilaginous quality of their contents. Finally, they may be carcinomatous, and the foft extremities of the bones may be affected, especially if the lymph be faline. Hence exoftofes, hyperoftoles, anchylofes, &c.

CAUSES. In order to understand the action of the caufes on the lymph, it will be neceffary to give a general idea of its circulation. The conglobate glands of the lymph, have naturally a globular form, each being divided into many cells, covered each

with

with its particular membrane, and the whole with a general one, almost like the lungs, and particularly the thymus. The lymph is conveyed to thefe organs by many small veffels, to which the glands ferve as fo many stages, or organs of conveyances, from which the lymph is exported by larger trunks. Rudbekius and Bartholinus were the discoverers of thefe veffels and organs; for the blood-veffels only, and these of the animal fpirits, were obferved before. The arterial extremities degenerate into lymphatics, and fecern this lymph, which is brought back into the mass of blood by lymphatic veins. Thus the lymph that is fecerned in the extremity of the foot, and about the heel, is depofited in the glands of those parts; whence larger, but fewer, lymphatic trunks rise, and convey the fame lympth to the knee, the number of the excretory lymphatics ftill decreafing, but their diameters augmenting in proportion, till they arrive at the glands of the groin. Thence the lymph is brought by the fame mechanism to the mesentery, receptaculum Pequeti, and fubclavian vein. The fame thing may be obferved in the hands, the lymph of the fingers and palm