were foon vifible, and in eight or ten days the patient was freed from her cough. A relapse afterwards occurred from cold. The fame medicine was repeated, and the cough again yielded to it as before.

had

T. B. P. A youth about ten years of age, a deep hoarfe cough, without any expectoration. The found of it was very unusual, and not to be defcribed; and it was attended with a quick, but feeble pulfe, flufhings in the face, and pain in the breaft. Every morning, about two o'clock, the cough recurred with great violence, and continued almost without intermiffion till four or five. There was reafon to fufpect worms, and I had been careful to cleanse the primae viae on the first attack of the diforder. A folution of fperma ceti and gum ammoniac, with a few drops of tinct. thebaic. having no effect, I had recourfe to the flowers of zinc. Half a grain was given at noon, and the fame dofe repeated at bedtime. The night paffed with only a flight return of the cough; and, by continuing the ufe of this remedy, the youth perfectly recovered in a few days.

Mrs B. laboured under a phthifis pulmonalis during the whole period of pregnancy. The violence of her cough occafioned a premature de

livery,

livery, and continued after that event without a batement. Opiates never failed to afford relief; but they fometimes affected her head fo much, that the intreated me to try fome other remedy. She was of an irritable habit, and was troubled with fpafmodic pains in various parts of her body. I prescribed the flowers of zinc, which soon mitigated her cough, and eafed her wandering pains. This medicine was continued only two days; but the cough remained moderate more than double that fpace of time. It recurred, however, with severity, and I had again recourse to the zinc. The beneficial effects of this remedy were not now fo great, or fo immediate as before; however, they were fufficiently apparent to encourage perfeverance in the use of it. In a few days, a truce from the violence of the cough was again obtained; and the patient was enabled to discharge great quantities of phlegm with facility, and without pain; for her expectoration was always moft free and copious, when the cough was gentle and moderate. This evacuation, with the hectic fever which accompanied it, gradually wafted her flesh and ftrength; and there was no further occasion for a repetition of the flowers of zinc: For, in the last stage of a pulmonary confumption, it often happens,

that the symptoms of the diforder, by degrees, grow lefs painful and violent, as the patient approaches nearer and nearer to the termination of life. I have known the pulfe to fink gradually in frequency from 130 to 70 ftrokes in a minute, and to continue about this number during ten or twelve days preceding death. Nor will this fact feem wonderful, when we reflect, that the functions of the brain are no lefs injured by inanition, than by plenitude; and, that the fenfibility and irritability of the heart and blood-veffels must be regulated by, and dependent upon the state of the nervous fyftem.

FIXED AIR.

Since the publication of my experiments on the lithontriptic powers of fixed air, I have had the fulleft and most incontrovertible evidence that this remedy alleviates the fymptoms both of the ftone and gravel; that it acts as a powerful diuretic; difcharges fabulous concretions; heals the ulcerations in the urinary paffages; invigorates the organs of digeftion; and strengthens the whole fyftem. In faying fo much I am warranted by my own experience, which has been confirmed by fimilar obfervations, transmitted to me from various parts of England. But, you must

be

be fenfible how difficult it is to afcertain the folution of a stone in the bladder, by any medicine; and you will not, therefore, be furprifed that I have yet seen no decifive cafe, in the circle of my practice, of the compleat efficacy of this new folvent. A phyfician of eminence in London has, however, been more successful; having brought away (to use his own words, in a letter to me) in small fragments, and in a whitish chalklike substance, a stone from the urinary bladder, by administering fixed air to his patient, during the space of a few weeks. The hiftory of this cafe is now laid before the public, and may be feen at the end of Dr Hulme's Oratio de re medica.

I have seen the progrefs of a moft alarming mortification, which began above the ankle, and extended to the middle of the thigh, fpeedily checked, and a good digeftion produced by the internal use of fixed air. A fever, and anafarca of the lungs, precluded the use of the Peruvian bark; and the patient took, every two hours, in the act of effervefcence, half a dram of the salt of woormwood, with a fufficient quantity of the juice of lemons. He was directed alfo to drink

freely

freely of Seltzer water. In twenty-four hours the putrid stench from the mortification was corrected; and, in forty-eight hours, the fores began to discharge good matter; fenfibility was reftored to the whole leg and thigh; fresh granulations fucceeded; and the part healed gradually and kindly.

When fixed air is employed as a diffolvent of the ftone in the bladder, the use of it must generally be continued many months. Relief is often obtained by it in a fhorter time; but few cafes will occur like the one recorded by Dr Hulme, in which the calculus appears to have been of a remarkably soft and friable texture. The reputation of the most efficacious remedies is frequently injured by the unwarrantable expectations of mankind concerning them. And in chronic diforders many a cure is defpaired of, which might be accomplished by more patience in the fick, and greater perfeverance in the practitioner:

COLIC.

In violent colics, attended with vomiting and an obftinate conftipation of the bowels, it has

been