OF THE CURE OF
tm&ions of mufcles *, but alfo in removing recent rheumatic
pains from cold, where there was no fever ; nay, in older pains of
/
this kind, I have feen patients relieved, at leaft for fome time, by
this remedy. I order the cupping glafs to be applied to the pained
part and all round it, and let it flick each time three or four mi¬
nutes, or till it falls off. The fuélion is often fo ftrong as to occa-
fion fmall effufions of blood below the fcarf-fkin. The good ef¬
fects of dry cupping do not proceed folely from the pain it occa-
iions, which is not very confiderable ; but chiefly from the change,
it makes in the circulation of the blood through the fubcutaneous
parts : for, while the cupping glafs remains fixed, the blood which
tifed to be fent to the parts below, is, in a good meafure, derived
into the veffels of the membrana adipofa and fkin ; and, even for
fome time after, the motion of fluids through thefe parts conti¬
nues to be greater than ufual, on account of that irritation and
flight degree of inflammation which is generally occafioned by
cupping.
The cold bath is often ufeful in curing thofe convulfions which
go by the name of St Vitus's dance ; And cold water thrown on a
perfon labouring under the hydrophobia has enabled him, for fome
time, to drink pretty freely f. Was not this effedl owing to the
flrong impreffion made on the nervous fyftem by the cold water,
which, in fome meafure, deflroyed or leffened the unnatural fenfi-
bility of the nerves of the fauces and gullet ? For the inability to
fwallow liquids in the hydrophobia is not owing to a palfy of the
throat, as fome authors of great charader have thought, but fole¬
ly -to the difagreeable fenfation excited in the fauces and gullet, by
the touch of water and other fluids, which raife as great fpafms
, and
# A man, aged about 50, who had for many years been conftantly afflitfed with an al¬
ternate motion of the mufcles of his head and neck, found more benefit fiom dry cupping
along the back part of the neck and {boulders, than from any other remedy. It is true in¬
deed, the good effects of this application lafted only for a few days ; but, had the tiitar¬
der been lefs fixed, it is probable, that repeated cupping might have made a perfect cure.
■J* See Mead on poifons, edit. 5. png. 182* and Van Swieten. Comment, in Aphor, Boer®
haave, tom, 3. p, 576.