In general, the removal of the hectic cause is followed by immediate melioration of the symptoms, even though the patient has been reduced to an almost moribund condition: the feeble hectic pulse of 120 or 130 sinks in a few hours to 90, and becomes more full and strong; anxiety and restlessness cease, and a patient sleeps soundly the first night after the operation, who for weeks had scarcely closed his eyes; the cold sweats and colliquative diarrhœa immediately subside, and the urine loses its sediment; in effect, all the hectic symptoms disappear, and are succeeded by such as indicate a marked improvement in the power and energy of the constitution; and the rapidity with which these changes take place is in many cases truly astonishing. Nourishing food, wine, tonics, &c., must be given, in the first instance sparingly, and afterwards gradually increased in quantity, according as the stomach can bear them; for it is not to be overlooked, that incautious and too liberal use of them may be productive of irretrievable evils, as the action of the system may be increased beyond its resources, in the same way as the imprudent application of stimulants to a part debilitated by an excessive degree of cold causes its sphacelation, in consequence of the arterial action induced being greater than what the power of the part can support. The mineral acids may be useful in checking the inordinate perspiration; opium, astringents, and absorbents, in arresting the diarrhœa; but all are of little avail unless the exciting cause is removed, and to this latter circumstance the attention of the practitioner ought therefore to be chiefly directed. It is not always quite safe, however, to free the patient at once of a great suppurating drain. Upon the healing up of extensive and long-continued ulcers, it is often necessary, in order to prevent oppression of and congestion in the viscera of the chest, abdomen, or head, to insert an issue or seton, and gradually withdraw it. In amputations also, more especially in patients above the middle period of life, to rid them of disease which has caused hectic and wasting, in consequence of profuse discharge, it is often advisable to keep part of the wound open, so that it may suppurate, heal, and dry up slowly.