In considering the different forms of external applications, it will appear that, for their extemporaneous construction, preparation, and application, the same scientific knowledge, practical skill, and pathological acumen will be required, as we have already stated to be so indispensably requisite to enable the physician to prescribe, and the pharmaceutist to prepare the various remedies intended for internal administration; although in regard to the former, it may be stated generally that the prescriber will more frequently be called upon to exercise that species of knowledge and address which enables the practitioner to impart a convenient and efficient _consistency_ to his remedy; for an external application is far more dependent upon this circumstance for its efficacy, than one intended for internal use. LOTIONES: Remedies of a liquid nature, designed for external application. Under this generic term, which strictly signifies a _wash_, may be comprehended several species of medicines, calculated for the fulfilment of different indications, as EMBROCATIONES, COLLYRIA, FOMENTA, LINIMENTA, &c. In some instances these applications are entirely local in their effects, as where a morbid action of the skin is changed by a stimulating lotion, as exemplified in the cure of Psora by the _decoction of Hellebore_, or the relaxed vessels of the tunica conjunctiva of the eye, by an astringent collyrium; in other cases, they operate upon parts not in contact with the remedy, through the medium of sympathetic communication, as where cholic and disorders of the bowels are abated by the application of warm fomentations to the surface of the abdomen, or where paralytic affections are relieved by pumping cold water on the part affected. EMBROCATIONES. These, as the term[307] denotes, are compositions of spirit, decoctions, infusions, or other liquids, applied by _sprinkling_ or rubbing them on an affected part.