^\ 
 
m-7?/v^a . r.M 
 
 Columbia UntoerKitp 
 mtljeCttpoOtogark 
 
 College of iPfetciang ano Hmrgeons 
 
 Xttirarp 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Open Knowledge Commons 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/chemicophysiologOOross 
 
CHEMICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL' 
 INAUGURAL DISSERTATION 
 
 ON 
 
 CARBONE. 
 
A 
 
 CHEMICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL 
 INAUGURAL DISSERTATION 
 
 ON 
 
 CARBONE, or CHARCOAL. 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE PUBLIC EXAMINATION 
 OF THE 
 
 FACULTY OF PHYSIC, 
 
 UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE 
 
 TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW-YORK: 
 WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. Prefidentt 
 
 FOR. THE DEGREE OF 
 
 DOCTOR OF P H Y S I Cj 
 
 ON THE FIFTH DAY OF MAY, 1 79^- 
 
 By WILLIAM MORREY ROSS, 
 
 Citizen of the State of New-Jerfey. 
 
 ' C{ Ea quje fcimus, pars minima eorum 
 Qjae ignoramus." 
 Prjeitat naturx voce doceri quam ingenio fuo fapere. CiC» 
 
 Late, when the mafs obeys its changeful doom, 
 And finks to earth, its cradle and its tomb, 
 
 with nice eye the flow folution watch, 
 
 With foftering hand the pai ting atoms catch, 
 Join in new forms, combine with life and fcnfe, 
 And guide and guard the tranfmigrating Ens. 
 
 DARWIN. 
 
 NEir- YORK: 
 
 PRINTED BY T. AND J. SWORDS, 
 Printers to the Fatuity of I'hyfic of Columbia Cullcgr, 
 
 — I79S-— 
 
T O 
 
 SAMUEL LATHAM MITCHILL, M.D. 
 
 Profejfor of Chemifry and of Botany in Columbia College, 
 
 Fellozv of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
 
 Foreign AJfociate of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences at Cape 
 
 Francois, 
 
 Member of the Philofophical Society at Philadelphia, 
 
 Of the Royal Medical, Chemical, Natural Hijlory and Phyfcal 
 
 Societies of Edinburgh, 
 
 Secretary of the Agricultural Society of the State of New- York, 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Who has ever manifefted, during my refidence with him, the 
 
 moll friendly attention, and given every affiftance in forming 
 
 the outlines of my medical education; and who, it 
 
 is hoped, will receive this Inaugural Ejfay, with all 
 
 its imperfections, as a memorial of efteem 
 
 and refpeft, from his friend and pupil, 
 
 Wm. M. ROSS. 
 
TKE HONOURABLE 
 
 JOHN CHETWOOD, Ef$\ 
 
 One of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Nezv-Jerfey^ 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Whofe moral, intellectual and juridical endowments are 
 of eftablifhed pre-eminence; 
 
 AND 
 
 AARON OGDEN, Efqj 
 
 In whom are united 
 The COUNSELLOR and the PATRIOT; 
 
 Will alfo receive this infcription as a refpedlful tribute to pre- 
 eminent literary, profeffional and patriotic merit. 
 
 The AUTHOR. 
 
A 
 
 CHEMICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL 
 INAUGURAL DISSERTATION 
 
 O N 
 
 CARBONE, or CHARCOAL. 
 
 
 JL HE following pages are divided into four chapters : 
 
 I. The pure and Ample fubftance of carbone, or 
 charcoal, is treated of. 
 
 II. Its natural and chemical hiflory. 
 
 III. Its ceconomical ufes ; and, 
 
 IV. The fubject of carbone is confidered medically. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of the pure andfimple fubftance, carbone or charcoal. 
 
 CARBONE, or pure charcoal, is that fubftance 
 which, in chemical nomenclature, is placed among the 
 fimple bodies, becaufe no experiments hitherto made 
 have proved that it is capable of decompofition. 
 
 It exifts, ready formed, in the animal and vegetable 
 republics, and alfo in the mineral, as is inftanced in 
 plumbago or the carburet of iron, &c. 
 
 Charcoal may be obtained from vegetable and animal 
 fubftances, by incineration ; but their fubjeclion Xocalo- 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 ric, or the matter of heat, muft at firft be moderate, and 
 afterwards very ftrong -, and for chemical purpofes, the 
 animal or vegetable fubftances containing it muft be 
 expofed, in a retort, to the heat of a reverberatory •, by 
 which means the fubftances capable of being volatilized, 
 or all the parts of the fubjecl fufceptible of combination 
 with caloric, evolve in the form of gas, and leave the 
 charcoal and little earth or faline bodies, as being of a 
 more fixed nature, in the retort. 
 
 This fimple fubftance is capable of great durability, 
 and not fubjecl; to decomposition like thofe of the com- 
 pound ones, as is proved by its being found unchanged 
 in the ruins of cities, decayed forefts, &c. during the 
 lapfe of ages.* 
 
 Carbone is capable too, like many other fimple fub- 
 ftances, of combination with the principle of acidity, or 
 oxigene: in the firft degree of oxigenation, the carbonous 
 acid, or oxyd of carbone, is produced ; and if a fufficient 
 proportion of caloric be added to this, it forms the 
 carbonous acid gas, or the gafeous oxyd of carbone : in 
 the fecond degree of oxigenation, the carbonic acid is 
 produced, to which if a fufrlciency of caloric be added, 
 it is converted into carbonic acid gas. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Its natural and chemical hiflory. 
 
 CARBONE is the bafts of that aeriform fluid which 
 feems to have been firft noticed and defcribed by John 
 
 Baptift 
 
 * 3 Watfon's Chem. EiT. p. 48. 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 Baptift. Van Helmont; before whofe time, Paracelfus, 
 and authors previous to and cotemporary with him, 
 thought this gafeous fluid to be the fame with the air 
 which we refpire, although it does not appear they 
 were authorifed fo to imagine or conclude, either by 
 arguments, and much lefs by experiments. It was this 
 elaftic vapour that is evolved from bodies by combuf- 
 tion, fermentation and efFervefcence, that they caufed 
 to be named fpiritus fyfoeftris. 
 
 To this fpiritus fylvefiris, then, as the predecefibrs of 
 Van Helmont called it, he took upon himfelf to affix 
 the name of gas, or gas fylveftre, which he defines to be 
 ** an incoercible fpirit or vapour, which can neither be 
 collected in vefiels, nor reduced under a vifible form.*'* 
 
 This was the ftate of knowledge among the chemifts 
 of his time ; fince which, in modern days, according as 
 it has been found combined with various fubftances, it 
 has received different titles, fuch as fixed air,f mephitic 
 air,\fixible air,% calcareous gas, \\ &c. By thefe appel- 
 lations it was diftinguifhed until the year 1770, when 
 it was proved by Bergman to be an acid,^ which has 
 been more fully confirmed by Prieftley. This difcovery 
 of Bergman has occafioned it to be known by the cre- 
 taceous acid, mephitic acid, aerial and atmofphosric acid. 
 
 B ThaC 
 
 • ftefmoftttl Ortu-! Mr-dlcinnr, Cap. Complcr.ionum atque mIft:om«m Elc* 
 Bientilium F/gmenium, N'u. 14. 
 I Dr. Hale . 
 
 t Mr. Bewley and Dr. Rutherford. 
 ^ Ftlcor.er on fixiblfl »ir. 
 H Tl ( -licmical D'fti xiaryi 
 
 r ' ' . Lir. p. 3. 
 
'( io ) 
 
 "That this fubftance is an acid was proved by our 
 .chemical profeffor 
 
 i . Water impregnated with it, and agitated with the 
 -tinclure of Jacmus, or the litmus paper, turned them 
 -red. 
 
 2. By the precipitation of lime, from lime-water. 
 
 3. By water being hi'ghly charged with it, by means 
 of Nooth's apparatus, which became manifeftly acidu- 
 lous to the tafte. 
 
 4. By its neutralizing alkalies, and caufing their 
 crystallization.* 
 
 In a memoir to the Royal Academy of Paris, La- 
 -voifier relates, he found by experiment, that a certain 
 ■quantity of charcoal burnt in a given volume of vital 
 .or oxigene air, decompofed it, and produced a gas ex- 
 actly fimilar to what is called fixed air, compofed of 
 -charcoal, as an acidfiable bafe and oxigene, and which, 
 -according to his fyftematic plan, he called carbonic acid : 
 but the matter does not reft on the fynthetical experi- 
 ments of Lavoifier, for Tennant decompounded the 
 •£xed air contained in marble, by the intervention of 
 phofphorus into refpirable air and charcoal ;-f however, 
 as they did not appear altogether fatisfaclory, Pearibn 
 repeated them, and has mown, that although the com- 
 pound affinities on which the refult depended did not 
 necejfarily warrant the conclufion, yet his " well-ima- 
 gined experiments have in our opinion," fay the re- 
 viewers, 
 
 * For a more circumftantial detail of the lefts of its acidity, the elaborate 
 work of Cronftedt may be confulted. (1 Cronftedt's Mineral. 2d edit, by 
 Magellan p. 32c, art. Acidum Aereum.) 
 
 ■f See Month. Rev. vol. vii. new feries, p. 71. 
 
c ** > 
 
 I 
 
 viewers, " fo fully eftablifhed the decompofition of the 
 fixed air, that we need no longer hefitate in adopting, 
 for this fluid, the name of carbonic acid." 
 
 This gentleman employed the foflil and vegetable 
 alkalies inftead of calcareous earth, as the former con- 
 tain, in their mild ftate, a greater quantity of the fixed 
 air, and from their folubility in water the charcoal is the 
 more eafily feparable. By following Tennant's procefs 
 with phofphorus in glafs tubes, he obtained ioo parts 
 of mild fofiil alkali thoroughly dried, eight of charcoal 
 in impalpable powder, intenfely black, and fo light that 
 it occupied the volume of 22 times its weight of water. 
 For the production of this quantity of charcoal, the 
 alkali had loft fo much of its fixed air as was equal, m 
 its elaftic ftate, to 20 ounce meafures of water. Whci 
 the deficiency of air was greater or lefs, the quantity of 
 charcoal varied in the fame proportion. 
 
 Quick-lime and cauftic alkalies, efpecially the latter* 
 can fcarcely be fo fully deprived of fixed air as not to 
 exhibit, in this procefs, fome veftige of charcoal : but 
 alkalies faturated with vitriolic or marine acids yield 
 none, and the quantity of charcoal is in all cafes pro- 
 portional to that of the fixed air contained in the fub- 
 ie<ft and decompofed in the operation. Quick-lime 
 which had undergone fire in a reverberatory during 48 
 bouts, appeared free from fixed air, and yielded no 
 charcoal : but the pureft cauftic alkali that could be pro- 
 cured was found to contain three ounce meafures of fix- 
 ed air to 1 00 grains, and gave a confiderable quantity of 
 brownifh black powder, five times fpecifically heavier 
 
 than 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 than the charcoal in the preceding operations, and of 
 which only a fmall proportion was real charcoal.* 
 
 This acid, then, which is compofed of oxigene, car- 
 bone and caloric, exifts in nature in three different ftates : 
 
 i. In a ftate of combination with folid bodies. 
 
 2. In a ftate of mixture with fluids -, and, 
 
 3. In a difengaged ftate of gas. 
 
 I. It was proved by Black, in 1755, that fixed air, 
 or, as it is now called, carbonic acid, exifts in a ftate of 
 combination in lime- ftone, which, on its difengage- 
 ment, was converted into quick-lime •, and this doctrine 
 was fupported by more facts from the experiments of 
 Prieftley, M'Bride and Jacquin, which laft added ftill 
 further proofs in confirmation, by proving that the cauf- 
 ticity of alkalies and lime was owing to its abfence.-f- 
 
 It exifts too, not only in lime and alkalies, but alfo 
 211 ftalactites, in the works of animals called corallines, 
 madrepores, &c. and in their teftaceous coats or cover- 
 ings ; and it is believed by fome to be a mere conge- 
 ries of water-worn fhells, compacted together by the 
 carbonic acid, that form the bafe of the ifland of Ber- 
 muda, which has thus become the habitation of man, 
 plants and animals. 
 
 The Society Iflands mentioned by Captain Cook, of 
 which Otaheite is one, and which is faid to be fur- 
 rounded by coral rocks, feem, like the former, to have 
 
 been 
 
 * Month. Rev. vol. x. p. 448. Phil. Tranf. part ii. 1792. 
 
 -f- Pure carbonic acid for medical purpofes is beft procured from the Spattirn 
 Calcareum of Cronftedt, by means of the fulphuric acid 5 the other acids being 
 3iot fo proper, becaufe of their volatility, &c« 
 
c ft ) 
 
 been founded from the exuvial matter of animals ; and 
 thefe reefs may, like them, become alfo iflands. 
 
 It has likewife been faid, that carbonic acid is the 
 vinculum of the human folid, which is efpecially af- 
 ferted by M'Bride, who tells us he found it conftantly 
 produced on the decomposition of animal fubftances. 
 No doubt he was right in recommending for feamen 
 the ufe of malt-wort, from which, in its fermenting 
 ftate, carbonic acid is plentifully evolved; the good 
 effects of which wort were furnciently proved in the 
 voyage of Captain Cook, not one of whofe men died 
 of the fcurvy alone : but yet his opinion of its efficacy 
 being owing to the prefence of carbonic acid, does not 
 appear to prove that acid the vinculum of the living folid. 
 
 M'Bride feems to have been miftaken in the inter- 
 pretation of his own experiments, by fuppofing, that 
 our folids contained fixed air; whereas, on the contra- 
 ry, our chemical profeflbr proved, that the folids con- 
 tain not the carbonic acid, hut merely the elements, car- 
 ' and the -principle of acidity, by which, on their 
 decomposition, it may be formed.* 
 
 II. Carbonic 
 
 * The curious experiment by which cur profcfTor proved the compofition of 
 t .r rr.ufcuiar lure was by means of the nitric acid: a pirce of the fibrous 
 or lean flcfli of an ox being expofed, in a moderate heat, to the operation of 
 id, there was a production of azotic gas, and a difappearancc of the 
 beef; on fuffering the apparatus to cool, a greafy fcum was found floating on 
 the furface of the acid. In this experiment the nitric acid, by ;;cu:ng a fur- 
 charge of oxigene from the nVfh, is rendered more capable of decompounding 
 it, for then the -zote, on being more eafily difengaged, unites with caloric, and 
 flies off in the form of nitrogene gatj which leave* the bydrogehc and urbonc 
 nbilte in the oiiy pellicle, whii.ii, on cooling, ft rated mi the 
 
 the lean and £ of animal* convertible to 'fatt 
 
( H ) 
 
 II. Carbonic acid exifts in a ftate of fimple mixture 
 in many mineral waters, from which mixture fuch wa- 
 ters derive the name of acidulae, acidulous, or petrify- 
 ing fprings.* 
 
 The Saratoga fprings, in the ftate of New- York, are 
 efpecially remarkable for containing the carbonic acid 
 in this ftate, which acid may very readily be colle6ted 
 in the form of gas, as is proved by the following expe- 
 riments of Mitchill. 
 
 " A young turkey, held a few inches above the wa- 
 ter in the crater of the lower fpring, was thrown into 
 
 convulflons 
 
 Dr. Mitchill faid too he had been in the habit of confidering that the 
 iiver-oil of fiAes was produced in the fame way: during the fpontaneous de- 
 composition this organ undergoes in a moderate heat, there is an extrication of 
 the azote, which leaves the hydrogene and carbone to form the oil, there ap- 
 pearing to be but little oxygene in the liver. Hence then the great firmnefs 
 of flefh is owing to the very clofe affinity or attraction that the elementary 
 lubftances oxigene, azote, hydrogene and carbone have for each other. 
 
 The mufciilar parts are not only decompofed artificially as in the above ex- 
 periments, but alfo naturally. 
 
 Mr. Sneyd (Phil. Tranf. for 1792, part ii.} gives an account of the con- 
 verfion of a bird into a hard fatty matter. It was fuppofed to be a duck or 
 young goof?, and appears to have undergone its change by lying long buried 
 in the mud of a Em-pond. The /kin retains its original ilruclure exactly, 
 but is in great part feparated from the fleih, though both are nowcompofed of 
 the fame fubftance, which is in confiftence like fpermaceti, without tafte or 
 fmell, melts in a fmall heat, though when congealed again, becomes more 
 folid, and looks like wax. For Fourcroy's narrative of analogous changes in 
 human bodies, in the cemetery des innocents, fee Annales de. Chimie, 
 vol. v. p. 154.; European Magazine, for June, 1794 5 New-York Magazine, 
 vol. v. p. 493 j Chemical Nomenclature, by Profeffor Mitchill, p. 9. 
 
 * An account of a curious fpring of this kind is related in the xxth vol. of 
 the World Dtfplayed, p. 182, the water of which fesms likely to contain iron 
 oxydated by this acid, and perhaps with the addition of a little clay, form- 
 ing one of the ochres of that metal. In other kinds of petrifying fprings, 
 bird's nefts, leaves of trees, &c, have been found inclofed in the midft of 
 petrifactions. 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 convulfions in lefs than half a minute, and, gafphig, 
 mewed figns of approaching death; but on removal 
 from that place and expofure to the frefh air, revived, 
 and became lively. On immerfion again for a minute 
 in the gas, the bird was taken out languid and mo- 
 tionlefs. 
 
 " A fmall dog, put into the fame cavity and made 
 to breathe the contained air, was, in lefs than one mi- 
 nute, thrown into convulfive motions — made to pant 
 for breath ; and laftly, to lofe entirely the power to cry 
 or move: when taken out, he was too weak to ftand, 
 but foon, in the common air, acquired flrength enough 
 to rife and ftagger away. 
 
 " A trout recently caught, and briikly fwimmingin 
 a pail of brook- water, was carefully put into a veffel 
 juft rilled from the fpring: the fifh was inftantly agi- 
 tated with violent convulfions, gradually loft the capa- 
 city to move and poife itfelf, grew ftupid and infenfible, 
 and in a few minutes was dead. 
 
 " A candle, repeatedly lighted and let down near 
 the furface of the water, was fuddenly extinguished, 
 and not a veftige of light or fire remained on the wick. 
 
 " Thefe experiments nearly correfpond with thole 
 ufually made iii Italy, at the famous Grotto del Cani, 
 for the entertainment of travellers, as mentioned by 
 Keyfler, Addifon, and others. 
 
 " A bottle filled with the water and fhaken, emits 
 fuddenly a large quantity of atrial matter, that either 
 forces out the cork, or makes :i way befide or through 
 it, or burfts the vefli 
 
 L< A qu 
 
( iC J) 
 
 u A quantity of wheaten flour, moiftened with this 
 water and kneaded into dough, when made into cakes 
 and put into a baking-pan, rofe, during the application 
 of heat, into light and fpungy bread, without the aid 
 of yeaft or leaven. From which it appears, that the 
 air extricated from the water is precifely flmilar to that 
 produced by ordinary fermentation. 
 
 " Some lime-water, made of ftalaclites brought from 
 the fubterranean cave at Rhinebec, became immediately 
 turbid on mixture with the fpring-water ; but when the 
 water had been lately drawn, the precipitate was quickly 
 re-difTolved. 
 
 " Some of the rock furrounding the fpring, on be- 
 ing put into the fire, calcined to quick-lime, and flacked 
 very well. 
 
 " When the atrial matter has evaporated, the water 
 lofes its tranfparency and lets fall a calcareous fediment. 
 
 " Whence it is true, that the gas is asrial acid, that 
 the rock is lime-ftone, and that by means of the former, 
 the water becomes capable of diflblving and conveying 
 the latter.' 3 * 
 
 III. The other form in which carbone exifls in con- 
 nection with the principle of acidity and the matter of 
 heat, forming carbonic acid gas, is in fubterraneous 
 grottos, caverns, mines, &c. where it has received, from 
 its deleterious qualities, the name of choak-damp, &c. 
 
 It is extricated in this ftate from wine, mead, ver- 
 juice and bread, and from vegetables during combuf- 
 tion and fermentation, as was long ago known to Van 
 
 Helmont, 
 
 * Morfe's Geog, vol. I. p. 457. 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 Helmont, who afferts, that it is by means of the cor- 
 ruption of the aliment, and to the evolution of this 
 gas, that we fhould afcribe the flatus, &c. in the ali- 
 mentary canal.* 
 
 Carbonic acid gas is evolved too during refpiration, 
 as may be eafily proved by pafling our breath through 
 lime-water, which it inftantly turns turbid. 
 
 Thefe are not the only obfervations of Van Helmont 
 on this gas, for he has mentioned it in feveral other 
 places, and particularly in his treatife de Lithiqfl. cap. 
 iv. No. 7. and in his 'Tumulus Pejiis. 
 
 The properties of the carbonic acid are :— 
 
 1 . When it is in a ftate of fimple mixture or com- 
 bination with water, it is deftructive to the lives of fifli, 
 being unfit for their refpiration, as was proved not only 
 by Mitchill in his experiments on the Saratoga fprings, 
 but alfo on another fpecies in the prefence of the che- 
 mical clafs. 
 
 That it is alike noxious to the refpiration of plants, 
 when they are expofed to too great a quantity of it, is 
 fufficiently evinced by Prieftley's experiments. 
 
 The medical properties of this acid are remarkably 
 evident from the effects of the faline draughts of Ri- 
 verius, from Seltzer water, and from the employment 
 of yeaft in the New-York hofpital. 
 
 2. That in its gafeous ftate it is unfit for animal 
 refpiration in air, has been long ago obferved, as we 
 find in hiftory, which informs us that the two flaves 
 
 C Tiberius 
 
 • TtifktXt <'■'- Flatibui, No. 67 and 68- PerGus, Sat. iii. $9. 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 Tiberias Casfar commanded to defcend into the Grotto 
 dd Cano were immediately fuffocated. 
 
 And it is to this gas that Van Helmont,* Morgagni,-f- 
 Hales, J and Addifon § attribute the fatality of thofe 
 who .enter the above Grotto, and efpecially Van Hel- 
 mont, who conceives it to be entirely owing to this 
 vapour that danger is always prefent in cellars contain- 
 ing fermenting ale, cider, &c. and Pliny fpeaks alfo of 
 caves from which deadly exhalations arife ; " and in 
 the territories of the Hirpines," fays he, " there is that 
 of Amfanclus, a cave near to the temple of Nephites, 
 into which as many as enter fuddenly die."|| 
 
 The deadly effecls of the vapours of charcoal, or the 
 carbonous acid, when applied to our refpiratory organs, 
 were fadly experienced a few years ago in New- Jerfey, 
 and many other cafes of the like kind have been re- 
 lated.^" ■ 
 
 The famous lake of Averno too, in which Virgil 
 tells us is the entrance of the Pandemonian regions, is 
 faid to have exhaled fo great a quantity of this elaftic 
 fluid, as to have killed birds that attempted to fly 
 over it.** 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 * Compl. atque Mift. Element. Figm. No. 43. 
 
 -f- De Sed. & Caus. Morb. Epift. 19. 
 
 J Statics, 260, 261. 
 
 § Vol. iv. p. 139. See alfo curious experiments on the fame Grotto, re- 
 Sated in 3 Keyfler's Travels, p. 1145 3 Grand Tour, (by Nugent) p. 404; En- 
 tyclopaed. Brittan. art. Grotto; Tours by Bry done, Moore, Src. 
 
 || C. Plinii Nat. Hift. torn. 1. lib.ii. Cap. xciii. De Miraculis Terrarum. 
 
 ^[ L. Annaei. Senecae ad Lucilium Nat. Quae ft. lib. vi. 28. In quo de ter- 
 ra; motu agifur. Mead, de Venenis, tent. 6. 4 Hoffman, p. 697. No. 22. 
 3 Percival, Eff. vi. &c. 
 
 ** Virg. /En. vii. 1. 82.— JEn, vi. 1. 237, & Notae. This, however, does 
 
( *9 ; 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 (Economical ufes of carbone and its compofitions. 
 
 i. CHARCOAL is ufed in the composition of 
 gun-powder, and the purer it is, the ftronger and better 
 will be the powder. Charcoal, which is generally pro- 
 duced by the incineration of vegetables, and ufed for 
 this purpofe, and which approaches nearer!: to chemical 
 exactitude, is faid to be procured from the Corylus of 
 Linne. It is ufed in gun-powder becaufe of its great 
 combuftibility, which is derived from its colour and 
 natural attraction for oxigene ; for the carbone firft 
 decompounds oxigene air, which produces that tem- 
 perature in which the fulphur becomes alfo capable of 
 the fame procefs, and both thefe more effectually by 
 the great quantity of oxigene the nitre affords. 
 
 The chemical affinities of the ingredients of gun- 
 powder may be underftood by the following table : — 
 
 Pot-afh. 
 Nitrous ia 
 Gun-powder, 4. Sulphur. t Oxigene. 
 
 ror-ain. r . 
 
 Nitrous Acid, | ~ zote ' 
 
 Thefe ingredients in and after explofion form other 
 compounds, according to their refpective chemical 
 affinities: — 
 
 Oxigene 
 
 not appear to be the cafe now, as Silius Italicus (lib. xii.) informs us tliat the 
 noxious vapours which iffued from Lake Averno in the days of Hannibal were 
 entirely diflipated by the free acceflion of air fince the felling of the woods thas 
 furrounded it by the order of Aggrippa. 
 
'( 2© ) 
 
 Oxigene and Sulphur form Sulphuric AcuL 
 
 Sulphuric Acid and Pot-afh Cubic Nitre. 
 
 Oxigene and Carbone Carbonic Acid. 
 
 Carbonic Acid and Pot-afh Mild Alkali. 
 
 Azote and Caloric Azotic Gas. 
 
 Pot-afh and Sulphur Hepar Sulphuris. 
 
 Azote and Oxigene (ift degree) Oxyd of Azote. 
 
 Oxigene and Caloric Oxigene Gas. 
 
 Hence then, from thefe new combinations taking 
 place, we eafily underftand that the explofive force of 
 gun-powder no longer remains a problem in chemiftry, 
 as it is demonftrated to depend upon the formation 
 and extrication of different gaffes, and that as the in- 
 gredients of the gun-powder bear to each other an 
 exact, ratio of proportion, will its ftrength and explo- 
 ilve capacity be increafed. 
 
 The other new combinations that are formed and 
 become more fixed, are alfo eafily comprehended, for 
 we find that in internments wherein this compofition is 
 exploded there remains a refiduary foetid compound, 
 which appears to be the fulphure of pot-afh, coloured 
 hy means of the charcoal, &c. 
 
 Father Kircher fays,* we ought to attribute the 
 difcovery of the above compofition to Barthold 
 Schwartz, or Barthold the Black, a monk of Goflar, in 
 Germany, a man of profound knowledge in alche- 
 miftry. This man having made a medicinal mixture of 
 fulphur, nitre and charcoal, it happened that a fpark 
 fell into it, and caufed it to explode with the mofl 
 dreadful violence. This fo aftonifhed the monk that 
 
 he 
 
 * Mundus Subt«raneus, p. 487. 
 
( H ) 
 
 he repeated the experiment, and more fully difcovered 
 the nature and properties of gun-powder in 1354. 
 
 The invention of gun-powder feems alfo to have 
 been attributed to the fame German by Polydore 
 Vergil,* who thinks him too ignoble to have his 
 name handed down to posterity. 
 
 The compolition of gun-powder by fome, however, 
 is fuppofed to be of more ancient date, for Lord 
 Bacon fays ordonance had been ufed in China 2000 
 years ago.-f- 
 
 " Taught myfterious Bacon to explore 
 
 " Metallic veins, and part the drofs from ore; 
 " With fylvan coal in whirling mills combine 
 " The cryftall'd nitre, and the fulphurous mine; 
 " Through wiry nets the black diffufion ftrain, 
 " And clofe an airy ocean in a grain. "J 
 
 Charcoal is alfo ufed in the arts, for the purpofe 
 of difoxigenating bodies, and efpecially by metal- 
 lurgists, who are thereby afflfted in the aflaying of 
 ores, and reducing them to their reguline or metallic 
 
 ftate. 
 
 • Polyd. Vcrg. de Inven. Rerum, lib. ii. cap. II. 
 
 •f Effay on the Viciffitudes of Things. For a more full account of the 
 «r>mpofition of gun-powder, fee Watfon's Chem. Eff. vol. i. p. 327. 
 
 J Gun-powder is plainly defcribed in the works of Roger Bacon before the 
 year 1267. He defcribes it in a curious manner, mentioning the fulphur and 
 nitre, but conceals the charcoal in an anagram. The words are, ft- 1 tamen, 
 filis pctrx LtJRt mop* can UBRt et fulphuris; et lie facies toniirum, et 
 corrufcationem, fi fcias, artificium. The words lure mope can ubte ate 
 an anagram of carbonum pulvcre. Biograph. Brit. vol. i. Bacon de Secretin 
 Operibui, cap. 11. He adds, that he thinks by an artifice of this kind 
 Gideon defeated the Midianites with only three hundred men. Judges, cap. 7. 
 Chamb. Diet. art. Gun-powder. As Bacoa does not claim this as hll own 
 intention, it ii thought by many to have been of much more ancient difcOYgry. 
 Dirwin Can", i. I.237. i Watfon's Chcm. E/T. p. 335. 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 ftate. It is this Simple fubftance too, on its exilition 
 in the gafeous form from the alkali, that makes the fud- 
 den expIoSion in Pulvis fulminans, when the fulphur 
 and alkali combine, and form a hepar or fulphure 
 which is coloured by the charcoal. 
 
 2. In a State of combination with the carbonates of 
 lime, fuch as chalks, marbles, lime-Stones, marks, tefta- 
 ceous Shells, &c. it is ufed for agricultural purpofes,* 
 and appears to be a natural and considerable Stimulant 
 on the abforbent fyflem of vegetables, enabling them to 
 take in a greater quantity of nourishment and to become 
 more vigorous 5 and our profefTor of agriculture f de- 
 livers it as his opinion, that the carbonates of lime act 
 pretty much like the gypfums, not fo much by yielding 
 nourifhment themfelves, as by operating on the excit- 
 ability of plants, giving them greater appetency for 
 food, Strengthening their digeSlive powers, and thereby 
 enabling them to grow with increafed energy and luxu- 
 riance. And it feems to be that lime which, in its cauSlic 
 ftate, is fcattered over fallow land by farmers, becoming 
 carbonated or neutralized by this acid, that affords that 
 wholefome Stimulus to the future crop \ for, were this 
 not the cafe, the lime would foon deStroy them, as it is 
 well known to do both vegetable and animal fubSlances 
 In its Slate of purity or cauSlicity j though even in this 
 ftate it may be advantageouSly employed in fome cafes 
 to quicken the decay or decomposition of dead vege- 
 table matter, as in dung-heaps, &c 
 
 The 
 
 * Fordyce's Elem, Agric. Andeffon. Agric. Kaimes' Gent. Farm. &c. &cv 
 t Mitchill. 
 
C 23 ) 
 
 The carbonic acid not only appears to be a confider- 
 able ftimulant to vegetables, but they would alfo feem 
 to decompound it, for the purpofe of receiving its bafe 
 into their conftitutions, and this feems countenanced 
 from what has been related concerning the experiments 
 of Myer.* 
 
 Although it has long been difputed by chemiftsj 
 phyfiologifts and agriculturalifts, whether or not char- 
 coal exifted, and was formed naturally by the vegeta- 
 ble ceconomy ; yet, from thefe late obfervations it is 
 found true beyond doubt, that it is a fubftance pro- 
 cured ab extra, and when taken in becomes an ingre- 
 dient in the ligneous part of the vegetable :-f- and by 
 thefe means may vegetables purify the atmofphere, not 
 only by their extrication of vital air, but alfo by de- 
 compofing the carbonic acid or its gas: and hence we 
 perceive that this acid is decompofed naturally as well 
 as artificially, when in the former it goes to combine 
 with the hydrogene of the vegetable, and thus forms 
 their oils and reiins, &c. it being to be confidered, that 
 the moft valuable manures contain very large propor- 
 tions of a carbonaceous fubftance, as in fwamp ma- 
 nure, cow-yard manure, &c. and that the exhauftion 
 
 of 
 
 • Muhlenberg's Letter to Mitchill on the cultivation of the avena 
 Xlatior — gypsum and stone coal as a manure, &c. TranfatS. Agric* 
 Soc. of New- York, for 1794, part ii. p. 215. See an experiment to the fame 
 effect made by Scnebier, related in 3 Chaptal's Chem. p. 32, and by Haflenfratz, 
 Annalc: de Chimie. Month. Rev. new fcries, vol. xi. p. 540. 
 
 •f This appears to be the cafe efpecially with the sphagnum palustrk 
 of Linnc, which is of fo entirely a carbonaceous ftrucrure as to continue for 
 a great length of time undecompofed, when covered with flrata of earthy *i 
 may bcfcco u-^r New-Town, on Lor.g-Illand, &c. 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 of the fertility of foil in old cleared land is owing in 
 a great degree to the confumption by vegetable abforp- 
 tion of that carbonaceous ftratum of dead leaves, de- 
 cayed and rotten trees, &c. which, on the firft fettle- 
 ment of the country covered the furface of it. And 
 the fertility of all our lands appears to be in a confider- 
 able degree owing to the leading ingredient — carbone. 
 
 g. In a ftate of mixture with water ; and, 4thly, in 
 a ftate of gas it may be ufed ceconomically in the mak- 
 ing of bread, as Mitchill not only proved in the ex- 
 periments at Saratoga, but alfo in a ftate of gas, as 
 appears by the following extract : — " Why are barm, 
 yeaft and leaven, and other like fubftances, neceflary to 
 raife fermentation in bread ? It is not neceffary that 
 bread undergo fermentation in order to be good *, but 
 it is fimply requifite that a quantity of fixed air mould 
 be extricated to raife and puff it up. This divides 
 and parts afunder the dough, and renders it porous and 
 foft, prevents excerlive tough nefs and hardnefs, and 
 makes the bread eafy to be broken, cut and eaten: 
 further, fixed air, although a poifon when applied to 
 the organs of fmeli and refpiration, is an agreeable 
 ftimulus when taken into the ftomach, and may ope- 
 rate, when an ingredient in bread, juft as it does in 
 porter and other malt liquors. What good does pot- 
 am do in cakes ? Pot-am contains a great portion of 
 fixed air, which is fet at liberty by the heat neceflary 
 to bake the cake •, and therefore pot-afh fuperfedes the 
 ufe of fermenting mixtures. How is the water of Sa- 
 ratoga fpring ufeful ? In the fame manner. The water 
 
 is 
 
( 2 5 ) 
 
 is decompofed by the heat, lets go the fixed air, which, 
 insinuates itfelf into the bread, and caufes it to be light 
 and fpungy. For what reaibn are holes pricked into 
 loaves of bread ? The heat of the oven not only fets 
 free a large quantity of fixed air, but alio greatly rari- 
 fies it : if, therefore, there be no outlet given to it, the 
 loaf would be burfted in an unfightly manner, or an ex- 
 tenfive blifter would be formed beneath the upper cruft, 
 to the damage of the bread."* 
 
 Carbonic acid may not only be oeconomically applied 
 in the making of bread, but alfo from late obferva- 
 tions in the making of vinegar, as appears from the 
 experiments of Chaptal, who, by means of water be- 
 ing impregnated with near about its own bulk of this 
 acid, and expofed in a cellar where it had free venti- 
 lation, found all that was contained in the vefTels 
 in a fhort time converted into acetous acid; and 
 as there appears to be nothing wanting but a prefence 
 of hydrogene gas, and that particular temperature in 
 which this change may be wrought, it is not improbable 
 that in time this will be found a very cheap, eafy and 
 expeditious way of fupplying ourfelves with this article. 
 
 It has been fuggefted by Percival as deferving trial 
 by florifts and horticulturalifts, when combined with 
 water ;-f- and from what has been faid on the agricultural 
 ufe of lime, &c. modified by this acid, it would feem 
 very likely to produce good effects, as the acid may be 
 decompounded in his experiments as well as in thofe 
 above related. 
 
 D CHAPTER 
 
 • See " Sketch of the Philofophy tt" Houfc-kceping," &c. American Mu- 
 fcum for Oilobsr, 1790, p. 173. -J 2 Med. III'. i>. 147. 
 
C 26 y 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The fubjeff of carbone conjidered medically. 
 
 IF it be true that the fubftances compofing the fan- 
 guineous, nervous and mufcular parts of our conftitu- 
 tions mall at different times exift in greater or lefs pro- 
 portion, or poflefs greater or lefs attraction for each 
 other than is confident with the health and well-being 
 of our bodies; it follows, that when there mall be an 
 abfence or furplufage of one or more of the ingredients 
 forming the compound, the fubftance or fubftances fo 
 abfent, or if they are prefent and exift in a too great or 
 fmall quantity, that difeafe muft be induced correfpond- 
 1 ing to the prefent ingredients and their tendency to form 
 new combinations : and hence it appears, that the ma- 
 terials forming our bodies muft exift in a certain ratio 
 of proportion with regard to each other, in order to 
 conftitute health; every departure from which ratio 
 will produce predifpofition if not actual difeafe. 
 
 That difeafe fometimes arifes from a difproportion 
 of the ingredients or materials forming the blood and 
 the mufcular compages of our flefh, will be fufrkiently 
 apparent by attending to the phsenomena that are 
 chiefly confpicuous in the fymptoms of the two difeafes 
 of phthiiis and fcorbutus, or confumption and fcurvy : 
 the former to be considered as depending upon or occa- 
 sioned "by an excefs, and the latter by a deficiency of the 
 oxigenous principle"; accompanied in the former with 
 a diminution^ and in the latter with an increafe of the 
 
 carbonaceous 
 
C 27 ) 
 
 tarbonaceous material. — And firft then of ' Phibijis pill- 
 monalis. 
 
 PHTHISIS. 
 
 FOR the better explanation of the fymptbms of this 
 difeafe, we mall confider it under the three following 
 heads, which are perhaps as juft characteristics as any 
 of the complaint. 
 
 I. The remarkable lofs of fat, and often of mufcukr 
 
 fubftance apparent in it. 
 
 II. That happinefs, cheerfulnefs and ferenity of 
 
 mind which attend it : and, 
 III: The fever for which it is remarkable. 
 I. The remarkable lofs of fat and often of mufcular 
 fubftance that is manifested in confumption, even to the 
 'extreme leannefs fo confpicuous in the fades hippocra- 
 iica, may probably be explained on the fuppofition of 
 an excefs of the acidifying principle in the following 
 manner : — The oxigene may unite with the carbone of 
 our flem, during the temperature of the fyftem occa- 
 sioned by means of the fever, which increafed degree of 
 heat caufes a greater attraction of the carbone for the 
 oxigene than before exifted, and by uniting with it and 
 caloric, flies off in the form of carbonic acid gas, and 
 takes away the bafis of the mufcles and fat: the bafis 
 of the flem, being thus diflipated, leaves the other in- 
 gredients in greater attractive force • for each other than 
 
 they 
 
 * " Carbonic matter long fince prefente'd itfeff to my mind as likely 
 to be fervkeable in difeafes, where we fhould defire to deprive the fyftem of" ox- 
 igene. Its great attraction for oxigene, in high temperatures, has long been 
 fcnown; and (he experiments of Mr. Lowirz, ami ft'll mote the very forpri 
 -j9?i of Dr. Kels, (Chill'i Annai.£N, ft. 3. 17'j?) and of, Dn liuckholz, 
 
I 28 J, 
 
 they poffeffed before ; fo that they alfo may unite and 
 form new combinations, as part of the hydrogene may 
 combine with the carbonic acid during its formation and 
 evolution from the furface of the body, and form that 
 colliquative or clammy fweat which is fo constant a de- 
 bilitant in confumption. Part of the hydrogene too, 
 may combine with the oxigene, and produce the drop- 
 fkal fwellings fometimes obfervable in that complaint ; 
 and mod other atrophial difeafes, whether they arife from 
 defect of nourishment or from mefenteric obstructions, 
 may, like the confumption, be owing to a deficiency of 
 the radical of the carbonic acid ; and it would feem to be 
 by this combination of oxigene, carbone and caloric 
 flying off in the form of gas, that occafions emacia- 
 tion, not only in this complaint, but in all fevers what- 
 foever. 
 
 II. The ferene and cheerful difpofition which pa- 
 tients in confumption almofl always ponefs, may alfo 
 be owing to an excefs of the fame principle; and it 
 may not be unlikely, that it acts immediately on the 
 vital folid, or living moving -powers, which appear to he 
 fo delicately organized, and to poffefs that peculiar excit- 
 ability, capacity, or fufceptibility of impreffion, that when 
 oxigen, its natural Stimulant or excitant, fhall be ap- 
 plied, an effect or an excitement is produced; which 
 quality, thence arifing from effects fo produced, is what 
 
 is 
 
 (Grin's Journ. per Physik. B. v. p. 3.) mew that at a temperature con- 
 iiderably below thatof warm-blooded animals, carbonic matter is by no means 
 fo inert a fubftance as it has hitherto been reputed. Dr. Moench (V. d. Arz- 
 nev-mittein, p. 221.) affures us, that he has given it largely with fuc- 
 cefs." Beddoes' Letter to Darwin, p. 63. , 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 is called Life ; and in proportion as fuch application 
 mall be made and continued, will be the efFedt and 
 continuance of this pleafant quality in the fyftem, as is 
 inftanced in all the intermediate degrees of the ftate of 
 mind in fcurvy and confumption. 
 
 But this quality, aptitude or relation which the vital 
 folid pofTefTes of being operated upon by its natural fti- 
 mulant, oxigene, may at length be worn out of its ex- 
 citability, as is proved by animals being expofed to an 
 atmofphere of pure vital air, who fhortly after died •, 
 not from the irrefpirability of the air, for animals could 
 live in it afterwards, but from this animal capacity be- 
 ing deftroyed by means of the indirect debility the gas 
 produced on their fyftems ; and hence the above quali- 
 ty muft ceafe, and ceffation of life, or death as it is cal- 
 led, muft enfue. Therefore excitement, which is an 
 effebi produced by the above exciting power, acting 
 upon the excitability of the vital medullary fyftem and 
 irritable fibre, and which is commonly called life, or 
 the vital principle, would not feem to be. a d/Jiincl fub- 
 fiance added to the body, but merely the modification 
 or organization of the component atoms in a fpecific 
 manner, and with due proportions of each of the ele- 
 ments-, which organization and proportion are condi- 
 tions neceflary to life, and the deftruclion of which in 
 all cafes produces or accompanies difeafe or death : — 
 This then, this is the magnum arcanum nature in this 
 cafe of animated exiftence-, that animals, when this 
 quality mail ceafe to cxift, die — to be fucceeded by other 
 animals; and that the fame materials that formed the one 
 
 animal. 
 
( 30 J 
 
 animal, may, after its death, go to the formation of ano- 
 ther. 
 
 That the cheerful difpofition of mind in confumptive 
 patients is occafioned by a fuper-oxigenated fyftem, 
 would feem as fully rational and conclufive as that of 
 the great Haller, who would feign believe that this 
 ftate of exhiliration, wherein the bodily powers were 
 wafting away by difeafe, manifefted a " certain fome- 
 what" which argued an immortality of the foul.* — - 
 However, were we to form a juft and accurate conclu- 
 sion from the facts and obfervations above related, we 
 could not be led to an explanation of the caufe of that 
 " certain fomewhat" which occasions hilarity in thefe 
 patient?, as Haller has done; but, we muft confider 
 ■life as an effect -produced by the action of ftimuli, and -par- 
 ticularly of the ovigenous principle, upon the excitability 
 of the mufcular and nervous fyftem •, and hence, that it is 
 not a principle, but a condition — not a fubftance, but a 
 quality of a fubftance. 
 
 That it is the oxigenation of the fyftem which occa- 
 sions the above quality or difpofition of mind, and that 
 this will be effected in proportion as the fyftem mall be 
 fo oxigenated, will not only appear from the cheerful- 
 siefs it infpires on breathing it, butibe made further 
 apparent hereafter, when the fymptoms of a difeafe 
 fuppofed to be induced from difoxigenation, or a defi- 
 ciency of the fame principle, fhall be taken into confe- 
 deration. 
 
 It 
 
 * rii'u Haller. Element. Pbyfiolog, lib. xxx. %%?>• Signa Mortise 
 
( 3i ) 
 
 It may not, however, be deemed improper to ad- 
 duce here another argument in fupport of what has 
 already been faid concerning the exhilaration of mind 
 in confumption, which appears to be dependant on 
 the fame caufe, and exifting in proportion to the degree 
 it fhall be applied ; it is this, that in general females are 
 remarked to be more fubjecl: to this complaint than 
 males; fo alio it is well known they pofTefs greater ir- 
 ritability, that their imagination and vividity of 
 thought far exceed thofe of males j all of which 
 fymptoms are clearly the effects of their fyftems being 
 comparatively oxigenated in a greater degree than the 
 males; and this is remarkably illuftrated by an obfer- 
 vation made by Pliny, who fays, " The blood of 
 males is commonly blacker than that of females-,"* 
 which change of colour Prieftley has long ago proved 
 to be owing to the influence of oxigenous air. 
 
 Since then it is the principle of acidity that enters 
 and becomes part of the folid fubftance of our bodies, 
 and occasions that ftimulation on the excitability of our 
 nervous fyftems, &c. which produces the phenomena 
 of a living flare, we may with great facility explain 
 many of its functions, which feemed formerly to have 
 eluded the obfervations and refearches of the moft dili- 
 gent phyfiologifts : we have already explained fome of 
 the moft difficult, that at firft fight feemed to have been 
 infcrutable-, and the other powers that follow, dif- 
 tinguifhing dead from living matter, are the internal 
 ftimuli themfclvcs ; " the functions of the fyftem itfclf 
 
 prod i! 
 
 ■ " .-. HHt, V.m. I. lib. i j. op. ,".. 
 
C 32 ) 
 
 producing the fame effect are mufcular contraction, the 
 exercife of {mk, the energy of the brain in thinking, 
 and in paffion and emotion." Thefe, together with 
 the external ftimulant power of oxigene after its appli- 
 cation, produce the fame effect, and life, or the quality 
 of animation, is therefore found to be excited by their 
 mutual co-operance j and hence " is a forced fiate of 
 exiflence." 
 
 This confequent performance of functions, when the 
 ftimulus of oxigene mall be applied to a fyftem, poflef- 
 fing a capacity of being roufed to life, will alfo probably 
 explain, among other of its functions, the circulation 
 of the blood, without accounting for it on the fole ac- 
 tion of the heart, or afcribing it chiefly to the effect of 
 mufcular fibres, by fome fuppofed to exift in the vafcular 
 fyftem.: on the contrary, it would appear to be almoft 
 entirely explicable on the above fuppofition : and in- 
 deed, though the heart or mufcular fibres fhould be 
 admitted to have a tendency to aid the circulation of 
 the fanguineous fluid, yet this appears to be only in 
 proportion as the blood mall be oxigenated, and thus 
 operate on their excitability : and that they have no 
 fuch great agency is further demonftrated by the circu- 
 lation exifting in a human creature born without heart 
 or lungs, wherein the circulation between the fcetus and 
 the mother continued by means of the umbilical cord 
 and placenta, fo as to ftimulate the arteries to action, 
 until, after birth, when the cefTation of the oxigenating 
 
 procefs,* 
 
 * " The foetus has Its blood oxigenated by the blood of the mother 
 
 through the placenta. During pregnancy, there feems to be no provifion for 
 the reception of an unufual quantity of oxigene. On the contrary, in confer 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 procefs, on account of the want of refpiratory organs, 
 was directly followed by death.* 
 
 It is alfo probable, that oxigene is the caufe of irri- 
 tability, from this quality being greater! in parts where 
 moft blood is fent; and where this is abftracted, the 
 vital principle, as Hunter calls it, muft alfo ceafe, as lie 
 proved by his experiments in the bleeding of animals : 
 and, on the contrary, where there fhall be lefs fent, or 
 where it mail lofe the property of being arterial, thofe 
 parts will be lefs fenfible, as is evidently perceived in 
 the liver, &c. 
 
 Animals too, poflefling a great quantity of oxigenej 
 are alfo moft irritable, as is perceived in the tortoife, 
 which will exceedingly well apply to prove that the 
 circulation of the blood is carried on by the means 
 above ftated : for Mitchill relates an experiment made 
 by himfelf, wherein, after withdrawing the blood and 
 injecting water in its place, he found that the heart 
 
 E would 
 
 quence of the impeded action of the diaphragm, lefs and lefs fliould be conti-' 
 nually taken in by the iungs. If, therefore, a fumswhat diminifhcd proportion 
 of oxigene be the effect of pregnancy, may not this be the way in which itar- 
 refts the progrefs of phthifis? and if fo, is there not an excefs of oxigene in 
 the fyftem of confumptive perfons? and may we not, by purfuing this idea, 
 difcover a cure for this fatal diforder?" Beddoes' Obferv. on Calculus, &c. 
 p. 114, 116. 
 
 He goes on further to fay, that (l pregnant women agree with fcorbutic pa- 
 tients in that ftrong inftindtive appetite for vegetables ; and it appears as If this 
 diet wa', the moft fuitable to them.'* 
 
 " Pregnant ...men," faya J?r. Denman, "h:\vegenerally a diflike to animal 
 
 food of every kind, and under every fcrm — on the contrary, they prefer vege- 
 
 , fruit, and every thing cooling, which they eat and drink with avidity, 
 
 •nd in which they indulge without prejudice." Introduce, to Miciw, o.2/)y. 
 
 See Review of Beddoea' Obfcrvationa, tec. 8 Duncan's Med. Com. p. 79. 
 
 * ttt 1 I' • : a Human M*le Monftcr, by Dr. M^nro, iii. Tranf. 
 
 Roy. Sue. Ldin. p. 215. 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 would contract and propel the water for fome time, 
 until, for want of a frefh. fupply of oxigene, it ftopt. 
 This irritability is well known in the eel, turtle, &c. 
 and many of the clafs of amphibia of Linne. 
 
 Oxigene, however, may not only be the caufe of irri- 
 tability in the instances already mentioned, but may alfo 
 produce this quality in vegetables, as in the mimofe, 
 &c. and in all organized matter whatfoever poffeffing 
 a capacity of being operated upon by it. 
 
 III. The fever which attends confumption would 
 alfo feem to be confirmative of the above doctrine, and 
 will perhaps be of extenfive application to the expla- 
 nation of fever in general, efpecially that of the fyno- 
 cha, in which a phlogiftic, or what perhaps would be a 
 more accurate expreffion, an oxigenated diathefis of 
 the blood, exifts to fo great a degree that phlebotomy 
 is often employed to decreafe the action of the heart 
 and arteries. 
 
 That fever is occasioned by an excefs of this principle 
 has been fully proved by the expofure of animals to ah 
 atmofphere of oxigene air, when they have fhewn all 
 the diagnoftics of fever and inflammation. This then 
 being the fact, we can eafily underftand why phthifis is 
 attended with fever, fince it is evident, that fuper- 
 ■oxigenation is the caufe of the complaint ; for the oxi- 
 gene, on account of itsgreat attraction for caloric, al- 
 ways carries a great quantity of it in a combined ftate •, 
 and this oxigene itfelf may perhaps be decompofed by 
 means of the vital folid, and thus not only produce ir- 
 ritability, but alfo occaiion a greater evolution of its 
 
 heat 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 heat from a ftate of combination to that of a liberated 
 form i thus conftituting febrile heat, which produces 
 that degree of temperature iiv the fyftem, by means of 
 which the oxigene, &c. will the more ftrongly be at- 
 tracted by the materials compofing the adipofe and 
 mufcular parts of our bodies, and thus, by forming 
 new combinations, fly off in the form of gas, and pro- 
 duce, in part by thefe effects, the diminution of bulk 
 and ftrength that is obferved in fevers, efpecially thofe 
 that are terminated by colliquative fweats ; and it is 
 this thermometric heat pafling again to a latent ftate in 
 the perfpiratory matter on the furface of the body that 
 in fome cafes occasions the fenfation of chillinefs and 
 coldnefs of which patients complain.* 
 
 Inflammatory 
 
 * Since writing the above, Beddoes' letter to Darwin, on the fubjecl of " a 
 new method of preventing pulmonary confumption," has come to hand, from 
 which the following extract is felected, that the reader may draw fuch infe- 
 rences as may be fuggefted from a comparifbn of what has been delivered with 
 the experiments of that celebrated phyfician : 
 
 " After fecuring a full fupply of oxigene air, the fird thing I undertook was 
 to attempt to throw fome light upon the nature of confumption by an experi- 
 ment upon mvf-.lf. Not having any thing of the phthifical conformation or 
 the flighted hereditary claim to the difeafe, 1 thought I might venture very far 
 in oxigenating myfelf wichout any great rifquc ; and it was impoilible for me 
 to obferve the erTecls fo minutely in another perfon. 1 accordingly refpired air 
 of a much higher than the ordinary ftandard, and commonly fuch as contained 
 almoft equal parts of oxigene and azotic air, for near (avert weeks, with little 
 interruption. I breathed it upon the whole fometimes for twenty minutec, 
 f jnvimci for half an hour, and fometimes for an hour in theday ; but I never 
 continued breathing for above four or five minutes at any one time. I felt, at 
 the time of infpiration, that agreeable glow and li^htncfs of the ch<-(r, which 
 hai been defcribe-J by Dr. IVieflley and others. In a very fhort time I was fen- 
 fible of a much greater flow of fpirita than formerly, and was much more dif- 
 ■'> mufcu'.jr ex»rnon. Ry degrees, my complexion, from .in uniform 
 brown, becam't fairer and f omewhat florid. J perceived a carnation tint at tlv- 
 end* «f the fingrri, and on all the c ivcred parts of the body the flcin acquired 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 Inflammatory fevers prevailing moft generally in 
 northern and lefs in fouthern climates, may alfo poflibly 
 be owing to the fyftem having greater opportunity of 
 becoming furcharged with oxigene and caloric in the 
 former than in the latter, and if fo, confumptive pa- 
 tients will grow better in a warm than in an oppofite 
 
 ftate 
 
 much more of a flefli colour than it had before. I was rather fat, but during 
 this procefs I fell away rapidly, my waiftcoats becoming very much too large for 
 me; I was not fenfible, however, of my mufcular emaciation, but rather the 
 contrary. My appetite wasgood ; and I eat one-third or one-fourth more than 
 before without feeling my ftomach loaded. In no long time I obferved in my- 
 felf a remarkable power of fuftaining cold. Except one or two evenings when 
 I was feverifh, I never once experienced the fenfation of chillinefs, though cold 
 eafterly winds prevailed during great part of the time I was infpiring oxigene air. 
 I not only reduced my bed-clothes to a fingle blanket and cover-lid, but flept 
 without inconvenience in a large bed-chamber, looking to the N. E. with the 
 window open all night, and with the door and windows of an adjacent fitting 
 room alfo open. About the expiration of the above-mentioned time, I per- 
 ceived fome fufpicious fymptoms. It was uncomfortable to me to fit in a room 
 at all clofe. I frequently felt a fenfe of heat and uneafinefs in my cheft; and 
 rny Ikin was often dry and hot, with burning in my palms and foles; my pulfe, 
 which had hitherto feldom exceeded eighty, was above ninety in the evening. 
 At this time I took a journey of about 170 miles, the greater part in a mail 
 coach in the night, the reft onhorfeback. The roads were uncommonly dufty, 
 and feveral circumftances concurred to harrafs and fatigue me. On the way I 
 met with a medical friend, who was much ftruck with the flufhed appearance of 
 my countenance; and upon feeling my ikin and pulfe, which varied from an 
 hundred and four to an hundred and twenty, imagined that I was become hectic. 
 I had now, though but feldom, a ihort, dry cough ; but the fenfe of irritation 
 to cough required an almoft conftant effort to fupprefs it: this fenfe of irrita- 
 tion v/as, as you will fuppofe, attended by dyfpncea. I had alfo frequent bleed- 
 ings at the nofe, an event almoft unprecedented with me; the blood was of an 
 unufually bright colour; which was alfo feen in blood forced from the gums. 
 "Whenever I pierced the (kin in {having, the blood flowed in greater abundance 
 than ufual, and was ftaunched with difficulty." 
 
 In confirmation of what is related in the above cafe, and of the injurious 
 effe&s of vital air in confumption, may be added Fourcroy's relation of the 
 cafes of twenty patients in this complaint, whom he caufed to refpire oxigene 
 gas. Beddoes 2 Obf. p. 116 5 extracted from Annales dc Chimie, iv. 85. 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 ftate of the atmofphere, which is found to be the fact. 
 Adolefcents too, who poiTefs a great ftock of accumu- 
 lated excitability, will, on their fyftems becoming highly 
 oxi^enated, be more lively and fprightly than elderly 
 perfons, who, on the contrary, from a deficiency of ex- 
 citability, are more apt to be melancholic. So alfo will 
 this oxigenous principle, acting upon the vital medullary 
 fyftem of young people, explain why they are more 
 fubject to fevers of the order of phlegmafia?, as well as 
 to confumptions ; while thofe of advanced years labour 
 under indigeftion, &c. and many difeafes of the clafs of 
 neurofes-, partly from a worn-out excitability, and 
 partly from a deficiency of the vivifying and invigorat- 
 ing ftimulus that oxigene affords. 
 
 CURE. 
 
 THE cure of confumption, if what has been ad- 
 vanced be founded in truth, muft depend upon a re- 
 newal of the fubftance or fubftances that the fyftem is 
 fuppofed to have loft : and that carbone or charcoal is 
 the principal abfent material in phthifis, which forms 
 the connection or bond of union between the other in- 
 gredients, mall be endeavoured to be made apparent 
 by the numerous facts which we fhall now confider. 
 
 It appears that carbone is the principal loft material 
 constituting our flefh and fat, not only by the analyfis 
 already related, but alfo from the great debility, and 
 on the contrary from the increafe of ftrength obfervable 
 when it is fo exhibited as to re-enter, and form again a 
 
 confiderabte 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 confiderable proportion of our flefhy fabric ; and it 
 feems to be by the agency of the fame material that 
 the preient complaint is either palliated or removed, 
 even when ulceration of the lungs takes place : it would 
 alio appear to be on this doctrine of carbonating the 
 fyftem, that we are to explain the popular opinion of 
 longevity being moPc frequent, and the benefit patients 
 in phthifis experience by living in places where this gas 
 is abundant.* It is even faid too, there have been in- 
 stances of people in confirmed confumption being en- 
 tirely cured by occupations where this gas is consider- 
 ably evolved, fucli as from lime-kilns, breweries, tan- 
 yards, &c. &c. 
 
 That carbonic acid gas has been beneficial in con- 
 fumption, receives further corroboration from the ex- 
 periments of Percival, who, having exhibited it to many 
 of his phthifical patients by way of refpiration, fays, 
 " the hectic fever has in feveral instances been generally 
 abated, and the matter expectorated has become lefs 
 oitenfive and better digefted."-f- This operation of 
 the gas may perhaps yield an eafy explanation-, — on 
 infpiration it may have a power of diminiihing the irri- 
 tability of the lungs, which it may effect by abforbing a 
 large proportion of their oxigene., which has been con- 
 fidered above as constituting this quality j and alfo, on 
 
 being 
 
 * i Percival's Eff. p. 460. — It is faid, that confumptive patients in Ger- 
 many are ordered to be placed in (tables, among their horfes, cattle, &c. from 
 which practice they experience great relief: and on the fame principle are we 
 to explain the benefit fuch patients have received from the burning of refias, 
 &c. in clofe apartments. 
 
 ■f 1 EiT. p. 3083 and x Prieftley, &c. p. 301. Append. 
 
C 39 ) 
 
 being received into the fyftem, there will be a fixation 
 of a part of it, and as the oxigene will be as it were 
 neutralized, the prefence of it will thus be no longer 
 active. It will alfo operate beneficially by reducing the 
 quantity of pure gas inhaled at each dilatation of the 
 lungs, and confequently diminifh the quantity of the 
 principle of acidity derived to the blood and thence to 
 the folids and fecreted humours, from that fource. 
 
 While this procefs is going on, or as the fyftem fhall 
 become again more carbonated, there will of ccnfe- 
 quence be an alteration in the purulent matter through 
 which the gas is received •, and this too feerris to be by 
 the pus there formed pofTeffing a more fiuid or having 
 a lefs tenacious confiftence, and being more offenfive 
 before than after the exhibition of this remedy : the 
 operation of the carbonic acid gas, then, in thefe laft 
 fymptoms, is probably by its becoming united with part 
 of the hydrogene, which before was not wholly com- 
 bined with the fmall quantity of carbone forming the 
 purulent compound •, but its now becoming united with 
 the fuper-abundant hydrogene, the pus will take on a 
 more tenacious and firm confiftence ; and in proportion 
 as this fhall be effected will the offenfivenefs of expectora- 
 tion diminifh •, for it would feem, that the great quantity 
 of caloric at firft carried by the oxigene in a ftate of 
 combination, and there partly extricated, mould eafily 
 volatilize the hydrogene, azote, and other fubftances 
 with which they were united, and which were probaMy 
 in fuch flight attachment that they might be eafily de- 
 compounded, and forming other combinations, fuch as 
 
( 40 J 
 
 phofphorated or carbonated hydrogene gaffes, &c. be 
 thus volatilized by the agency of thermometric caloric. 
 This being the cafe, while circumftances continue in the 
 above fituation, the pus muft naturally he changed 
 when the charbonic acid gas fhall be exhibited, which 
 requires a greater quantity of caloric to fufpend it than 
 the other gaffes, and which, when it fhall combine as 
 already mentioned and render the difcharge more fixed, 
 muff; of neceffity prevent any further decompofition, 
 and will caufe it to be a more mild and digeftive pus. 
 This may alfo with equal propriety hold good with uK 
 cers on tile external furface of our bodies, which are 
 well known to receive much injury from expofure to 
 air; and as the good effects of applications to them, 
 containing the elements by which this gas is formed, 
 have long been experienced, it may not, perhaps, be 
 unworthy of trial to expofe fuch ulcers to an atmof- 
 phere of this gafeous fluid. 
 
 But the infpiration of the carbonic acid gas is not 
 the only way by which the fyftem may regain its loft 
 ingredient, for it may alfo be received, and pofiibly with 
 more effect, from fuch fubftances being taken for food 
 or drink as contain it, viz. animal food, malt liquors, 
 &c. all of which poffefs but a fmall quantity of the ox- 
 igenous principle : and hence, by the employment of 
 this diet, the carbone, azote, &c. of which they are 
 compofed, may eafily be received into the fyftem by 
 the oper?tion of the chylopoietic vifcera. 
 
 That this treatment is juft and proper is further con- 
 firmed by the experience of convalefcents and emaciated 
 
 perfons, 
 
( 4i ) 
 
 perfons, who fometimes grow fat even to obefity, itn- 
 lefs there mould exifr. fome mefenteric obftruction. 
 This increafe of corpulency may not unlikely be effected' 
 by means of the hydrogene that ftill remained in the 
 emaciated habit, which, upon the admiffion of a frefh. 
 fupply of carbone, united with it and formed the feba- 
 ceous compound ■, and this may have been the cafe with 
 thofe perfons who recovered from the yellow fever in 
 Philadelphia, many of whom, it has been faid, were 
 obferved to increafe in fatnefs. 
 
 Confumption, however, may not be the only difeafe, 
 for haemoptyfis itfelf would likewife feem in a conflder- 
 able degree explainable on the doctrine of a hyper-ox- 
 igenation of the fyftem, without having recourfe to the 
 ordinary way of attributing it chiefly to a mechanical 
 incapacity of the refpiratoiy organs, or to an arteriole 
 pletbcra; and this receives confiderable fupport from 
 patients in hssmoptyfis being fubjecl: " to much fenfi- 
 bility and irritability" — the ingenium praecox Boer- 
 haavii — as alio from the inflammatory diathefis that 
 generally prevails, from the heat and fenfe of pain in 
 the breaft, from the floridity of the blood, rednefs and 
 flu/hi ngs of the cheeks, &c. all which feem to corro- 
 borate the analogy between the two difeafes; and as 
 they fo conftantly concur in each, a conclusion might 
 be inferred, that ha;moptyfi3 mould be considered as 
 an incipient phthifis. 
 
 This explanation of haimoptyfis likewife receive? 
 further confirmation from the known good confequeu- 
 ces that rcfult in port from the fame plan of cure; fuch 
 
 K *3 
 
as fea- voyages, which feem to have been known even 
 in the time of Pliny, as he fays, " for the phthific or 
 confumption there is nothing fo good as to fail or be 
 rowed upon the water, efpecially upon the feaj"* and 
 the fame naturalift, in another place, fpeaks more di- 
 rectly in point, as appears from the following obferva- 
 tion he makes : — " The fea (fays he) afFordeth other 
 ufes in feveral and many refpecls; but principally its 
 air is wholefome to thofe that are in a phthific or con- 
 fumption, as I have before faid, and'cureth fuch as 
 reach and void blood upwards : and truly, I remember 
 of late, that Annseus Gallio, after he was made conful, 
 took this method, namely, to fail upon the fea for that 
 infirmity. What think you is the caufe that many 
 make voyages into iEgypt? Surely it is not for the air 
 of iEgypt itfelf, but becaufe they lie long at fea, and are 
 failing a great while before they arrive thither. "-£■ 
 
 Thefe facts of Pliny's are conftantly confirmed by 
 the daily experience of mariners, who are 'feldom or 
 never fubject to confumption. The good effects of 
 navigation, however, do not appear to arife entirely 
 from the air of the fea, but alfo from the provifion ufed 
 during the voyage, which is that of the animal kind; 
 and hence probably the reafon, together with the little 
 exercife they take, why mariners are more corpulent 
 than men who live on more ; for this fpecies of food 
 not only produces corpulency, but alfo a fcorbutic flate 
 of the fyfiem, which, with the impurity of the air of- 
 tentimes 
 
 * Nat. Hift. torn. 1. lib. zZ. cap. 4. E. 
 •J- Lib. 31. cap. 6. L, 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 tentimes below and between decks, affords Iefs of tlie 
 refpirable portion to the lungs in each infpiration : and 
 fince mips, by means of Dr. Hales, have been fo venti- 
 lated that the air may have a free paffage through them, 
 the fcurvy, which before made fuch ravages, has been 
 lefs frequent in its appearance and lefs fatal in its effects. 
 
 Since, from all that has been faid, it is clearly- 
 evident, that both hasmoptyfis and phthifis are induced 
 according as there (hall be prefent an excefs of the prin- 
 ciple of acidity in the fyftem, then certainly all thoie 
 means by which the fyftem may become fuper-oxige- 
 nated mould be avoided, as alfo the adminiftration of 
 thofe fubftances which have a great attraction for it, 
 fuch as iron, &c* 
 
 May it not be afked, whether the ordinary manage- 
 ment of patients in either of thefe complaints, and the 
 fuccefs attending them, mew that they are treated after 
 a method fuitable to their cure ? Daily experience de- 
 monftrates the contrary — hence, we mould no lono-er 
 advife patients fo afflicted to haften to breathe the 
 country air, already made too pure by vegetable extri- 
 cation-, nor to diet upon vegetables and milk, or to 
 make ufe of acidulous drinks i-f- but to purfue the di- 
 rect contrary method above laid down, if they would 
 for a radical folution of the difeafe : nor mould 
 rfie cxercife of equitation, &c. fo much boaftcd of in 
 
 thefe 
 
 ■ May it not in a great degree be owing to the pretence of iron that fome 
 mineral waterv ate hurtful to confuinptive patients ? 
 
 ■f Sub-acid liquois alone, it it faid, have induced confumption, as haj been 
 •icel by Ionic ladic., who, wi/hing to apucar more than what they lim- 
 .rJinarily delicate, hare made great ufe of vinegar, lemonade, &c. 
 
( 44 > 
 
 thefe affections, be implicitly relied upon, as it is very 
 probable they feldom or never do good without the in- 
 tervention of fome other circumftances not properly 
 attended to, and which are agreeable to the doctrine 
 above expreffed: thus the aborigines of our country 
 have fcarcely ever been obferved to be affected with 
 confumption, which may eafily be accounted for, not 
 from the exercife they take, but by their living in damp 
 woods and Sleeping on the ground, where they refpire 
 lefs pure air, which laft alone has been laid to cure the 
 difeafe.* This, however, is not the only thing : their 
 food too, which is that of wild animals, contain confi-- 
 derable of the loft principle and but little of the oxige- 
 nous. So alfo may it be with agriculturalists, who not 
 only live in a great meafure upon animal food, but alfo 
 receive the exhalations of the earth, by ploughing, &c. 
 The riding on horfeback, therefore, fo much recom- 
 mended by Sydenham and others, muft certainly be 
 Jrurtful on the fingle confideration of there being a lar^ 
 ger volume of air expofed to the fuperhcies of the 
 lungs j and that this is injurious may alfo be fufficiently 
 confirmed from the benefit confumptive patients receive 
 in warm climates, where the air is not fo condenfed, 
 and where confequently cast, par. lefs is breathed. 
 
 The facts which have been related on the caufe and 
 cure of hasmoptyfls and phthifis, will receive farther 
 
 corroboration 
 
 * Van Swieten, in his commentaries on Boerhaave, tells us, on the authority 
 of Solano de Luque, the fuccefsful practice of the banos de tierra, or 
 earth baths in hectic fevers and confumj>tions ? in Qrenada, Andalufia, aad 
 
 «(:h,er provinces of Spain* 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 corroboration from the fymptoms of the difeafe put- 
 poled to be next treated of, viz. 
 
 SCURVY. 
 
 Confumption may not only be • explained on the 
 caufes above alledged, but alfo have a greater proba- 
 bility of truth, from the fymptoms tKat are obferved 
 to exift in fcorbutus; for in this difeafe, in which there 
 is a difoxigmated ftate of the fyftem, we do not difcover 
 that remarkable lofs of flefhy matter, nor that hilarity 
 of mind or Acridity of the blood and fever, which are 
 the fure concomitants of confumption : on the contrary, 
 laxity and debility of the folids, palenefs of the counte- 
 nance, dark colour of the blood, and above all, a fadnefs 
 and deprefTion of fpirits, appear fure pathognomonics 
 of this complaint: all which fymptoms, it mall be en- 
 deavoured to be fhewn, depend very evidently upon a 
 redundancy of carbone in the blood and folids, and 
 upon a deficiency of the vivifying and invigorating fti- 
 mulus of oxigenc. 
 
 The defpondency of mind which is always apparent 
 in fcorbutics, and which is fo oppofite to what prevails 
 i;i confumption, would feem eafily accounted for, by 
 fuppofing the fyftem to contain an cxcefs of carbone, 
 which fhall attract, abforb or neutralize moll of its ox- 
 B{ and in proportion as this fhall be effected, will 
 the production of di reel: debility, from the abftraclion 
 cf fo powerful a flimulus, approach to death or non-cx- 
 ijlence of the quality of life; for it would appear in truth, 
 the fyftem in fcurvy is as much and as ftriclly ju- 
 
 per* 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 per-carbonated) as in confumption it was faid to btfuper- 
 cxigenated. 
 
 The dark colour of the blood,, the vibices and ecchy- 
 morna that make their appearance in fcurvy, would, 
 from what has been faid on confumption, feem to be 
 owing to an abftraffion of the principle of acidity -, and 
 therefore, as is the difpofition of the fyftem to phthifis 
 will the Acridity of the fanguineous fluid appear •, and 
 of confequence, as there mail be a deficiency of the above 
 fioridifying principle, the materials entering the com-, 
 pofition of the blood muft exift nearly or quite in their 
 natural ftate and colour :■ and this appears to happen in. 
 the difeafe under confideration. 
 
 As iron is the chief material entering this circulating 
 fluid, to which, in a ftate of oxidation, it owes its florid 
 appearance •, fo therefore muft the iron re-afTume its 
 priftine ftate and colour, when this fioridifying fubftance 
 fhall be withdrawn in any difeafe wherein fubftances 
 fhall be prefent which pofiefs a greater affinity or attrac- 
 tion for it than the iron. This is remarkably eluci-. 
 dated in fcurvy, in which there appears fuch an excefs 
 of carbonaceous matter as to abftract from the iron all 
 its oxigene, and leave it nearly or perhaps quite in its 
 reguline or metallic ftate. There is, however, another 
 way of accounting for the dark colour of the blood, and 
 which may poflibly be more conclufive j — the carbone 
 itfelf, in fubftance, may enter the circulating mafs, and 
 thus tinge it of different fhades, in proportion to the 
 degree in which it fhall be prefent. This receives con- 
 siderable confirmation from the obfervations made by 
 
 Lord 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 Lord Anfon's furgeons, who fay, that " in the begin- 
 ning of the difeafe the blood, as it flowed out of the 
 orifice of the wound, might be feen to run in different 
 fhades of light and dark ftreaks. Where the malady 
 was increafed, it ran thin and feemingly very black; and 
 after ftanding fome time in a vefM, turned thick and 
 of a dark muddy colour. In the third degree of the 
 difeafe, it came out as black as ink. Laftly, as all other 
 kinds of haemorrhages were frequent at the latter end 
 of the calamity, the fluid had the fame appearance as 
 to colour and confidence." 
 
 From this account it would appear, that oxigene is 
 not only abfent from the iron, but that the carbone itfelf 
 is floating in the fanguiferous fyftem, and thus the blood 
 in the arterial is rendered of the fame colour and com- 
 pofition which is exhibited by the venous blood in 
 health •, and hence the latter muft be fo fully carbonated 
 as to lofe its connection with the iron by this abftrac- 
 tion of the oxigene, which, when in juft proportion, 
 appears to be a cementing principle fomewhat fimilar to 
 that remarked by lithologifts to exift in minerals. This 
 being the fact, it will no long remain a wonder why vi- 
 bices and dark coloured effufions appear in fcorbutus. 
 
 The offenfive breath (dyfodia pulmonica) and the 
 high colour of feveral of the excretions in fcorbutics, 
 feem alfo to arife from the new combinations that are 
 formed on the decompofitions above aliuded to •, — part 
 of the hydrogenc may unite with the azote and form 
 an ammoniacaj compound; or the azote may combine 
 with a finall proportion of oxigene in fuch a way as to 
 
 form 
 
( 4* } 
 
 form the oxyd of azote or nitrogens-, or again, th8 
 hydragene may combine with the phofphorus or car- 
 bone, and form phofphorated or carbonated hydrogene- 
 gaffes -, and it would feein to be by thefe different com-* 
 binations varioufly modified, that not only the above 
 fymptorns of fcurvy, but perhaps all cutaneous erup- 
 tions, difeafes, or ulcers whatsoever, in which there ap- 
 pears to be an acrimony of the circulating fluids, fuch 
 as fcrophula, erifipelas, lepra, cancer, &c." are to be 
 explained : and by thefe various modified combinations 
 perhaps alfo every fpecies of contagious matter what- 
 foever may be generated or produced in animal and 
 vegetable bodies. 
 
 That fcurvy is the direct effect of fuper-carbonation 
 of the fyftem, is further proved from the experience of 
 thofe who are obliged to live principally upon animal 
 food, efpecially that which is in a ftate of putrefcence, 
 which every one knows is already in an incipient de- 
 compofition, and hence may the more readily yield its 
 carbone in the digeitive procefs. Many more facts* 
 however,, might be adduced, if it were neceuary, to 
 fupport what has already been advanced concerning the 
 tendency of animal food to induce fcurvy; fuch, fof 
 inPcance, as what has been related by Sinopceus, who 
 obferves, " there are whole nations in Tartary, who live 
 altogether on flefh and milk, and which people (fays he) 
 are fubject to the moft violent fcurvics. 53 * 
 
 Thefe are not the only caufes to which fcurvy has 
 been attributed, for many consider cold and mcifHtre as 
 
 highly 
 
 * Parerga Medica, p, jtj, 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 highly conducive to the difeafe. Thefe opinions, how- 
 ever, are confiderably doubtful, unlefs they mould be 
 conceived as inducing their ill effects in the way Sandlo- 
 rius afferts ; "for (fays he) too cold windy or wet 
 weather lefTens perfpiration;"* and the perfpiration 
 being thus obftructed, he goes on — " it converts the 
 matter of tranfpiration into an ichor, which being re- 
 tained, induces a cachexy. "-f Sanctorius appears fome- 
 what juft in his conclufions, by fuppoftng and deferr- 
 ing what he thought humidity of the air as favouring 
 the difeafe, which conclufions he drew from his ftatical 
 experiments, wherein he further relates, concerning this 
 obstructed excretion in fcurvy, " that here perfpiration 
 is flopped, the pafTages of it clogged, the fibres are re- 
 laxed-, and the tranfpiration of it retained proves hurt- 
 ful. "J But thefe latter affertions of Sanctorius cart 
 only be partially admitted as caufes of fcorbutus; foe 
 it would appear, that cold air was not alone the caufe, 
 but if any thing rather beneficial, agreeable to what has 
 been already obferved on confumption, in which com- 
 plaint experience gives great atteftation in favour of a 
 warm climate; and for directly contrary reafons mufc 
 it be beneficial in this, becaufe of there being a greater 
 quantity of oxigene air received into the fyftem by or- 
 dinary refpiration in a cold climate, where the atmof- 
 phere is more condenfed, than in a warm one, where it 
 is more rarificd : and confequently the fyftem will ftand. 
 G a greater 
 
 • Mcelicin.i Statica. aoh. 203. 
 •f- Ibid. atih. 1^6. 
 X Ibirfi aph. 14;, 
 
( 5o ) 
 
 a greater chance of becoming oxigenated in the former 
 than in the latter. 
 
 As to the obftruclred cuticular or pulmonic exhala- 
 tions being considered another caufe of fcurvy, thefe 
 likewife would not feem altogether fatisfadtory, unlefs 
 the fyftem fhould be in a ftate of predijpojition, by be- 
 ing already fuper-carbonated, and then all that experi- 
 enced man has faid may be admitted ; for in this Irate 
 of fuper-carbonation, when the cuticular excretion 
 ihall be obstructed and retained, will all the fubltances 
 the perfpirable vapour contained become in fome de- 
 gree fixed, or form other combinations. 
 
 As it appears that carbone is a prevalent ingredient 
 of the flefhy parts of ou 1 -dies, it confequently muft 
 exift alfo in a considerable r "oportion in the above ex- 
 cretion ; and that this is fad:, has been proved by the 
 experiments of the Count de.Milly and others, who 
 have collected large quantities of carbonic acid gas dur- 
 ing its evolution from the furface of the body : this 
 gas, then, being retained in the fyftem, is very ob- 
 viouily an additional help to a difeafe depending upon 
 too much of the fame material. This explanation is 
 further conclusive on the consideration that obstructed 
 perfpiration is not alone, but that fuper-carbonation of 
 the fyftem is alfo a caufe of fcurvy ; and this is agree- 
 able to the above obfervation of Sinopceus; for the 
 food of thofe people, although they lived near the fri- 
 gid zone, yielded the noxious material. 
 
 The doctrine of fuper-carbonation of the fyftem is 
 ftill further Strengthened from there appearing no febrile 
 
 heat 
 
( 5i ) 
 
 heat in fcurvy, which is known to exift, in a consider- 
 able degree, in phthirls ; as alio from the circulation 
 being languid, and from the torpor and debility cf all 
 the functions, — vital, animal and natural, which fully 
 demonftrate a deficiency of the vivifying power of ox- 
 igene. 
 
 The Deliquia, too, attending fcurvy, feem ftrongly 
 to argue the deleterious agency of carbone, when it 
 exifts internally, as well as when it is applied externally, 
 in the ftate of gas, in too great quantities, to parts pof- 
 fefling much irritability ; as it may, by its direEi inter* 
 nal application to the vital " medullary nervous matter 
 and mufcular folid," abftradt from them the principle 
 that gave them irritability •, and hence, in proportion to 
 the degree in which this application fhall be made, will 
 the flate of inanimation, or the torpor and debility of 
 the folids, whether vital or animal, be produced-, and 
 this abstraction of the oxigenous principle, if carried to 
 the greateft degree, will, by inducing direft debility, caufe 
 cejfation of animal exiflence altogether, and this as effec- 
 tually as in the oppofite State of the fyftem, when, by 
 the too great prefence of the oxigene, the animal is 
 ftiimdated to death. 
 
 That the carbonaceous principle, when in too great 
 accumulation in the fyftem, poflirfTes a power of ex- 
 tinguishing its fufceptibility of ftimuli altogether, is 
 a fad clearly demonstrated by the weaknefs and feeble- 
 nefs of the pulfe, by the whole fyftem of folids being 
 in a weakened and relaxed condition, and even by the 
 putridity of the heart itfelf.* 
 
 The 
 
 * Lind on Scurvy, p. 31a. 
 
( 5* ) 
 
 The conclufion, then, from all that has been de- 
 livered, feems clearly apparent, that fcurvy originates 
 from the fame caufes both upon land and fea, and ap- 
 pears to be the fame difeafe ever fince the firft account 
 we have of it on the latter by Vafco de Gama ;* and 
 therefore, " if the axioms for the ftudy of nature, in 
 the material inanimate world, be alfo applicable to the 
 various modes of life and organization," then we may 
 underftand why " effects of the fame kind may be 
 afcribed to the fame caufes -, and the qualities of phe- 
 nomena difcovered by experiments, may be confidered 
 as univerfal qualities of phenomena of the fame kind," 
 in difeafes of the human confutation, as well as in 
 other cafes. 
 
 To put the matter, however, beyond the porlibility 
 of doubt, that they are both induced by the fame iden- 
 tical caufe, viz. fuper-carbonation of the fyftem, the 
 method of cure will in both appear to be the fame, that 
 is, exactly fimilar to the common practice which in- 
 duces confumption.-f 
 
 CURE. 
 FROM the foregoing obfervations, fcorbutus ap- 
 pears to be a difeafe exifting only in proportion as the 
 
 fyftem 
 
 * See the Hiftory of the Portuguefe Difcoveries, Sec. by Herman Lopez de 
 Caftanneda. 
 
 •f That the fymptoms of fcurvy above enumerated are pofitive fa£ls may 
 beevinced from confidering the cafe of the p.uer ceruleatus of Sandifort, 
 as related In the *' Obfervationes Anatomico-Pathologicas, Lugd.Batav. 1777, 
 p. 11. & feq." which cafe is alfo quoted by Beddoes, in his " Obfervations on 
 the Nature and Cure of Calculus, Sea-Scurvy, 1 ' &c. p. 63, but which is too 
 lengthy for infertion in a publication of this kind. 
 
( S3 5 
 
 fyftem fhall be carbonated, or as it fhall be in a condi- 
 tion oppofite to that which exifts in confumption, and 
 therefore, to obtain a radical cure, muft neceffarily be 
 treated by contrary remedies. 
 
 The firft and moft powerful remedy calculated to 
 effect a fpeedy cure appears to be that of oxigene air, • 
 received by refpiration -, and this will the more fully 
 be under flood, when we confider that it is the only 
 " breath of life" as all the other gaffes either cannot 
 fupport, or immediately deflroy the living quality of 
 organized matter. As this is a condition of the fyflem 
 in which life approaches nearly to a ilate of ' non-exiftence, 
 that nourifhing principle or fupport of life is therefore 
 required which the ancients denominated pabulum 
 vita', for Hippocrates pofitively fays, " Principium alh 
 menii fpiritus."* This pabulum vita, or breath of life, 
 then, which is efferitial to animal exiflence, we find in 
 the bafe of oxigene air, the operation of which animat- 
 ing flimulus, as foon as it is received into the fyflem 
 of patients in this moribund complaint, will, on its de- 
 compofition, diffufe heat, life and vigour throughout 
 the conflitution. 
 
 Next to this empyrean gas, which is proved to pcffefs 
 the only principle by which the quality of animation can 
 be excited in organized matter of the human type, 
 poffeffmg a fufceptibility of its flimulus, we mould 
 feek for thofe fubflances that contain the oxigenous 
 principle in the greatefl quantity, having at the fame 
 time fuch a flight attachment for it, that this animating 
 
 ftimulant 
 
 • Hippocrat. dc Alim. v. 68, 
 
flimulant may be difengaged, and thus enter the fyf- 
 tem by the primse vise, as well as when it is received 
 in the manner above expreffed. 
 
 It has been obferved, that fome of the mineral 
 acids do not cure the fcurvy fo fpeedily as the acetous, 
 citric, oxalic, tartaric, &c. this, however, is eafily 
 underload, for the oxigene in thofe acids appears to 
 be in fuch firm combination with their radicals as not 
 to fuffer decompofition like the vegetable clafs. 
 
 Of all vegetables the Citrus {lands firft on the lift 
 in the cure of this difmal and deadly difeafe ; and it is 
 to this alone that Lord Anfon attributes the cure of 
 his men in the ifiand of Tinian, as well as many 
 others who highly extol it;* and it is upon this that 
 Kramer folely relies. -f 
 
 The citrus having been long experienced to be more 
 beneficial than any other vegetable fubftance, may be 
 owing to its containing a larger proportion of oxigene, 
 and lefs of carbone, azote, &c. than other plants-, and 
 this appears to be the reafon why thofe alfo of the Te- 
 tradynamous clafs are greatly recommended; for the 
 fmall proportion of azote, &c. they are found to poffefs, 
 is far more than compenfated for by their exuberance 
 of oxigene. 
 
 Scurvy, however, would not appear to be the only 
 difeafe occasioned by an hyper-carbonated ftate of the 
 fyftem, for many others, efpecially thofe belonging to 
 the clafs of Neurofes, feem to depend upon a want of 
 
 the 
 
 * Mead's Difcourfc on the Scurvy, p. in. 
 
 ■f Krameri Medicina Caft'renlis, part iii, cap, %, 
 
( 55 ) 
 
 the vivifying ftimulus that oxigene affords ; fuch, for 
 inftance, are paralyfis, fyncope when it arifes from 
 direct debility, dyfpepfia, hypochondriasis, chloroiis, 
 tetanus, trifmus, convulfio, chorea, epilepsia, afthma, 
 dyfpnoea when it arifes from debility or paralyfis of the 
 mufcles of the larynx, cholera, chronic diarrhoea, hy- 
 fteria, hydrophobia, amentia, melancholia, and cholera 
 infantum, &c. which laft feems to be almoft pofitively 
 confirmative of this doctrine •, for " out of many hundred 
 children," fays Rufh,* " whom I have fent into the 
 country in every ftage of this diforder, I have loft only 
 three •," two of which, the Dr. fays, did not follow his 
 directions; and he proceeds — " it is extremely agree- 
 able to fee the little fufferers revive, as foon as they 
 efcape from the city air and infpire the pure air of ths 
 country." A fact of the fame nature was related to 
 me by Profeffor Smith, whofe child was very ill of this 
 difeafe, and grew better on his leaving this city to go 
 with it to New- Jerfey : the paflage was at night, and 
 confequently the air more condenfed : the infant, which 
 was carried in his arms in the open air, was well clothed 
 to prevent the ill effects that might perhaps have arifen 
 from the application of cold air to the furface of its 
 body, fo that the face only could be expofed, and hence 
 the operation of the air could only have been on the 
 refpiratory organs.-f That the cure depends upon the 
 influence of oxigene is further evident from the ufe of 
 acids, cfpecialJy the vegetable; for Profefibr Smith had 
 
 two 
 
 * i. Med. Inq. p. 118. 
 
 f Many more fafclj might b« adduced of the beneficial efFc&i of country air 
 from the obfervationj of I'rofcirori Hamtrllcy, Rjd^cis, &c. 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 two patients that were immediately cured by the ufe 
 of the acetous acid,* a proportion of which was taken 
 without his knowledge, and the cure effected much to 
 his furprife. Vegetable acids probably operate in the 
 way related of them in the cure of fcurvy. 
 
 All the fymptoms of typhus feem alfo evidently to 
 depend upon its abfence-, and it is highly probable, if 
 oxigene air mould be adminiftered by way of refpira- 
 tion, there would be happy confequences arifing from 
 its exhibition ; and this is rendered evident from the 
 common practice of hanging up or placing young and 
 vigorous plants in the apartments of thofe labouring 
 under the difeafe-, for mch plants not only perfpire a 
 large quantity of vital gas, but alfo inhale the mephitic. 
 The efficacy of acids alio, efpecially the vegetable, as 
 pofTefling the property above related, is likewife to be 
 accounted for on the fame principle. 
 
 On the contrary, the clafs of Cachexias, as well as that 
 of Phlegmafise, may depend upon an excefs of oxigene; 
 as, anafarca, afcites, hydrothorax, &c. in which difeafes 
 the oxigene may combine with the hydrogene, and 
 form theferous fluids obfervable in them; and hence, 
 for contrary reafons, the infpiration of carbonic acid 
 and hydrogene airs mull be very ferviceable. The 
 remarkable lofs of fat in the omentum, vifcera, &c. 
 renders it frill more probable that thefe difeafes depend 
 upon a too high oxigenated fyftem. 
 
 Should what has been advanced hereafter prove 
 true, it would feem necefTary that a new Nofological 
 
 arrangement 
 
 * Perhaps the acid may have had a phyfiologica! as well as a chemical aC.ion. 
 
( 57 J 
 
 arrangement of difeafes fhould be formed, and clafTed,: 
 according as they are induced, either by an excefs of 
 oxio-enation, or by the different ratios of proportion 
 which the feveral ingredients, oxigene, hydrogene, car- 
 bone, iron, &c. bear to each oth$r in our constitutions. 
 
 It may not be improper here to obferve, that if, in 
 the living human body, (and all others, perhaps) de- 
 compositions and new combinations mail take place, as 
 has been above endeavoured to be made apparent, 
 then it may not be difficult to conceive that the Humo- 
 ral Pathology, which has of late been in fome meafure 
 exploded, mail receive fome cogent arguments in its 
 favour-, for, according as the above related decomposi- 
 tions and new combinations mail enfue, will great al- 
 teration take place in the circulating humours, which 
 in their peccant proportions may induce difeafes and 
 death-, and the correction and adjustment of the pro- 
 portions of which is unquestionably, in many cafes, 
 one of our rational indications of cure. 
 
 In tracing all difeafes, therefore, to thefolids alone, 
 as Milman has done, (who feems almost, to have confi- 
 dered the fluids as ufelefs parts of the constitution) there 
 is certainly a radical error. 
 
 Since, therefore, decompositions and new combina- 
 tions, varioufly modified, are constantly taking place 
 throughout animate as well as inanimate matter, and of 
 which we have fuch manifold experience, it would feem, 
 that a doubt could fcarcely reft with any one, that 
 each and every of us, have, or fhall participate of the 
 different modes of existence that matter, organized or 
 1 1 inorganized, 
 
C 5'* ) 
 
 Inorganked, affumes m the different grades of creation 
 ~—fro'm man to the lithophyte*-~from " the cedar that is 
 in Lebanon to the byjfop that fpringeth out of the wall" 
 —from the mite to the elephant: — thus fubftantiating 
 the fayings made of old— 
 
 " Quocumque flexeris te, habebis ibi DEUM 
 
 occurrentem tibi : nihil vacat ab illo, ipfe implet opus 
 
 fuum." — — - 
 
 . ." JUPITER eft quodcunque vides, quocun- 
 
 que moveris." 
 
 " The fyftem one, one Maker ftands confefs'd; 
 " The prime, the one, the wond'rous and the bleftg 
 " The one on various forms of UNITY exprefs'd.'* 
 
 * " Thou almoft mak'ft me waver in my faith 
 To hold opinion with Pythagoras, 
 That souls of animals infufe themfelves 
 Into the trunks of men." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the 
 expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as 
 provided by the rules of the Library or by special arrange- 
 ment with the Librarian in charge. 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C28(t14l)M100 
 
 
 
 
R73 
 
 =o 
 
 ICO 
 
 EO 
 
 =o 
 
 =o 
 
 |^go logical inaugural 
 
 tar bone, or 
 
\