heart and vessels, when properly employed, and at the present time we understand more definitely the effects they produce, and their real uses in treatment. The application of cold over the præcordial region, by means of the ice-bag, has come into special pro- minence of late in dealing with acute pericarditis; and this method also exerts an important influence on the cardiac action, as well as upon aneurysm in certain cases. The treatment of symptoms associated with the heart and circulation, immediate or remote, as well as of the secondary morbid conditions resulting from cardiac and vascular diseases, has made considerable progress, and is now conducted on well-defined principles, though serious difficulties are still often met with in our attempts to deal with them.
7. The more direct therapeutics of the blood is a subject of extreme interest and importance, which has developed considerably in modern times. The chief object usually to be aimed at is to improve its quality and corpuscular richness in various anæmic conditions, and especially to increase the red corpuscles and hæmoglobin. For this purpose, not only are new forms and combinations of iron employed with much advantage, but other remedies have been found of essential value, notably arsenic. How far the administration of such agents as bone-marrow, dried blood, or certain of its constituents, are of real service is a matter of doubt, and at any
