_First_, the very Nature of strong Purgers, makes against this Case, it seems very preposterous, to have recourse to such Deleterious Drugs, to those _Mortis Catapultæ_ (as _Ludovicus_ calls the _Esula’s_ and such like Purgatives) in Order to the Restoring an impoverish’d Blood; if they acted only by Stimulating the Intestines, something might be said; but since it is indisputable that they pass into the Blood, and act powerfully upon it, there is no doubt to be made, but they fuze and divide it, and break its Globules, and consequently make as much Water as they carry off, which is the very Reason why Sweating is laid aside, and Salivation, tho’ they both seem so proper to carry off Watery Humours; I know it may be alledg’d in Defence of these Medicaments, that the _36th_ and _37th Aphorisms_, of the _Second Section_ seem to imply, that a Sick Person would receive less Harm from ’em, than one that is in Health; but yet this will not excuse their Use in our Case, because tho’ the Viscousness of the _Serum_, may blunt the Particles of those Drugs for a time, and hinder ’em from working so quickly, yet when once they are throughly imbib’d, and begin to exert their Force, they ravage the very Principles of Life, and can by no means be fit for a Person in so low a condition. But admit that the Water is carry’d off by these means, the Blood will be left as poor at least as it was before the Dropsie first appear’d; and then how can we be sure the Waters will not rise again? Suppose an _Anasarca_ follows upon an _Hæmorrhage_, which is very common, and you draw off the Water by Purging; will not the Person be just in _Statu quo_, upon supposition that the Medicines in their working did not impair Nature? but that is not to be granted, because it is impossible to suppose, that such _Drastick_ Medicines, should not prey upon Nature, even while they are assisting her; and can we be assur’d that the Blood will not run into the same Colliquation it did before? Besides, may there not be some reason to suspect that the very quantity of the _Serum_, supposing it is not too Turgid indeed, may sometimes be serviceable, to the promoting the activity of the Diuretick, even as we find in the true _Ascites_, it is of some use in the Cavity of those Persons, because they often can’t spare it, without certain Ruine? We don’t know how much the confidence of the Fluid may conduce to the keeping its homogeneous Particles combin’d, and we ought to be very tender of doing any thing, that might tend to dissolve the _Crassamentum_, the Globules, which are as it were the very _Semen Sanguinis_ (if I may so speak); for how far Nature would endure such measures, before the Sanguification would be totally subverted, would require a Dissertation, longer than my Scope will permit; but that this is sometimes done is not improbable, and I take this to be the Case of a Young Fellow I knew, who falling into a slight Dropsie, goes to an _Empirick_ somewhere about _White-Chappel_,