Having treated of swellings formed by hot humours, we shall now treat of those from the opposite, beginning with the œdema. For as erysipelas is formed by a bilious humour, so is œdema by a pituitous, being a loose swelling devoid of pain. We are aware also, that œdematous swellings occur in the feet, in dropsical affections, in phthisis, and in cachexia, but in them the œdema is a symptom of the complaint under which the person is labouring, and requires no very particular treatment; for it will be sufficient in general to rub the limbs sometimes with vinegar and rose-oil, and sometimes with oil and salts, or the salts may be added to the vinegar and rose-oil. When the œdema is occasioned by a pituitous humour being determined to the part, a sponge soaked in oxycrate may be properly applied with a bandage loosely put on, beginning below and terminating above. The sponge ought to be new, but if such a one is not at hand, that which is may be cleaned with natron, or more especially with what is called strained lye. If the swelling do not thereby subside, we may mix some alum. And a very convenient application is a tender wick of a lamp, soaked in such a fluid, and applied. A good remedy also is horned poppy. When the œdema has become chronic, having first anointed the part with oil, and then applied a sponge out of lye, bind it firmly, and you will effect a cure. Every kind of earth discusses and represses œdematous swellings, more especially the Ægyptian, and also the matured woad. * * * * * COMMENTARY. See Galen (ad Glauc. ii; de Tumoribus); Aëtius (xv, 1); Oribasius (Morb. Curat. iii, 51); Leo. (vii, 5); Actuarius (Meth. Med. iv, 16); Nonnus (251); Serapion (v, 23); Avicenna (iv, 3, 2); Haly Abbas (Theor. viii, 11; Pract. iii, 30); Alsaharavius (xxix, 13); Rhases (ad Mansor. vii, 12.) Our author’s account of this disease is taken from Galen, Oribasius, Aëtius, and, in fact, all the Greek, Latin, and Arabian authorities adopt his views, without any material alteration. They all concur in recommending cooling and astringent applications, with suitable bandages; and, in certain cases, friction. Rhases recommends that the limb should be buried in heated sand. He also approves of various cooling and astringent applications with bandages. In the translation of Alsaharavius, the œdema is described by the name of _apostema flegmaticum_; in those of Avicenna, Haly Abbas, and Serapion, by that of _undemia_. The celebrated Paracelsus used the term undemia for œdema. In some late works we have seen it stated that the undemia was a species of erysipelas, but this is evidently a mistake. SECT. XXVIII.—ON EMPHYSEMA.