of contagion may be interrupted by the interdiction of intercourse with the infected, it becomes an object of personal and public policy, that this easy mode of effectually subduing a source of discase, should be completely carried into effect. The author, therefore, with much philanthropy, views the subject in the most enlarged scale, and considers this information as capable of being applied most extensively to every conta gious disease. The more varied and extensive application of the laws of quarantine, is all that is required to subdue with as much effect the contagion of scarlatina, as that of plague.

"Be it well imprinted on every one's mind," says he, "that all infectious diseases

are pests, only inferiour in the rapidity, the degree, and the urgency of their consequences, to that surnamed the plague, from its supposed pre-eminent fatality. Patience, firmness, and perseverance, as in all other instances of evidently promoting public advantage, will gradually overcome prejudice, unreasonable fears, and selfish opposition*. In proportion as plans of prevention become more known and more practised, the great ends of their adoption will be more casily attained, and their beneficial tendency more fully comprehended. The contagion of typhus, small-pox, and scarlet-fever, being known to be capable of complete intervention and local extinction, the transition from controlling these forms of contagion to that of repressing others, as hooping cough, measles, &c. will appear easy and practicable."

It may be said, however, that every species of infection must have had its origin, and that the same causes which originally gave it birth may reproduce it under similar circumstances. But even in this point of view it appears to the author, that immediate measures of prevention will always be productive of great advantage, compared with the consequences which ensue, where no precautions are used. The argument in favour of universal prevention would, however, be irrefragable, if the principal sources of contagion could be discovered, and be then capable of being obviated or removed. With the hopes of throwing some light upon a subject which has

hitherto been considered as too obscure to admit of elucidation, the author employs considerable pains, and some ingenuity, in attempting to discover the origin, and trace the rise of contagious diseases. Of his ideas on this part of his subject, we shall, therefore, proceed to give a general abstract.

Certain exhalations, or marsh miasma. ta, as they are usually termed, have the pe, culiar effect of inducing fever on human bodies, exposed in certain circumstances to their influence, and hence these exhalations should, in the author's opinion, more properly be called, paludal febrilizing gases. The effluvia from febrile animal bodies, and the exhalations from marshes, swamps, and mud, are considered by him as gases of a peculiar compo sition, of which hydrogen or the prin ciple of humidity, forms an essential part. But the opinion entertained by him on this subject does not appear to be supported by adequate evidence. He admits that the precise composition of pyrexial gases, whether contagious, vered, but from a great number of facts, limose, or palludous, has not been disco considers it evident, "that an aqueous constituent is essential to the composi tion of both."

"In the citations," he continues, “already extracted to prove the effect of marsh miasmata, it has been amply demonstrated, that dampness, moisture, or humidity, is always an indispensable ingredient in the exhalations which induce fever. But another very important truth is also now, I believe, for the first time, brought to light, that, by depriving the pyrexial gases of their aqueous or hydrogenous principle, they are, for the time, annihilated. That, upon this sole principle, we are enabled to account for the well-known fact, that extreme additions or abstractions of caloric or heat, arrest the progress, or destroy the existence of all epidemic and con

tagious diseases."

It seems difficult to determine whether the author applies his reasoning to hydrogen in a separate or combined state. If in a combined state, in the form of aqueous vapour, it can only be supposed to be the medicum in which the contagion is carried; if in a separate, the

addition or abstraction of heat from a permanently elastic vapour does not seem to be capable of annihilating it. No facts have been brought forward to prove, that hydrogen gas possesses any such deleterious properties as those which the author ascribes to it, and, if it is only supposed to be a part of a poisonous compound, we are still in the dark with regard to the other, and perhaps the most necessary ingredients.

The exhalations or gases above-mentioned, seem to be capable of producing simple fever, which, by exposure to "accumulated febrilized animal effluvia," are supposed to be converted into contagious fever, and thus rendered adequate

to propagate each other. All contagious diseases are thus supposed to arise originally from similar causes, and the ptculiar differences by which the various species of contagious diseases are distin guished, are conjectured to proceed from accidental circumstances, as eruptions of various kinds, with which the original simple disease may have been combined. Specific contagions are thus supposed to be transmitted propria forma,

lar principles with which hereditary diseases, "-from one subject to another, on simipeculiar constitution, similitude of temper and person, are conveyed from parents to children. The process of previous animalization is equally inexplicable in both."

IT is seldom that outlines of lectures can do more than give the reader an idea what the lectures themselves would be, cr afford some instruction to him who would wish to repeat the experiments exhibited in the lecture-room. In this point of view the small volume before us, and the plates that accompany it, may assist the student. The cases to which the author has applied electricity as a cure of disease, are detailed more at large, and with apparent accuracy and candour. We shall give two of them.

Opacity of the Cornea.

"A girl, aged six years, had an opacity of the corner of both eyes, in consequence of the small pox, which was so considerable that you could not observe the pupil; she could tell when a candle was brought inte the room, but could not distinguish objects; she had been in this state two years; the usual applications had been tried. I drew the aura with a wooden point from the parts affected ten minutes a day for fourteen days, continuing the applications without any visible effect; during this time the electricity did not give any pain, but on continuing it the parts became very irritable, much pain being occasioned by the fluid. I now ob served a visible alteration; the girl began to distinguish objects, and by the end of three electrified the eyes occasionally, and at the months a cure was nearly effected. I now vered. I have had other successful cases of end of six months she was perfectly recoopake cornea, though I have been unsuccessful in many. I have observed that those opacities occasioned by the small-pox yield more readily to electricity than those occa sioned by other causes."

We have preferred these cases, as the benefit received was palpable, and not liable to be exaggerated by any influence of the patient's imagination.

THIS decided testimony to the importance of electricity in the cure of diseases, was inserted many years ago in

Mr. Adams's treatise on electricity, and is now published separately. We there fore only notice it to introduce an obser

1

793

lishment.

WITH a great display of oriental erudition, and a long motto in the Persian character on the title page, which we are not able to translate, this pamphlet gives but little real information on the two articles of pharmacy which the author professes to describe.

The Bit Noben appears to be one of the commonest salts in India, and has been employed from time immemorial by the natives, as a sovereign remedy for a vast number of complaints. Its external ap pearance is in brown irregular lumps; to the taste it is salt and sulphureous. All that the author knows, or chooses to tell about its chemical properties, is included in the following imperfect account:

"When dry, the salt has scarcely any perceptible smell, but when moistened, it emits A strong sulphureous foetid odour. It dissolves readily in a small proportion of water, forming a solution of a greenish colour, which has been found, by experiments, to possess all the properties of the Harrowgate or Aixla-Chapelle waters. The solution emits a strong sulphureous smell, resembling bilge water, rotten eggs, or the foulest gun scourings, which goes off by exposure to the air. The solution soon deposits a little black sediment, which has been found by the application of the magnet to be oxid of iron. On the addition of a little vitriolic, muriatic, or nitric acid, the greenish colour is instantly destroyed. The vitriolic acid causes a slight effervescence, while the nitric acid produces a milky appearance without any effervescence whatever. Caustic potash restored the cofour which had been destroyed by the muri

atic and nitric acids; but, on adding it to the solution which contained the vitriolic acid, instead of a green it caused a brownish apsmall quantity of extract of lead, poured into pearance, with an evident precipitation. A a fresh solution of the salt, caused a very copious precipitate. A silver spoon, Jaid over it, became discoloured in a short time. By exposure to the air, the greenish tint and fœtid smell gradually disappear, and the liquor becomes as clear as the purest water; and when this has taken place, on pouring found to be lined with a film of sulphur.— out the liquor, the inside of the vessel is in a china plate, by the heat of the sun, A quantity of clear solution was evaporated which left a number of cubical crystals, which, from the taste and other circumstances, appeared to be very pure muriate of soda, the neutral salt that predominates in the mineral waters of Aix-la-Chapelle, Harrowgate, Moffat, and indeed of almost all sulphurated springs."

After this the author concludes that the Bit Noben dissolved in water, would be a valuable and cheap substitute for these celebrated waters.

"Here, then, we have the neutral salt that impregnates these waters, and the sulphur in union with hydrogen, on which the efficacy of both the hot and cold sulphurated waters are in a great measure allowed to depend; and, what surprises the chemist, is the sulphurated hydrogen mostly uncombined. From the casy solution of the salt in water, and the sulphurated hydrogen being in such abundance, a water of any degree of strength, either of the gaseous or saline impregnation, may be prepared; the super sulphurated hot

waters of Aix-la-Chapelle may be imitated with equal facility as those of Harrowgate and Moffatt, by merely heating the water be

fore the salt is added to it."

Mr. Henderson may indeed make a foetid saline sulphureous liquor by means of this salt, but he ought to have known a little more of chemistry before he ventured to pronounce that "it really affords the means of imitating the sulphurated mineral waters, to much greater perfection than ary process we are yet acquainted with.""

The Bit Noben appears, by our author's account, to be an artificial prepazation, or rather perhaps a native salt, which has undergone some preparation. It purges in moderate doses, and it seems to have the medicinal virtues which one would expect from a sulphureous saline purgative.

With regard to the Calamus Aromaticus, we are informed that it is a very pure bitter, without any aromatic flavour, and sold in the Indian markets for a trifle; but that Dr. Bruce, though he

ΣΤΟΜΑ

offered an hundred guineas for a fresh plant of it, could not obtain one, and was obliged to describe it from a dried specimen. After a long quotation Prosper Alpinus, and one or two other writers, the author professes to pt the controversy about it out of dispore, be giving Pomet's drawing of a handle of the calamus, together with the part that furnishes it; so that it does appear that Mr. Henderson himself never saw the fresh Calamus plant, any more than Dr. Bruce.

As the Indian Calamus is a pure bitter without aroma, we can hardly agree with the author that it would be a very valuable addition to our materia medica, so long as we can procure gentian or quassia.

It appears that a quantity of Bit No ben has been imported into this country, but has attracted very little notice, It certainly more deserves a trial than many new medicines, even than the boasted Lichen Islandicus.

IN the review of M. Guyton Morveau's treatise, in our former volume (page 813), we gave a short history of the discovery and application of the vapours of mineral acids to destroy contagion, and we there mentioned that the merit of being the first discoverer was undoubtedly due to the late Dr. James Johnstone of Worcester. The pamphlet before us is a short and satisfactory statement of the claims of Dr. Johnstone, given by his son Dr. John Johnstone; and as the value of the discovery must be felt by every impartial observer, and has been sanctioned by a national reward to a supposed inventor, we think it right to state it in the author's own words:

"In 1802, the report of the committee of the house of commons on Dr. C. Smyth's petition, states another sentence of Dr. Lind, that a certain method of destroying infection in places whence persons cannot be removed, is a desideratum not yet obtained in physic. Many things had been proposed and tried, but without effect."

Nearly fifty years before the framing of this report of the coinmittee of the house of commons, a country physician had acquired eminence by the discovery of a certain method of destroying infection, which could be used with perfect convenience in the apartments

of the sick. In 1758, Dr. James Johnstone published his Historical Dissertation concerning the malignant epidemical Fever of

1756, with some Account of the malignant Kidderminster.' In that dissertation, adoptDiseases prevailing since the year 1752, in ing the theory of the day, he proposes to keep the air free from putrefaction by the steams of vinegar; or, as a more effectual method,

the marine acid may be raised very easily, by putting a certain quantity of common salı into a vessel, kept heated upon a chaffing dish of coals; if to this a small quantity of air will be filled with a thick white acid oil of vitriol is from time to time added, the stream. It is fortunate for the fame of Dr. Johnstone, that this discovery was published at that time. He had used the mineral acid vapour to correct the contagion of putrid fever in his earliest practice. The advantage derived from it became so well known in Kidderminster, that the manufacturers, during the prevalence of fevers in that town, spontaneously placed the fuming vessels in their shops; and Dr. Johnstone continued to use the muriatic vapour in his extensive practice, to the last hour of his life; yet all this would have availed little, had it remained a mere matter of prescription. It would have been neglected or undervalued, and perhaps the practice and discovery altogether denied. I shall not dwell on these possibilities. It was published in 1758, as having been practised in 1756; and the book attracted so much notice that the whole edition was quickly sold."

The truth of this statement is corroborated by further evidence.

"Mr. Crane, the present eminent and respectable surgeon in Kidderminster, is prepared to give the fullest testimony, that the muriatic acid vapour was so commonly used, when he settled in business, more than thirty years ago, that the manufacturers placed it spontaneously in their shops, when fever was apprehended; and that in malignant cases it was always ordered by my father. He remembers Mr. Cooper and Mr. Symonds, two old and eminent surgeons of Kidderminster, who were employed with my father in his earliest practice, to have frequently men tioned the discovery of muriatic vapour; and the use of it in the fever of 1756; and its continual use, when occasion called for it, from that period."

Nor had the confidence in the muriatic fumigation at all diminished in the county of Worcester during the time of Dr. Smyth's supposed original experiments, on which he founded his claim to national remuneration. Dr. Smyth, according to the evidence brought before the House of Commons, first used it in 1780. In 1779, Dr. James Johnstone, jun. in his Treatise on Sore Throat, expressly recommended the muriatic fumigation discovered by his father. In 1783, a malignant fever, which had broken out in Worcester gaol, was subdued by acid fumigation; and in 1784, it became the subject of public enquiry.

"In consequence of the alarm of the gaol fever, and a report that it had spread into several parts of Worcestershire, Sir Francis Buller wrote to my father in the beginning of 1784, desiring information of the state of Worcester gaol, and if there were any fever, or risque of infection, he would adjourn the ensuing Lent assize to Bromsgrove, or some other town in the county. There had been solitary instances of fever in the county gaol, and in the neighbourhood of Droitwich, towards the close of 1783; but there had been no peculiar symptoms of maliguity in these cases; the judge was therefore encouraged not to adjourn the assize from the city of

Worcester. My father was, however, desired to recommend measures of precaution; and in consequence the gaol was fumigated, the prisoners fresh cloathed, and the county hall was also fumigated during the whole of the assize. The event was favourable, no fever appeared.

"Shortly after, a malignant fever broke out in the workhouse of Kidderminster, and Upon this occasion my father was called in upwards of twenty persons were infected.the whole house to be fumigated with muriby the magistrate of that borough; he ordered atic vapour, the patients to be washed with vinegar and water, and nice attention to be gion was soon stopped, and my father received paid to cleanliness. By these means contaa vote of thanks from the inhabitants of that populous town."

The remainder of this pamphlet is occupied with the fullest and most irrefragable evidence, that not only the power of the muriatic acid is to all appearance fully equal to the nitrous, but that it can be employed with equal convenience to the patient, without producing cough, sense of suffocation, or any other uneasiness, provided it is managed with prudence and caution. The testimony given by M. Guyton Morveau, corroborates this fact; and we fully agree with Dr. Johnstone, that no valid evidence appears for giving the preference to the nitric acid. The superior diffusibility of the muriatic vapour, at a low temperature, will amply explain the reason why its effects should be more sudden, and should require a somewhat different management; but where the quantity of vapour is equal in a given space, both acids appear equally to destroy contagion, and to be equally safe to the patient.

Dr. Smyth cannot even claim the merit of reviving, but simply of extending with well established in the centre of the kinga trifling variation, a practice already dom by the most weighty and respectable authority: the reward has been his, let the honour, now posthumous, be paid to the memory of the real inventor.

DR. Gibbes has already distinguished himself as a chemist in the analysis of these celebrated waters. In the present treatise he describes all the medicinal powers that are attributed to them, and gives directions for their use,

We do not find that Dr. Gibbes has thrown any real light on the modus operandi of these waters, or has made any other practical observations_than have been already given by the different advocates for Bath. The whole is in the