5. To Promote Absorption. With this object, bleeding has sometimes been used in dropsies; but it is almost never proper, unless in cases in which the dropsy is dependent upon vascular irritation or inflammation of the tissue affected; and, in such cases, it might be indicated independently of the effusion. The existence of the latter may, however, afford an additional inducement to bleeding, when it might not otherwise be deemed necessary. in the dropsy connected with acute inflammatory congestion of the kidneys, as in one of the forms of Bright's disease, the remedy is sometimes very useful. in oedema of the lungs it is very important, and should always be resorted to when suffocation is imminent, and the patient not extremely feeble. in ordinary dropsies, however, the system is in general so much debilitated, that bleeding could do only harm in the end, however much it might momentarily relieve by favouring the absorption of the effused fluid.