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it gives a much larger quantity of the acid of sulphur. (2.) That it gives a very volatile acid; whereas his is fixed, so as scarcely to differ from oil of vitriol. (3.) That it is obtained in a much easier and cheaper manner. (4.) That this spirit has probably much greater medicinal virtues. (5.) That it is a much more powerful menstruum; especially with regard to metals, and particularly their crystallization. (6.) That the caput mortuum is a medicine of great use; and may defray the expence of the whole operation; being perhaps the best way of making the tartarus vitriolatus perfectly pure and neutral for medicinal purposes; its expected virtues greatly depending on its being clean and neutral.

7. His method has also several advantages over Dr. Stahl's; though his indeed affords a volatile acid. But then, (1.) Stahl's method burns the sulphur, and consequently destroys its texture, and throws off part of the spirit or gas; whereas this gently dissolves the sulphur, and only divides it, so as to leave the acid afterwards separable by a stronger or more ponderous acid; and no-way consumes or destroys the inflammable part, as burning does. (2.) This method is more neat or elegant than his, and affords a larger produce, at a cheaper rate, and in greater perfection, both as a medicine, and as a menstruum; leaving also the tartarus vitriolatus cleaner, and fitter for use as a medicine.

8. Persons but little versed in chemical philosophy, and its operations, might be apt to suspect, that this spirit is not a pure spirit, or acid of sulphur; but mixed with the oil of vitriol, here used as the medium to separate the spirit from the sulphur and fixed alkali: but the Society very well knows it to be a universal law, that a heavier or stronger acid, used in a suitable proportion, constantly in these cases separates a weaker, and leaves it free to rise by itself in distillation, as it remarkably does in the present operation; where all the oil of vitriol employed unites with the fixed alkali, so as to make the true tartarus vitriolatus, and leaves the lighter spirit quite detached and free to rise, and come over the helm in distillation. So that this volatile spirit and the fixed oil of vitriol are by no means the same thing; nor should the one be used for the other, especially in physic.

9. But though the oil of vitriol be allowed to differ from the volatile acid of sulphur, some may imagine that there is no difference between this volatile acid and the volatile spirit of vitriol, as it comes over in the rectification of oil of vitriol; or between our spirit and the gas sulphuris, which is extremely pungent and volatile: but whoever attentively examines and compares the volatile spirit of vitriol, or the gas sulphuris, with our spirit, will soon be convinced of a great difference; though indeed they agree in the point of gassy volatility: for the volatile spirit of vitriol is only an impure phlegm of vitriol, containing very little acid, and is chiefly impregnated with the wild fumes of the vitriol; so as, by standing a while, to quit the liquor, and leave it nauseous, vapid, and gross;

whereas the volatile spirit of sulphur long preserves its volatility, the purer gas being here lodged in a pure acid liquor, less dense and gross than oil of vitriol; so that when, by being long unstopped, this acid spirit loses of its volatility, as it will do, yet it never loses of its acidity; and even then appears to be the most pure and perfect mineral acid we can any ways procure. And as to the gas sulphuris, when made in perfection; this is no more than the fumes of burning brimstone caught and detained in water: so that this preparation, wanting the acid, cannot be compared in that respect with this spirit, which has it in perfection.

10. What the medicinal virtues and uses of this volatile acid of sulphur may be, Mr. S. submits to the Society, and the learned physicians, to whom it belongs; he only begs leave to observe, that if what is found in numerous learned physicbooks be just, there are hopes that it may prove a noble medicine in many kinds of fevers, the small-pox, and even in plagues. In some of these books it is siad, that malignant fevers are owing to a superabundance of volatile alkaline salts in the body; and if that be the case, one might hope to neutralize or destroy such a superabundancy of volatile alkaline salts, by the prudent use of this fine volatile acid; which is capable of being mixed with water, juleps, and most sorts of drinks.

11. Mr. S. likewise finds, that the origin of all pestilences and plagues has been assigned to the following causes, viz. (1.) The carcases of men, horses, or cattle, killed or slain, and putrefying above ground by heat and moisture, and thus infecting the air by their noxious, volatile, urinous alkaline salts, that copiously issue from them in such a putrefying state. (2.) Dead fish, thrown out of the sea, and putrefying on the shore; or swarms of dead insects, bred in fens and marshes, drowned in the ocean, and thrown on shore by the tides, and left to putrefy in hot moist climates. (3.) Woollen goods, silks, and apparel, packed up or worn by infected persons, or those that attended the sick, or that came from infected places. (4.) Unwholesome diet, or corrupted putrefying meats, abounding with too subtilized, or too rarefied, volatile, urinous salts. (5.) Mineral, arsenical, and poisonous damps, vapours, exhalations, &c. arising from volcanos, mines, grottos, by means of subterraneous heats and fermentations.

12. It were easy, by natural reasoning on these causes assigned of the plague, to show that this distemper consists in a kind of putrefactive state of the body, when the salts are volatilized, unsheathed, and let loose to tear and wound the solids, after destroying the texture; and consequently that the volatile acid, here shown to be easily procurable, is a natural remedy in such cases.*

* These speculations of Mr. Seehl's concerning the antipestilential properties of acids, have been verified, to a certain extent, by recent experiments. But from these experiments, it appears, that the said acids prove better suited to such purposes in proportion as they are more oxygenized. Hence the sulphuric acid is more antipestilential than the sulphurous acid, or this author's volatile acid of sulphur.

An Observation of a Spina bifida, commonly so termed. By Mr. George Aylett, Surgeon, Windsor. N° 472, p. 10.

There appeared, covering the lower part of the loins of a lusty infant just born, a large incysted tumour, that seemed capable of containing a pint of water, whose contents had escaped in the birth from a small perforation in the middle of the cyst; from whence, on pressure, issued out a bloody serum. Flannels, wrung out of a hot, discutient, and restringent fomentation with spirits, were twice a day applied, to prevent its mortifying; to which the upper part seemed greatly tending.

The first 4 days there appeared no visible alteration in the child's health: she sucked well; was as hearty and strong as most at that age are; no paralysis in the extremities, but a daily discharge from the perforation of near 2 oz. of the same bloody serum which at first issued out. The nurse had observed that during all this time it had not made one drop of water. The 5th day the child was convulsed; which increasing, she died in the night following. On the division of the cyst, next day, there appeared a thin membranous substance, lining it internally; and might be an expansion of the membrane which invelopes the medulla spinalis. A number of small blood-vessels appeared about the perforation of the bone; and underneath a small portion of the medulla of a very thin consistence. There was no opportunity of making a further examination, through the mother's importunities: but the lumbar vertebræ and os sacrum were taken out, as appears in the annexed figure.

Plate 1, fig. 1, by C. M. Here AB shows the vertebræ of the loins; BC the os sacrum; CD the ossa coccygis; EF the spinal processes of the vertebræ of the loins; which spines are here discontinued, and an opening formed, FGHI, quite into the canal of the vertebræ; so that the medulla spinalis was entirely laid bare without any bony covering. This opening has been mistaken for a parting of the spinal processes into 2 rows; or as if at F they had divided into 2 branches; the 2 edges F and G feeling through the integuments like a bifurcation of the spine, and so have given rise to the notion of a spina bifida; which case C. M. doubts whether it ever exists: for a perfect spina bifida must suppose the very canal and medulla spinalis to divide into 2 branches, the bodies of the vertebræ to become near twice as wide as usual, and the spinal processes to divaricate into 2 rows or ridges of spines.

Dr. Rutty, late Secr. R. S. has communicated a case like this. See Phil. Trans. No 366, or page 487, vol. vi. of these Abridgments.

An Improvement on the Practice of Tapping; by which that Operation, instead of a Relief for Symptoms, becomes an absolute Cure for an Ascites. By Christopher Warrick, of Truro, Surgeon. N° 472, p. 12.

In 1742, among a great many hydropics that fell under Mr. W.'s care that

year, he was called to the assistance of one Jane Roman, near 50 years age, and confined to her bed, under that species of dropsy called ascites, owing its rise, some years before, to the severity of a lingering intermittent fever. The most -remarkable of her complaints were, loss of appetite, difficult breathing, unquenchable thirst, suppression of urine, and a short, importunate asthmatic cough, joined to that essential symptom of the disease, a large quantity of extravasated waters in the cavity of the abdomen, distending it to an enormous size, and perceptibly fluctuating. Her more inferior parts were likewise swoln to an uncommon magnitude, with livid spots and vesications in divers places. Under these circumstances, and already satiated with tedious courses of ineffectual medicines, Mr. W. drew from her (Sept. 20th) 36 pints of a greenish transparent lymph, by a paracentesis made after the usual manner; by which her complaints vanished, and she was soon re-established. With some part of the extracted lymph, which he had conveyed to his own house, on his return thither, he made the following observations:

Obs. 1.-Being as warm as it came from the abdomen, with one pint of it he mixed the like quantity of fresh Bristol water; and immediately a slight coagulum ensued.-Obs. 2. Mixing equal parts of warmed lymph and cohore claret together, the same phenomenon appeared; the coagulum subsided, and the mixture became milky.-Obs. 3. Being mixed with Pyrmont water, it manifested little or no change, only went turbid.-Obs. 4. He mixed a decoction of the cortex with the like quantity of warm lymph, and it dropped a branny sediment.— Obs. 5. Lymph per se, boiled, became gelatinous; but being mixed with a strong solution of terra foliata tartari, it soon resumed its former fluidity.-Obs. 6. Bringing the above mixture to a state of boiling, the phenomenon of coagulation appeared more eminently in each of them; especially that with claret. Eaton's styptic, tormentil-roots, pomegranate-peels, and almost every restringent, more or less afforded the same appearances of coagulation.

Notwithstanding the disappearance of the symptoms, and the favourable prospect that ensued the evacuation of the waters, the relief which she had was only of a short duration: for, Sept. 30, An inundation again alarmed her, and obliged her to remove the bandage, for fear of suffocation. Hence, to the latter end of October, she re-filled incredibly; and notwithstanding any method used to prevent. it, within 40 days after the paracentesis, there was again collected, in the abdomen, and depending parts, a quantity of lymph, equal to, if not greater than, that which had but just before been extracted. All her former complaints, especially the dyspnoea, likewise returned, and oppressed her more violently than ever. -Oct. 29. The waters being ready to break their confines, and the pain and distention insupportable under them, she again desired his assistance to relieve her. He had by this time drawn some conclusions from the above observations on

lymph and restringents, and flattered himself that some of them, especially those of the warmest kind, applied immediately to the parts affected, (the ruptured lymphatics) must, according to their known mode of operation, close up their mouths, and prevent a further effusion of their contents, and consequently a return of the disease.

In order then to obtain this desirable end, Mr. W. resolved to try their efficacy, by way of injection, on the emptied cavity: and for this purpose the claret and Bristol water seemed to claim the superiority of esteem; not only as they produced the strongest coagulum with lymph, but also in being the safest, and least liable to create any uneasy sensations on the viscera.

Mr. W.'s apparatus was, a large trois-quarts, made on purpose, and dipped in oil; an injector, capable of containing 2 or 3 pints, adapted to it; and 3 or 4 gallons of blood-warm injection, composed of equal parts of cohore claret, and fresh Bristol water; besides compress, bandage, &c. as is usual on these occasions. It was conducted pretty nearly thus: being seated on her bed-side, and proper assistants attending her, he plunged the trois-quart into the abdomen, about 5 or 6 inches below, and as much on the left side of the umbilicus; and thereby soon discharged upwards of 20 pints of such clear briny lymph as before; which quantity did not exceed of the whole, though as much as her strength could well bear: the claret and Bristol water being then in readiness, he began to replenish the empty cavity with them; but he had scarcely injected 10 or 12 pints of it, before a syncope, a very material obstruction, made some advances, and was like to baffle his design. Here he perceived the great expedition necessary in conducting this experiment; that symptom being more or less violent, as he happened to be dextrous, or remiss; and was, for the most part, the only one of consequence that attended it. Quickening therefore his hand as fast as he was able, and an assistant stopping the mouth of the cannula with his finger, to prevent a return, he soon brought her up to her former magnitude, and had the pleasure of seeing the above symptom suspended. He had then time to ask her, what kind of sensation this new piece of practice excited within the cavity? and whether or not she thought herself capable of undergoing it a second time? She answered him in the affirmative; and said, it seemed as it were entering her stomach. Notwithstanding he had reason to believe his intentions already answered, as much as in bringing those restringents in contact with the parts affected, yet as there was a great quantity of lymph left behind in the cavity undischarged, which, on account of the syncope, he could not well prevent, he imagined their action, and full efficacy, might thereby be in some degree interrupted. Every thing therefore being in a favourable way, he repeated the mixture for a 2d injection, the claret being in a double proportion of the water, to render it the more efficacious for that purpose; drew off the whole contents of the abdomen to as much as would

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