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From the influence which these medicines exert upon the extreme vessels of the skin, they are also highly serviceable in various obstinate cutaneous affections, as Herpes, Lepra, &c.

As evacuating the serous part of the blood must necessarily have an indirect effect in promoting absorption, Sudorifics have been occasionally exhibited in Dropsy, especially in that form of the disease called Anasarca. It has been already observed that cases too frequently occur in which the discharge of urine cannot be increased by art; upon such occasions practitioners have sometimes had recourse to a trial of Sudorifics,^[165] but from the great difficulty which generally exists in exciting sweating in such affections, the indication has rarely been fulfilled. Where however a sudorific does succeed, it is less liable to debilitate than the other alternative of a drastic purgative.

There is still another point of view in which the therapeutic importance of Diaphoretics may be considered. It is generally acknowledged that by cutaneous transpiration a portion of excrementitious matter is ejected from the system; hence by the failure or imperfect performance of this function, a deleterious fluid is retained which may give origin to disease; to such a cause may perhaps be attributed the generation of Calculi, and other diseases of the urinary system, as we shall have occasion to notice under the head of Lithonthryptics.