The dropsy is a preternatural swelling of the whole body, or some part of it, occasioned by a collection of watery humour. It is distinguished by different names, according to the part affected, as the _anasarca_, or a collection of water under the skin; the _ascites_, or a collection of water in the belly; the _hydrops pectoris_, or dropsy of the breast; the _hydrocephalus_, or dropsy of the brain, &c. CAUSES.——The dropsy is often owing to an hereditary disposition. It may likewise proceed from drinking ardent spirits, or other strong liquors. It is true almost to a proverb, that great drinkers die of a dropsy. The want of exercise is also a very common cause of the dropsy. Hence it is justly reckoned among the diseases of the sedentary. It often proceeds from excessive evacuations, as frequent and copious bleedings, strong purges often repeated, frequent salivations, &c. The sudden stoppage of customary or necessary evacuations, as the _menses_, the hæmorrhoids, fluxes of the belly, &c. may likewise cause a dropsy. I have known the dropsy occasioned by drinking large quantities of cold, weak, watery liquor, when the body was heated by violent exercise. A low, damp, or marshy situation is likewise a frequent cause of it. Hence it is a common disease in moist, flat, fenny countries. It may also be brought on by a long use of poor watery diet, or of viscous aliment that is hard of digestion. It is often the effect of other diseases, as the jaundice, a scirrhus of the liver, a violent ague of long continuance, a diarrhœa, a dysentery, an empyema, or a consumption of the lungs. In short, whatever obstructs the perspiration, or prevents the blood from being duly prepared, may occasion a dropsy. SYMPTOMS.——The _anasarca_ generally begins with a swelling of the feet and ancles towards night, which for some time disappears in the morning. In the evening the parts, if pressed with the finger, will pit. The swelling gradually ascends, and occupies the trunk of the body, the arms, and the head. Afterwards the breathing becomes difficult, the urine is in small quantity, and the thirst great; the body is bound, and the perspiration is greatly obstructed. To these succeed torpor, heaviness, a slow wasting fever, and a troublesome cough. This last is generally a fatal symptom, as it shews that the lungs are affected. In an _ascites_, besides the above symptoms, there is a swelling of the belly, and often a fluctuation, which may be perceived by striking the belly on one side, and laying the palm of the hand on the opposite. This may be distinguished from a _tympany_ by the weight of the swelling, as well as by the fluctuation. When the _anasarca_ and _ascites_ are combined, the case is very dangerous. Even a simple _ascites_ seldom admits of a radical cure. Almost all that can be done is, to let off the water by tapping, which seldom affords more than a temporary relief.