smell of it could be discovered. A man, having a pain in his side, was electrified by this cylinder: he went home, fell asleep, sweated, and dispersed the power of the balsam. His clothes, bed, chamber, all scented of it. When refreshed by sleep, he combed his head, and found the balsam lodged in the hair, so that the very comb was perfumed. The next day Sig. Pivati electrified a man in health, after the same manner, who was ignorant of what had been done before. On this man going into company half an hour afterwards, he found a warmth gradually diffusing itself through his whole body. He became more lively and cheerful than usual. The company were surprised at an odour, which they could not account for; but the man himself perceived that the perfume arose from his own body, and with equal surprise, not being aware that it was owing to the operation that had been performed on him. Being struck with so extraordinary an account, M. Winkler tried the effect in some other instances. He put some pounded sulphur into a glass sphere, so well covered and stopped, that on turning it over the fire, not the least smell of sulphur was perceived. When the sphere was cooled he electrified it, when immediately sulphureous vapours issued from it, which, on continuing the electricity, filled the air so that the smell was perceived at the distance of 10 feet, and the persons were even driven away by the stench of the sulphur; Mr. W.'s body, clothes, and breath retained the odour even the next day. After this, he tried the effects of a more agreeable smell, filling the sphere with cinnamon. Having treated it as before, the smell of cinnamon was soon perceived by the company, the whole room being perfumed by it. Mr. W. tried the balsam of Peru with the like success. A friend of his having been present at the experiment, and going abroad to supper, he was often asked by the company what perfume he had about him. The next day, when Mr. W. drank tea, he found an unusually sweet taste, owing to the fumes of the balsam still remaining in his mouth. Considering these things, Mr. W. thinks that electricity must be of use in euring some diseases. There are two grand benefits to be expected from medicine; for, either noxious particles, that are mixed with the blood or other juices, are to be separated and expelled, or beneficial ones are to be introduced. In both these cases electricity may be of service. For as soon as it touches a human body, it immediately pervades it in such a manner, that no place is left free from it; nor is there any thing in the body, that can be rendered volatile, that is not dissolved, dissipated, and carried off by it. And many instances are on record that electricity has caused blood to flow from the nose and other parts of the body. But electricity has not only a power of separating and expelling, but is also very efficacious in filling the blood with the virtues contained in plants and minerals, as is manifest from what has been said concerning the sulphur, cinnamon, and balsam of Peru. The electrical power of nourishing the blood, differs from the usual mode of healing, in this, that it supplies the blood with aliment without the aid of the stomach, and that it enriches the vital juice with those exhalations which pass through the glass, and excel in subtilty and purity. Medicines received by the mouth must pass into the stomach, before they can be mixed with the blood, and must wander through many and long paths, in which they must be changed. But the spirits raised by benign electricity, flow into the blood without these windings. By the conjunction therefore of medicine and the electrical art, it is probable. that new and happy cures of diseases may be performed; remarkable instances of which have been published by Pivati. He restored the obstructed course of the blood in a woman, by applying the usual medicines in such a manner, by means of the electrified glass cylinder, that their essence effectually reached the body. His assistance was implored by a young gentleman, who was so miserably affected by a corrupted humour in his foot, that it eluded all the attempts of the physicians. Sig. Pivati filled a glass cylinder with proper materials, and, having electrified it, applied it to the part affected, causing it to emit electrical sparks for a few minutes. When the patient went to bed, he had a good night. He sweated every night for 8 days together, after which he remained quite well. Also, S. Donadoni, bishop of Sebenico, came to S. Pivati, attended by his physician and some friends. He was 75 years of age, and had been afflicted with gouty pains in his hands and feet for several years. It had so affected his fingers that he could not move them, and his legs that he could not bend his knees; his servants were obliged at nights to carry him in a chair to the bedside, and lift him gently into it. S. Pivati, in this case, filled a glass cylinder with discutient medicines, which by the electrical virtue he transfused into the patient. He soon felt some unusual commotions in his fingers. The action of the electricity being continued a few minutes, the patient gradually found the benefit of it; he opened and shut both his hands, and gave a hearty squeeze with his hand to one of his attendants; he rose up, walked, smote his hands together, he helped himself to a chair and sat down, wondering at his own strength, and hardly knowing whether it was not a dream; he walked out of the chamber, and down stairs, without any assistance, and with the agility of a young man. Soon afterwards, S. Pivati relieved a lady of 60 years in like manner from the gout, with which she had been 6 months tormented. Her fingers were much swollen, and always trembling, and one of her arms was convulsed. After receiving the electricity for 2 minutes, the trembling of her fingers ceased; and the next day the swelling was so far abated, that she could draw on her gloves, and make use of her fingers. Hence Mr. W. thinks there can be no room to doubt of the assistance that medicine may receive from the proper use of electricity. On Medical Experiments of Electricity. By Mr. Henry Baker, F. R. S. Though perhaps as many curious and well-contrived experiments have been made in England as in all the other parts of Europe, to discover the general laws and properties of electricity, we have not hitherto attended to the effects that may be produced by it in the bodies of living animals, any further than to assure ourselves they may be killed by it; a supposition that diseases may be cured by means of this power, having met with so little countenance among us, that very few trials have been made, to ascertain what, in distempered cases, it can cr cannot perform. Foreigners, on the contrary, seem fond of believing, that the subtil electric fluid (be it fire, æther, or whatever else) which can pervade all bodies, and, being accumulated, even kill an animal, in certain circumstances, and by certain methods of application, may possibly in other circumstances, and applied in different degrees, and by different methods, so operate on the fluids or solids, and perhaps on both, that very beneficial and salutary effects* result from it. may With this view the Abbè Nollet made several experiments on living birds, kittens, and human bodies; and if we may give credit to the accounts communicated to us, he found, in every trial, that perspiration was so considerably promoted by it, as to cause a very sensible difference between the weight of such animals as had been electrified, and others of the same kind that were treated exactly alike in every respect besides; whence he naturally concludes, that in cases where it is necessary to quicken the circulation of the fluids, and throw off a greater quantity of the perspirable matter, electricity must be greatly useful. The philosophers in Italy and Germany have applied their industry to discover by experiment, how far electricity may, simply and in itself, be of service in sc veral diseases, and likewise how far it may conduce towards conveying the more subtile and active effluvia of useful medicines, either into the whole body, or into some distempered part. Some remarkable cases are related in the preceding paper of the effluvia of certain substances conveyed by electricity into the body, and so removing several complaints. And Dr. Joseph Bruni, one of the principal physicians at Turin, and F. R. s. has likewise sent an account of experiments made at Rome and at Bologna, which are now laid before the society to show' what attempts to the same purpose have been made in different countries, and by * As is suggested by Dr. Mortimer in these Trans. N° 476. C. M. VOL. IX. 3 S different people. The Doctor says, that at Bologna, the electrical been applied to the cure of diseases, as follows. power has A man, who had been for 12 months deaf of one ear, with a continual noise in it like the running of water, attended with most violent pain whenever he lay with that ear uppermost, coming to Dr. Verati for advice, the Doctor electrified him, bringing out abundance of fiery sparks around the distempered ear, which, in about 5 minutes that the electrification was continued, became as red as if a blistering plaster had been applied to it. But the redness disappeared in a few minutes after, the patient passed the night with less pain and noise, and was perfectly cured of his disorder. A footman belonging to the said Doctor, being taken suddenly ill of a violent pain in the head, which continued many hours, he was electrified, the Doctor causing the sparks of fire to issue from the temple where the pain was felt. The part appeared red, the pain abated; in 3 hours it was entirely gone, and has never returned since. A woman that nursed one of the Doctor's children, having had a most grievous disorder in her eyes for some months, with a continual running of water from one of them, and a constant pain over the eye-lid, came to the Doctor for advice, who immediately electrified her, bringing out the fiery sparks about the eye and eye-lid, by which the eye appeared very much blood-shot; but that went off in 7 or 8 minutes. The woman felt less pain the following night, and opened her eye in the morning more easily, and without being obliged to wipe it, as she did before the watery humour and pain were much diminished; and the Doctor hoped that by repeating the operation twice more, he should be able quite to cure her. Dr. Bruni gives next his information from Rome; that a gentleman there covered the internal surface of a cylinder of glass (which some use instead of a globe) with a purgative medicine; and that a man, electrified with it, found on the spot the same effects as if he had swallowed the medicine. A Proposal for Checking in some Degree the Progress of Fire. By the Rev. Stephen Hales, D.D., F.R.S. N° 487, p. 277. Dr. H. placed on 2 garden-pots a dry fir board, of half an inch thick, and 9 inches broad; and covered 9 inches length and breadth of it with an inch depth of damp garden earth; fencing this earth on each side with 2 courses of bricks, to make a fire-place to contain the wood fuel and live coals; which were frequently blown with bellows, to keep the fire to a vigorous heat: this was done for 2 hours' continuance, before the fir-board was burnt through; when there was only a weak lambent flame at the under part of the board; for it could not flame out for want of proper fuel; because the substance of the board was reduced to a brittle charcoal, by the heat of the inch-depth of earth which lay on it, which hindered the burning board from flaming. And it was observable that the edges of the board burnt only with a live coal like a match; being hindered from flaming by the earth which lay on the board. May it not hence be reasonably inferred, that when a house is on fire, it may be a probable means considerably to retard the progress of the fire, to cover with earth the floors of the adjoining and more distant houses, which stand in the course of the progress of the flames? The thicker the earth is laid so much the better but if time will not permit to lay it more than an inch thick, then supposing 27 men to carry each a cubic foot of earth, which will be a cubic yard of earth; then that cubic yard of earth will cover 36 square yards of flooring; which repeated several times, would soon cover all the floors of a house. And as the fire probably mounts with great fierceness up the staircase, it will be well to lay much earth on the stairs; which will help to give some check, especially as the earth on the floor and stairs may be wetted by the fire-engine; which moisture will be much the longer retained by means of the earth; whereas water, when not thus retained, soon glides away. And as fires often catch from house to house at their upper parts, an upper floor covered with earth, with the rafters burning on it, will be longer in burning to such a degree as to fall on the next floor, so when fallen there, it will also be the longer in burning, and will flame the less, on account of the earth on that next floor; and consequently will not be so apt to fire the next house, as in the common case of floors without earth, which must needs therefore burn the more fiercely. Note by Dr. Mortimer.-Two days after the fire-works had been played off in the Green Park on account of the late peace, Dr. M. went all over the building erected for that purpose, and was greatly pleased to see the Doctor's scheme confirmed by the practice of the engineers on that occasion; for the rooms in which the trains were fired, and which was immediately under the gratings on which the 6000 rockets rested and were fired from, had the floor covered over with fine sifted gravel about an inch deep, and the walls were whited over with a dirty sort of white wash, which he took for lime finely powdered, and mixed up with size and water, and done 2 or 3 times over. Both floors and walls were of deal. Observations made during the last Three Years, of the Quantity of the Variation of the Magnetic Horizontal Needle to the Westward. By Mr. George Graham, F.R.S., at his House in Fleet-street, London. N° 487, p. 279. 1745 March 26.... 17° 0' 1745 March 21.... 17° 10′ |