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             A



   CHEMICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL




INAUGURAL DISSERTATION



            ON





    CARBONE. 
 
       CHEMICO-PHYSIOLOGICAL
INAUGURAL  DISSERTATION
                        ON
     CARBONE,  or  CHARCOAL.
        SUBMITTED TO THE PUBLIC EXAMINATION
                      OP  THE
     FACULTY   OF  PHYSIC,
             UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE    ™
   TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE,
                      IN  THE
            STATE OF NEW-YORK:
WILLIAM SAMUEL  JOHNSON, LL.D. Prefident:
                 FOR. THE DEGREE OF
      DOCTOR  OF  P H T S I C\
            ON THE FIFTH DAY OF MAY, 179^.
By WILLIAM MORREY ROSS,
      Citizen of the State of New-Jerfey.
     *' Ea quae fcimus, pars minima eorum
  Quae ignoramus."---------
Prseftat naturae voce doceri quam ingenio fuo fapere.       • de»-
     Late, when the mafs obeys its changeful doonW-£>v       *- w^--,'
     And finks to earth, its cradle and its tomb,.^1            'v^
     ----with nice eye the flow folution watch, ;; TTT>T> A T}~~ c.;>
     With foftering hand the pai ting atoms catch,  " If *} "t"A ffL~*~'
     Join in new forms, combine with life and ("enfe»: ** 0 ' U J  £\.
     And guide and guard the tranfmigrating Ens.  jf- -'..... - V>»
                                       "Darwin.
           NEW- YORK:
   PRINTED BY T. AND J. SWORDS,
Printers to the Faculty of Phyfic of  C;.lu:ubia Colics'1
               — 1795.—
nio'i   o 
 
T O
   SAMUEL LATHAM MITCHILL, M.D.

     Profeffor of Chemifiry and of Botany in Columbia College,
            Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
Foreign Affociate of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences at Capr
                          Francois,
       Member of the Philofophical Society at Philadelphia,
   Of the Royal Medical, Chemical, Natural Hifiory and Phyfical
                   Societies  of Edinburgh,
    Secretary of the Agricultural Society of the State of New- York,
                        &c. &c. &c.

Who has ever manifcfted, during my refidence with him, thr
   moft friendly attention, and given every afliftance in forming
     the  outlines of  my medical education; and who, it
       is hoped, will receive this Inaugural Effay, with all
         its imperfections, as a memorial  of efteem
            and refpeft, from his friend and pupil,-
Wm. M.ROSS. 
 
                   THE HONOURABLE

           JOHN  CHETWOOD,  Efc

 One of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State of New-J erfey,
                       &c. &c. &c.
   Whofe moral, intellectual and juridical endowments are
                of eftablifhed pre-eminence:

                           AND

              AARON  OGDEN, Efqi

                     In whom are united
         The COUNSELLOR  and the PATRIOT;

Will alfo receive this infcription as a refpe&ful 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  iimple fubftance of carbone,  or
charcoal,  is treated of.
  II.  Its natural and chemical hiftory.
  III. Its ceconomical ufes;  and,
  IV. The fubject of carbone is confidered medically.

                CHAPTER I.
 Of the pure and ftmple 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 fubjection to calo-
                                           ric, 
                      (   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 fubject 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 fubjerjt to decompofition 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 carhonous
acid,  or oxyd of carbone, is produced-,  and if a fufficient
proportion  of caloric be  added to this,  it forms the
carhonous acid gas,  or the gafeeus  oxyd of carbone: in
the fecond degree of oxigenation, the carbonic acid is
produced, to which if a fufficiency  of caloric be added,
it is converted into carbonic acid gas.
                 CHAPTER  II.
           Its natural and chemical hifiory.
  CARBONE is the bafis of that aeriform fluid which
feems to have been firft noticed and defcribed by John
                                            Baptift
              * 3  Watfon's Chem. Eff. p. 48. 
t   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 fylveftris.
   To this fpiritus fylveftris, then, as the predeceflbrs of
Van Helmont called it, he took upon himfelf to affix
the name of gas, or gas fyheftre, which he defines to be
" an incoercible fpirit or vapour, which can neither be
collected in veflels,  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 ;3<? 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 atmofphstric acid.
                         B                    That

  * Helmontii Ortus Medicinse, Cap. Complexlonum atoue rniftionum Ele-
mentalium Figmentum, No. 14.
  f Dr. Hales.
  \ Mr. Bewley and Dr. Rutherford.
  § Falconer on fixible air.
  \\ Tranflator of Chemical Dictionary.
  «|  1 Bergman's Chem. Eff. p. 3. 
(   io  )
   That  this fubftance is an acid was  proved  by our
chemical profeiTor-------
   i.  Water impregnated with it, and agitated with the
tincture of lacmus, or the litmus paper, turned them
red.
   2.  By the precipitation of lime, from lime-water.
   3.  By water being highly 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
cryftallization.*
   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
fixed air contained in marble, by the intervention of
phofphorus into refpirable air and charcoal -,-f- however,
as they did not appear altogether fatisfactory, Pearfon
repeated them, and has lhown, that although the com-
pound affinities on which the refult depended  did not
neceffarily warrant the conclufion,  yet his " well-ima-
gined experiments have in our opinion,"  fay  the re-
                                           viewers,
  * For a more circumftantial detail of the tefts of its acidity, the elaborate
work of Cronftedt may be con fu I ted.  (1 Cronftedt's Mineral, ad edit, by
Magellan p. 320, art. Acidum Aereum.)
  ■f See Month. Rev. vol. vii. new feries, p. 71, 
(   "   )
viewers, " fo fully eftabliihed the decomposition' 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 foflil 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, in
its elaftic ftate, to 20 ounce meafures of water.  When
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-
ject and decompofed in the operation.   Quick-lime
which had undergone fire in a reverberatory during 48-
hours,  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 100 grains, and gave a considerable 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
in 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 Spatum
 Calcareum of Cronftedt, by means of the fulphuric acid } the other acids being
 not fo proper, becaufe of their volatility, &c. 
                      C   13   )
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 fufficiently 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 profeiTor proved,  that the folids con-
tain not the carbonic acid, but merely the elements, car-
hone and the principle  of acidity, by  which,  on their
decomposition, it may be formed.*
                                          II.  Carbonic

   * The cunous experiment by which our profeflbr proved the compolition of
 the mufcular fibre was by means of the  nitric acid: a piece of the fibrous
 or lean flefh of an ox being expofed, in a moderate heat, to the operation of
 this acid, there was a production of  azotic gas, and a difappearance 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 getting a fur-
 charge of oxigene from the flefh, is rendered more capable of decompounding
 it, for then the azote, on being more eafily difengaged, unites with caloric, and
 flies off in the form of nitrogene £as, which leaves thehydrogene ar.d carbone
 of the flefh to combine in the oily pellicle, which, on cooling, floated on the
 furface. And thus are the lean and fibre us parts of animals convertible to fat. 
(   H   )
    II. Carbonic acid exifts in a ftate of Simple  mixture
 in many mineral waters,  from which mixture Such wa-
 ters  derive the name of acidulas, acidulous, or petrify-
 ing Springs.*
    The Saratoga Springs, in the ftate of New-York, are
 efpecially remarkable  for containing  the carbonic acid
 in this ftate, which acid may very readily  be colledted
 in the form of gas, as is proved by the following expe-
 riments  of Mitchill.
    " A young turkey, held a few inches abpve the wa-
 ter in the crater of the  lower fpring,  was  thrown into
                                                  convulsions

   Dr. Mitchill  faid too he had  been in the habit of  confidering that the
 liver-oil of firhes was  produced in the fame way: during the fpontaneous de-
 compofition 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
 fubftances oxigene, azote, hydrogene and carbone have for each other.
   The mufcular 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 goofi;,  and appears W have undergone its change by  lying long buried
 in the mud of a fifh-pond.  The fkin retains its original ftructure exactly,
 but is in great part feparated from the flefh, though both are now compofed of
 tie fame fubftance, which is in confidence like fpermaceti,  without tafte or
 foicH, 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 Annates de: Chimie,
vol. v. p. 154; European  Magazine, for June, 1794; New-York Magazine,
vol. v.  p. 493; Chemical Nomenclature, by Profefibr Mitchill, p. 9.
   * An account of a curious fpring of this kind is related in the xxth vol. of
 the World Difplayed, p. 182, the water of which feems likely fWf*Tron
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  )
convulsions in lefs  than half a minute,  and, gafpfng,
Shewed  Signs of approaching death -, but on removal
from that place and expofure to the frefti 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 convulsive 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 Stand,
but foon, in the common air,  acquired Strength enough
to rife  and Stagger away.
   " A trout recently caught, and brifkly fwimming in
a pail of brook-water, was carefully put into a veffel
juft filled from the fpring: thefilh was inftantly agi-
tated with violent convulsions, gradually loft the capa-
city to move and poiSe itfelf, grew Stupid and infenfible,
 and in  a few minutes was dead.
   " A candle,  repeatedly lighted and let down nerj
 the furface of the water,  was fuddenly extinguiihed,
 and not a veftige of light or fire remained on the wick.
    " Thefe experiments nearly correfpond with thofe
 ufually made in 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 serial matter, that either
 forces  out the cork, or makes a, way befide or through
  it, or burfts the veflel.
                                       " A quantity 
                     (   16   )
   " A quantity of wheaten flour, moiftencdwith 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  fimilar to that
produced by ordinary fermentation.
   " Some lime-water, made of Stalactites brought from
the fubterranean cave at Rhinebec, became immediately
turbid on mixture with the Spring-water -, but when the
water had been lately drawn, the precipitate was quickly
re-diflblved.
   " Some of the rock furrounding the fpring, on be-
ing put into the fire, calcined to quick-lime, and flacked
very well.
   " When the serial matter has evaporated, the water
lofes its tranfparency and lets fall a calcareous fediment.
   " Whence it is true, that the  gas is aerial acid, that
the rock is lime-ftone, and that by means of the former,
the water becomes capable of diflblving and conveying
the latter."*
   III. The other form in which carbone exifts 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. 
»7   )
Helmont, who aflerts, 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 Lithiafi. cap.
iv. No. 7.  and in his Tumulus  Peftis.
   The properties of the carbonic acid are:—
   1.  When it is  in a ftate of fimple  mixture  or com-
bination with water, it is deftrurftive to the lives of fifti,
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
« TractAt. de Flatibus, No. 67 and 68,  Perfius, Sat.iii. 99. 
(   I»   )
Tiberius Casfar commanded to defcend into the Grotto
del 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 Amfanctus, a cave near to the temple  of Nephites,
into which as many as enter fuddenly die."||
   The deadly effects 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, f
   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 elastic
fluid,  as to  have killed birds that attempted  to  fly
over it.**
                                        CHAPTER
  * Compl. atque Mifc. Element. Figm. No. 43.
  + De Sed. & Caus. Morb. Epift. 19.
  X Statics, 260, 261.
  § Vol. iv. p. 139.  See alfo curious experiments on the fame Grotto, re-
lated in 3 Keyfler'sTravels, p. 114} 3 Grand Tour, (by Nugent) p. 404- En-
cydopjed. Brittan. art. Grotty Tours by Brydone, Moore, tec.
  || C. Plinii Nat. Hift. torn. x. lib.ii.  Cap. xciii. De Miraculis Terrarum.
  qf L. Annaei. Senecae ad Lucilium Nat. Quaeft.  lib. vi. 28. In quo de ter-
ras motu agitur.  Mead, de Venenis, tent. 6. 4 Hoffman, p. 697. No. 22.
X Percival, Eft. vi. &c.
  ** Virg. /En.vii. 1. 82.—Ma. vi. I.237, &Notse. This, however, does 
Q   19  )
                 CHAPTER III.
    (Economical ufes of carhme and its compofitions.
   1.  CHARCOAL is ufed in the composition of
gun-powder, and the purer it is, the Stronger 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 neareft to chemical
exactitude, is faid to be procured from the Corylus of
Linne.  It is ufed in gun-powder becaufe of its great
combustibility,  which is derived from its  colour  and
natural attraction for oxygene -,  for  the carbone  firft
decompounds oxygene 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 oxygene the nitre affords.
   The chemical affinities of the ingredients of  gun-
powder may be understood by the following table:—
XT.     f  Pot-afh.       c  .   ,
Nltrc'  {  Nitrous Acid,  j £zote'
                                           Oxipcnc
  Gun-powder,   -( Sulphur.               L

                   Carbone.

  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 that the
noxious vapours which iffued from Lake Averno in the days of Hannibal were
entirely diflipated by the free acceffion of air fince the felling of the woods that
furrounded it by the order of Aggrippa. 
<  ™  )
    Oxigene and Sulphur       form  Sulphuric Acid.
    6ulphuric 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 (i ft 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 Strength and explo-
five capacity be increafed.
  The other new  combinations that are formed and
become more fixed, are alfo eafily comprehended, for
we  find that in instruments wherein this composition is
exploded there remains a  refiduary foetid compound,
which appears to be the fulphure of pot-afh, coloured
by  means of the charcoal, &c.
  Father Kircher fays,*  we ought  to attribute the
difcovery of  the  above composition  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  molt
dreadful violence.   This fo aftoniShed  the monk that
                                               he
              * Mundus Subterranem, p.^487. 
(   2*   )
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 Pol.ydore
Vergil,*  who  thinks  him too  ignoble to have' his
name handed down  to pofterity.
   The  composition of gun-powder by fome, however*
is  Suppofed 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 Sulphurous mine;
       " Through wiry nets the black diffufion itrain,
       " And clofe an airy ocean in a grain.":}:

   Charcoal is  alfo ufed in the  arts,  for the purpofc
of difoxigenating bodies,   and  efpecially by  metal-
lurgists, who are thereby affifted in  the  aflaying of
ores, and reducing them to their reguline or metallic
                                                     ftate.

   * Polyd. Verg. de Inven. Rerum,  lib. ii. cap. u.
  f Effay on the Viciflitudes of Things.  For a more full account of the
 compofition of gun-powder, fee Watfon's Chem. Eff. vol. i. p. 327.
  X 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, fed tamen
 falis petrse lure mops  can ubre et fulphuris; et lie facies tonitrum, et
 corrufcationem, fi  fcias, artificium.   The words lure mope  can ubre ate
 an anagram of carbonum pulvere. Biograph. Brit. vol. i.  Bacon de Secret
 Operibus, cap. 11.  He adds, that he thinks by an  artifice  of this km*
 Gideon defeated the Midianites with only three hundred men. Judges, cap. 7.
 Chamb. Dift. art. Gun-powder.  As  Bacon  does not claim this as his own
 invention, it is thought by many to have been of much more ancient difcovery.
 Darwin Cant. i. J. 337.  J Watfon's Chem. Eff. p. 335- 
C  22   )
 ftate.   It is this Simple fubftance too, on its exilitiort
 in the gafeous form from the alkali, that makes the fud-
 den explofion in Pulvis fulminans, when the fulphur
 and alkali combine,  and form a hepar or fulphure
 which is coloured by the charcoal.
   2. In a ftate of combination with the carbonates of
 lime, Such as chalks, marbles, lime-Stones, marles, testa-
 ceous fhells, &c.  it is ufed for agricultural  purpofes,*
 and appears to be a natural  and confiderable Stimulant
 on the abforbent fyftem of vegetables, enabling them to
 take in a greater quantity of nourifhment and to become
 more vigorous;  and our profeffor of agriculture -j- 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, ftrengthening their digeftive powers, and thereby
 enabling them to grow with  increafed energy and luxu-
 riance.  And it feems to be that lime which, in its cauftic
 ftate, is Scattered 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 deftroy them, as it is
 well known to do both vegetable and animal fubftances
 in its ftate of purity or caufticity; though even in this
 ftate it may be advantageoufly employed in fome cafes
to quicken the decay or decompofition  of dead vege-
 table matter, as in dung-heaps,  &c.
                                              The
  • Fordyce's Elem. Agric. Anderfon. Agric. Kaimes' Gent. Farm.&c. See.
  f  Mitchill. 
C^3   >
   The carbonic acid not only appears to be a consider-
able Stimulant to vegetables, but they would alfo feem
to decompound  it, for the purpofe of receiving its bafe
into their  constitutions,  and  this feems countenanced
from what has been related concerning the experiments
of Myer.*
   Although  it  has long been  difputed by chemifts,
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:-}- and by
this mean may vegetables purify  the atmofphere, not
only by their extrication of vital  air,  but alfo by de-
composing the carbonic acid or its gas: and hence we
perceive that this acid is decompofed naturally as w;ll
as artificially,  when in the former it goes to combine
with the hydrogene of the vegetable, and thus forms
their oils and refins, &c.  it being to be considered, 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  a vena
»iatior—•gypsum  and stone coal as  a manure, &c. Tranfact. Agric.
Soc.  of New-York, for 1794, part ii. p. 215. See an experiment to the fame
effect made by Senebier, related in 3 Chaptal'sChem. p. 32, and by Haffenfratz,
Annates de Chimie. Month. Rev.  new feries, vol. xi. p. 540.
  ■f-  This appears to be the cafe efpecially with the sphagnum ?ai.dst»s
of Linne, which is of fo entirely a carbonaceous ftru&ure as to continue for
a great length of time undecompofed, when covered with ftrata-of  e»rth, a*
may  be feen near New-Town, on LoBg-Ifland, &c. 
                     (   24  0
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 Stratum of dead leaves, de-
cayed and rotten trees, &c. which, on the  firft Settle-
ment  of the country covered  the furface of it.   And
the fertility of all our  lands appears to be in  a consider-
able degree owing to the leading ingredient—carbone.
   3.  In a ftate of mixture with water-,  and, 4thly, m
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, neceffary to
raife fermentation in bread ?  It is not neceffary that
bread undergo fermentation in order to  be  good; but
it is Simply requisite that a quantity of fixed air Should
be extricated to  raife and puff  it up.   This divides
and parts afunder the dough, and renders it  porous and
foft,  prevents exceffive toughnefs 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 fmell and refpiration, is an agreeable
Stimulus when taken  into the Stomach,  and may ope-
rate,  when an ingredient in bread, juft as it does in
porter and other malt liquors.   What good does pot-
afh do in cakes ?   Pot-afh contains a great portion of
fixed  air,  which is fet at liberty by the heat neceSTary
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 
(  25  )
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 reafon are holes pricked into
loaves of bread ?   The heat of the oven not only fets
free a large quantity of fixed air,  but alfo 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-
tensive blister would be formed beneath the upper cruft,
to the damage of the bread."*
   Carbonic acid may not only be ceconomically applied
in the making  of bread, but alfo from late observa-
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  veffels
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 -,-j- 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 of Houfe-keeping," &c. American M»*
fcura for Ottober, 1790, p. 179.          f * M;d- Eflr» P- *47« 
(  26   )
                CHAPTER IV.

      The fubjetl of carbone confidered medically.
  IF it be true that the fubftances composing the San-
guineous,  nervous and mufcular parts  of our constitu-
tions fhall at different times exift in greater or lefs pro-
portion, or  poffefs greater or  lefs  attraction for each
other than is confiftent with the health and well-being
of our bodies;  it follows, that when there fhall 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-
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
constitute 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 Sufficiently
apparent  by attending to the phenomena  that are
chiefly conSpicuous in the Symptoms of the two difeafes
of phthifis and fcorbutus, or confumption and fcurvy:
the former to be confidered 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 
r(   27   )
carbonaceous material.—And firft then of' Phthifis pul-
monalis.
                    PHTHISIS.
   FOR the better explanation of the fymptoms of this
difeafe, we fhall consider 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 mufcular
        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-
tica,  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 flefh, 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 flefh, being thus difllpated, leaves the  other in-
gredients in greater attractive force * for each other than
                                                 they
  * " Carbonic matter long fince prefented itfelf to my mind as likely,
to be ferviceable in difeafes, where we fhould defire to deprive the fyftem of ox-.
igene.  Its great attraction for oxigene, in high temperatures, has long been.
ftnown; and  the experiments of Mr. Lowirz, and ftill more the very furprifing
ones of Dr. Kels, (Crell's Annalek, ft. 3. 179-) and of Dr. Buckholz, 
(  28  )
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 conftant a de-
bilitant in confumption.  Part of the  hydrogene too,
may combine with the oxigene, and produce the drop-
fical Swellings fometimes obfervable in that complaint j
and moft other atrophial difeafes, whether they arife from
defect of nourifhment 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  occasions emacia-
tion, not only in this complaint, but in  all fevers what-
foever.
   II.  The ferene and cheerful difpofition which  pa-
tients  in confumption almoft always poffefs, 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 be
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 arising from effects fo  produced, is what
                                                   is
 (Gren's Journ. der Phvsik. B. v. p. 3.) fbew that at a temperature con-
 fiderably 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-
 ney-mitteln, p. 221.) affures us, that he has  given it largely with fuc*
 cefs*"                       Beddoes' Letter to Darwin, p. 68. 
                     C   29   )

is called Life;  and  in proportion as fuch application
fhall be made and continued, will  be the effect 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 pofieffes of being operated upon by its natural Sti-
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 destroyed 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
 effebl 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 hzzdifiincl fub-
ftance added to the body,  but merely the modification
 or organization of  the  component atoms in a Specific
 manner, and with due proportions of each of the ele-
 ments ; which organization and proportion are condi-
 tions neceffary to life, and the destruction of which in
 ajl  cafes produces or accompanies  difeafe or death:—
 This then, this  is the magnum arcanum nature in this
 cafe of animated existence;  that  animals,  when this
 quality fhall ceafe to exift, die—to he fucceeded by other
 animals-, and that the fame materials that formed the one
                                             animal, 
(  30  )
 animal, may, after its death, go to the formation of ano-
 ther.
   That the cheerful difpofition of mind in confumptive
 patients is  occasioned  by a fuper-oxigenated  fyftem,
 would feem as fully rational and conclusive as that of
 the great Flaller, who would  feign believe  that this
 ftate of exhiliration,  wherein the bodily powers were
 wafting away by difeafe,  manifested 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 occafions hilarity in thefe
 patients, as Haller has done;  but, we  muft confider
 life as an eff eel produced by the aclion offtimuli, and par-
 ticularly of the oxigenous principle, upon  the excitability
 of the mufcular and nervous fyftem;  and hence, that it is
not  a principle, but a condition—not a fubftance, hut a.
 quality of a fubftance.
  That it is the oxigenation of the fyftem which occa-
fions the above quality or difpofition of mind,  and that
this will be effected in proportion as the fyftem fhall be
fo oxigenated, will not only appear from the cheerful-
nefs it infpires on breathing it, but be  made further
 apparent hereafter, when the  fymptoms7 of a difeafe
fuppofed to be induced from difoxigenation,  or a defi-
 ciency of the fame principle, fhall be  taken  into consi-
deration.
* viii. Haller. Element. Phyfiolog. lib. xxx. §23. Signa Mortis. 
(  3*   )
   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 existing in proportion to the degree
it Shall be applied;  it is this, that in general females are
remarked to be more  Subject to  this complaint  than
males; fo alfo it is well known they poffefs greater ir-
ritability,  that their  imagination and vividity  of
thought  far  exceed thofe of males;  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 obser-
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 occafions that Stimulation on the excitability of our
nervous  fyftems, &c.  which produces the phenomena
of a  living ftate,  we may with  great  facility explain
many of its functions, which Seemed  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,  dis-
tinguishing dead from living matter,  are the intern: I
 Stimuli themfelves; " the functions of the fyftem itfelf
                                         producing
* Nat. Hid. tcm. i. li1?. 11. cap. A- 
C  32   )
producing the fame effect are mufcular contraction,  the
exercife of fenfe,  the energy of the brain in thinking,
and  in paffion  and emotion."   Thefe,  together with
the external Stimulant 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; and  hence " is a  forced ftate of
exiftence."
   This confequent performance of functions, when the
Stimulus of oxigene Shall be applied to a  fyftem, poffef-
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 Sole ac-
tion of the heart,  or afcribing it chiefly  to the  effect of
mufcular fibres, by Some 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 fhall be oxigenated, and thus
operate on their excitability:  and that  they  have no
fuch great agency is further demonstrated by the circu-
lation existing in a human creature born without heart
or lungs, wherein the circulation between the foetus 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 ceffation of the oxigenating
                                           procefs,*
  *      " The foetus has its blood oxigenated by the blood of  the njothe.-
through the placenta.  During pregnancy, there feems to be no provifion for
the reception of an unufual quantity of oiig-nr,  On the contrary, in coale- 
(   33    )
procefs, oh 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 greateft in parts where
moft blood is fent;  and where this  is  abstracted, the
vital principle, as Hunter calls it, muft alfo ceafe, as he
proved by his experiments in the bleeding of animals:
and, on the contrary, where there fhall be lefs fent, or
where it fhall lofe the property of being arterial,  thofe
parts will be lefs fenfible, as is evidently perceived in
the liver, &c.
   Animals too,  poffeffing a great quantity of oxigene,
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 fhould be conti-
nually taken in by the lungs.  If,  therefore, a fomewhat diminifhed proportion
of oxigene be the effect of pregnancy, may not this be the way in which it ar-
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 *e pregnant women agree with fcorbutic pa-
tients in that ftrong inftinclive appetite for vegetables; and it appears as if this
diet was the moft fuitable to them."
  «' Pregnant women," fays Dr. Denman, " have generally a diflike to animal
food of every kind, and under every form—on the contrary,  they prefer vege-
tables, fruit, and every thing cooling, which they eat and drink with avidity,
and in which they indulge without prejudice."  Introduft. to M'.dvv. p. Z4..1.
See Review of Beddoes' Obfervations, &c. 8 Duncan's Med. Com. p. 79.
  *  See a Defcription of a Human Male Monfler, by Dr. Monro,  iii. Tranf.
Roy. Soc. Edin. p. 215. 
(  34   )
would contract and propel the water for fome time,
until, for want of a frefh fupply of oxigene, it Stopt.
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 inftances already mentioned, but may alfo
produce  this quality in vegetables, as in the mimofas,
&c. and  in all organized matter whatfoever  pofleffing
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 an
atmofphere of oxigene air, when they have  Shewn all
the diagnostics of fever and inflammation.   This then
being the fact, we can eafily underftand why phthisis is
attended with fever,  Since it is evident,  that fuper-
oxigenation is the caufe of the complaint; for the oxi-
gene, on account of its great  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 occafion a greater evolution of its
                                               heat 
(   35   )
heat from a State of combination to that of a liberated
form; thus constituting febrile heat,  which  produces
that degree  of temperature in the fyftem,  by means of
which the oxigene, &c. will the  more  Strongly be at-
tracted by the materials  composing 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 effeds, the diminution of bulk
and Strength that is obferved in fevers,  efpecially thofe
that  are terminated by colliquative fweats; and  it is
this thermometric heat paffing again to a latent ftate in
the perfpiratory matter on the furface of the body  that
in  fome cafes  occasions the Senfation of chillinefs and
coldnefs of which patients complain.*

                                              Inflammatory

  * Since writing the above, Beddoes* letter to Darwin, on  the fubject of " a
new method of |rfe4ennnVpulmonary 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 comparifon of what has been delivered with
the experiments of that celebrated phyfician ;  ■
  " After fecuring a full fupply of oxigene air, the firft thing I undertook was
to attempt to throw fome light upon the nature of confumption by an experi-
ment upon myfelf.  Not having any thing  of the phthifical conformation or
the  flighteft hereditary claim to the difeafe,  I thought I might venture very far
in oxigenating myfelf without  any great rifque; and it was  impofiible for me
to obferve the effects fo minutely in another perfon.  I accordingly refpired ait
of a much higher than the ordinary ftandard, and commonly  fuch as contained
almoft equal parts of oxigene and azotic air,  for near feven weeks, with little
interruption.  I breathed  it upon the whole fometimes for  twenty minutes,
fometimes for half an hour, and fometimes for an hour in the day; 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 lightnefs of the cheft, which
has been defcribed by Dr. Prieftley and others.  In a very fhort time I was fen-
f:ble of a much greater flow of fpirits than formerly, and was much more dif-
pofed to mufcular exertion.  By  degrees, my complexion, from  »n uniform
brown, became fairer and fomewhat florid.  I perceived a carnation tint at the
er.ds of the fingers, and on all  the covered parts of the body  the fkin acquired 
(   36    )
   Inflammatory fevers  prevailing  moft  generally  in
northern and lefs in fouthern climates, may alfo  poffibly
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 flefh 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 j 1 was not fenfible, however, of my mufcular emaciation,  but rather  the
contrary.  My appetite was good; 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 fenfaticn of chillinefs, though cold
eafterly winds prevailed during great part of the time I was infpiring oxigene air.
1 not only reduced my bed-clothes to a Angle 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
my fkin 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 hundied and twenty, imagined that I was become hec"lic.
I had now, though but feldom, a fhort, dry cough ; but the fenfe of irritation
to cough required an  almoft conftant effort to fupprefs it: this fenfe of irrita-
tion was, as you will fuppofe, attended by  dyfpncea.  I had alfo frequent bleed-
ings <it the nofe, an event almoft unprecedented with me; the blood was  of an
unul'u-liy bright colour; which was alfo feen in blood forced from the gums.
Whenever I pierced the fkin in fhaving, 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
effects of vital air in confumption, may be added Fourcroy's relation of the
cafes of t'An-y patients in this complaint, whom he caufed to refpire oxigtne
gas.  Beddoes' Obf. p. 126;  extracted from Annales dc Chimie, iv. 85. 
(  37   )
State of the atmofphere, which is found to be the fad.
Adolefcents too, who poffefs a great Stock of accumu-
lated excitability, will, on their fyftems becoming highly
oxigenated,  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, ading upon the vital medullary
fyftem of young people, explain why  they are more
fubjed to fevers of the order of phlegmafiae, 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 Stimulus 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 connedion or bond of union between the other in-
gredients, fhall be endeavoured to be made  apparent
by the numerous fads which we fhall now confider.
   It appears that carbone is the principal loft material
constituting our flefh and fat, not only by the analysis
already related, but alfo from the" great debility, and
on the contrary from the increafe of Strength obfervable
when it is fo exhibited as to re-enter, and form again a
                                       considerable 
(  38   )
 considerable proportion of our flefhy fabric; and  it
 feems to be by the agency of the fame  material that
 the prefent complaint is either  palliated or removed,
 even when ulceration of the lungs takes place: it would
 alio appear to  be on this  dodrine of carbonating the
 fyftem, that we are  to explain the popular opinion of
 longevity being moft 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-
 ftances of people in confirmed confumption being en-
 tirely cured by occupations where this gas is consider-
 ably evolved, fuch 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 phthisical patients by way of refpiration, fays,
 " the hedic fever has in feveral inftances been generally
 abated, and the matter expedorated has become lefs
offenfive and better digefted."f  This   operation of
the gas may perhaps yield an eafy explanation;—on
infpiration it may have a power of diminifhing the irri-
tability of the lungs, which it may effed by abforbing a
large proportion of their oxigene, which  has been con-
 sidered above as constituting this quality; 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 Arables, 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 refins
 Sec. in clofe apartments.
  -f- : Eff. p. 308; and 1 Prieftley, Sic. 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
adive.  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 ftnd thence to
the folids and fecreted humours, from that fource.
   "While this procefs is going on,  or as the fyftem Shall
become again  more carbonated, there will of confe-
quence be an alteration in the purulent matter through
which the gas is received;  and this too feems to be by
the pus there formed poffeffing a more fluid 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 effeded will the offenfivenefs of expedora-
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, Should eafily
volatilize the hydrogene,  azote, and other fubftances
with which they were united, and which were probably
in fuch flight attachment that they might be  eafily de-
compounded, and forming other combinations, fuch as
                                     phoSphorated 
C  40   )
 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 Situation, the pus muft naturally be 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,
 muft  of neceffity prevent  any further decomposition,
 and will caufe it to be a more mild and digeftive pus.
 This may alfo with equal propriety hold good with ul-
 cers on the external  furface of our bodies,  which are
 well known to receive  much  injury from expofure to
 air; and as the good effeds 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 poffibly with
 more effed,  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 operation of the chylopoietic vifcera.
   That this treatment is juft and proper is further con-
firmed by the experience of convalefcents and  emaciated
                                          perfons, 
(  41   )
perfons, who fometimes grow fat even td obefity, iin-
lefs  there fhould exift fome mefenteric obftrudion.
This increafe of corpulency may not unlikely beeffeded
by means of the hydrogene  that Still remained in the
emaciated habit, which, upon the admiSTion 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 iri
Philadelphia, many of whom,  it  has  been faid, were
obferved to  increafe in fatnefs.
  Confumption, however, may not be  the only difeafe,
for hasmoptyfis itfelf would likewife feem in a confider-
able degree  explainable on the dodrine 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 refpiratory organs,  or to an arterious
plethora; and this receives confiderable  fupport from
patients in hasmoptyfis being fubjed u to much fenfi-
bility and irritability"-—the  ingenium prascox Boer-
haavii—as alfo  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
flufhings of the cheeks, &c. all which feem to corro-
borate the analogy  between  the two difeafes; and  as
they fo constantly concur in each, a conclusion might
be inferred, that hasmoptyfis Should be  confidered  as
an incipient phthifis.
  This explanation  of hasmoptyfis likewife receives
further confirmation from the known good confequen-
ees that refillt iu part from the fame plan of cure; fuel?
                        F                       as 
(  42   )
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 fb good as to fail or be
rowed upon the water,  efpecially upon the  fea;"*  and
the fame naturalist, in  another place, fpeaks more di-
redly in point, as appears from the following observa-
tion he  makes:—" The fea (fays he) affordeth other
ufes in  feveral and many refpeds; 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 Annasus Gallio, after  he  was madeconful,
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 JEgypt itfelf, but becaufe they lie long at fea, and are
failing a great while before they arrive thither;"-}-
   Thefe  fads of Pliny's are constantly confirmed by
the daily  experience of mariners, who are feldom or
never fubjed  to confumption.  The good effeds of
navigation,  however,  do riot appear to arife entirely
from the air of the fea,  but alfo from the provision  ufed
during  the voyage, which is that  of the animal kind j
and hence probably the reafon, together with the little
exercife they take, why mariners are more corpulent
than  men who live on Shore; for this Species of food
not only produces corpulency, but alfo a fcorbutic ftate
of the fyftem, which,  with the impurity of the  air of-
                                          tentimes
• Nat. Hift. torn. i. lib. aS. cap. 4. E.
T Lib. 31. cap. 6. L. 
                      (   43-  )
tenthnes below and between decks, affords lefs of t&e
refpirable portion to the lungs in each infpiration: and
fioce fhips, by means of Dr. Hales, have been fo venti-
lated that the air may have a free paflage through them,.
the fcurvy, which before made fuch ravages, has been
kfs frequent in its appearance and lefs fatal in its effeds.
   Since, from  all that has  been  faid,  it  is  clearly
evident, that both hasmoptyfis and phthisis are induced
according as there Shall  be prefent an excefs of the prin-
ciple of acidity in the fyftem, then certainly all thofe
means by  which the fyftem may become Super-oxige-
nated Should be avoided, as alfo the adminiftration of
thofe fubftances  which have a great attradion 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,  Shew that they are treated after
a method fuitable to their cure ?  Daily experience de-
monstrates the  contrary—hence, we Should no longer
■advife patients  fo  afflided  to haften to  breathe ihz
country air, already made too pure by vegetable extri-
cation ; nor to  diet upon vegetables and milk,  or to
jnake ufe of acidulous drinks ;-f  but to purfue the di-
red contrary method above laid down, If they would
wifh  for a radical folution of the difeafe: nor fhould
the exercife of equitation, &c. fo  much boafted of in
                                                thefe
  • May it not in a  great degree be owing to the prefence of iron that fome
mineral waters are hurtful to confumptive patients ?
  + Sub-acid liquors alone, it is faid, have induced confumption, as has been
experienced by fome ladies, who, wifhingto appear more than what they fup--
pofed ordinarily delicate, have made great ufe of vinegar, lemonaae, &c, 
(  44  )
thefe affedions, 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 dodrine
above expreffed: thus the aborigines of our country
have fcarcely ever been obferved to  be  affeded 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 faid to cure  the
difeaSe.*   This, however, is not the only thing:  their
food too, which is that of wild animals,  contain consi-
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
hurtful on the Single consideration of there being a lar-
ger volume of air expofed to  the fuperficies  of  the
lungs; and that this is injurious may alfo be Sufficiently
confirmed from the benefit consumptive patients receive
in warm climates,  where the air is not  fo condenfed.,
and where confequently cast. par. lefs is breathed.
   The fads  which have been related  on  the caufe and
cure of hasmoptyfi.s and phthifis,  will receive farther
                                       corroboration

  * Van Swieten, in his commentaries on Boerhaave, tells us, on the authority
•f Solano de Luque, of the fuccef^ful practice of the banos de tierra, or
earth baths in hectic fevers and confumptions, in Grenada, Andalufia, an^
etr.tr provinces of Spain. 
(  4.5  )
corroboration  from the fymptoms of the difeafe pur-
pofed 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 that are obferved
to exift in Scorbutus; for in this difeafe, in which there
is a difoxigenated ftate of the fyftem,  we do not difcover
that remarkable lofs. of flefhy matter, nor that hilarity
of mind or fioridity of the blood and fever, which are
the Sure 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 depreflion of fpirits, appear fure pathognomonics
of this complaint: all which fymptoms,  it Shall be en-
deavoured to be Shewn, depend very evidently upon a
redundancy of carbone  in the  blood  and folids, and
upon a  deficiency of the vivifying and  invigorating Sti-
mulus of oxigene.
   The defpondency of mind which  is always apparent
in fcorbutics, and which is fo opposite to what prevails
in confumption, would feem eafily accounted for, by
fuppofing the fyftem to contain an  excefs of carbone,
which fhall attrad, abforb or neutralize moft of its ox-
igene; and in proportion as this Shall be effeded, will
the produdion of dired debility, from the abftradion
of fo powerful a Stimulus, approach to  death or non-ex-
ift ence of the quality of life-, for it would appear in truth,
that the fyftem in fcurvy is as much and as ftridly fu-
                                              per- 
(  46  )
per-carbonated, as in confumption it was faid to befuper-
oxigenated.
   The dark colour of the blood, the vibices and ecchy-
moma that  make their appearance in fcurvy, would,
from what has been faid on confumption, feem  to be
owing- to an abftraSiion  of the principle of acidity; and
therefore, as is the difpofition of the fyftem to phthifis
will the fioridity of the fanguineous fluid appear; and
of confequence, as there fhall be a deficiency of the above
floridifying principle, the materials entering the com-
position of the blood muft exift nearly or quite in their
natural ftate and colour: and this appears to happen if*
the difeafe under consideration.
  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-affume its
priftine ftate and colour, when this floridifying fubftance
Shall be withdrawn  in any difeafe wherein fubftances
fhall be prefent which poSTefs a greater affinity or attract
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 abftrad 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 pofllbly be  more conclusive;—the carbone
itfeif, 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-
fiderable confirmation from the observations 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 fecn to run in different
Shades  of light and dark Streaks.   Where the malady
was increafed, it ran thin and Seemingly very black; and
after Standing fome time in a veffel, 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 confiftence."
   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-
position which is  exhibited by  the venous blood in
health; and hence the latter muft be fo fully carbonated
as to lofe its connedion with the iron by this abstrac-
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 fad,  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 Scorbutics,
 feem alfo to arife  from the new  combinations that are
 formed on the decompositions above ai'udea to;—-part
 of the hydrogene may unite with the azote and form
 an ammoniacal compound-,  or the azote may combine
 with a fmall proportion of oxigene in fuch a way as t-a 
(  4^   )
  form the oxyd of azote  or nitrogene; or  again, the
  hydrogene may combine with the phofphorus  or car-
  bone, and form phofphorated or carbonated hydrogene
  gaffes; and it would feem to be by thefe different com-
  binations varioufly modified, that not only the above
  fymptoms  of fcurvy, but perhaps all cutaneous erup-
  tions, difeafes, or ulcers whatfoever, in which there ap-
  pears to be an acrimony of the circulating fluids, fuch
  as fcrophula, eriSlpelas, 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 dired effed of  fuper-carbonatibn
 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-
 composition, and hence may the more readily yield its
 carbone in  the digeftive procefs.  Many more fads,
 however, might be adduced,  if it were  neceffary,  to
 fupport what has already been advanced concernino- the
 tendency of animal food to induce fcurvy; fuch, for
-instance,  as what  has been related by Sinopoeus,  who
 obferves, "  there are whole nations in Tartary, who live
 altogether on flefh and milk, and which people (fays he)
 are fubjed to the  moft violent fcurvies."'*
   Thefe are not the only caufes to  which fcurvy has
 been, attributed, for many confider cold and moifture as
                                            highly
Parerga Medica. p. 311. 
C  49   )
highly conducive to the difeafe.   Thefe opinions, how*
ever, are considerably doubtful,  unlefs they fhould be
conceived as inducing their ill effeds in the way Sando-
rius afferts;  " for (fays he) too cold windy or wet
weather  leffens perfpiration;"* and the  perfpiration
being thus obftruded, he goes on—" it converts the
matter of tranfpiration into an ichor, which being re-
tained, induces a cachexy."-}-  Sandorius appears fome-
what juft in his conclufions, by fuppofing and deferr-
ing what he thought humidity  of the air as  favouring
the difeafe, which conclufions he drew from his Statical
experiments, wherein he further relates, concerning this
obftruded excretion in fcurvy,  " that here perfpiration
is Stopped, the paffages of it clogged, the fibres are re-
laxed ; and the tranfpiration of it retained proves hurt-
ful."J   But thefe latter  affertions of Sandorius can
only be partially admitted as caufes of fcorbutus; for
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 attestation in favour of a
warm climate; and for diredly contrary reafons muft
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 rarified: and confequently the fyftem will Stand
                       G                  a greater
* Medicina Statica. aph. 200.
•j- Ibid. aph. 146.
X Ibid. aph. 148. 
(  50  )
 a greater fiance of becoming oxigenated in the former
 than in the latter.
 .  As to the obstructed euticular or pulmonic exhala-
 tions being confidered another caufe of fcurvy, thefe
 likewife would not feem altogether fatisfadory,  unlefs
 the fyftem Should be in a ftate of predifpofition, by be-
 ing already fuper-carbonated, and then afl that experi-
 enced man has faid may be admitted; for in this State
 of. fuper-carbonation, when  the euticular  excretion
 fhall  be obftruded and retained, will all the fubftances
 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 our bodies, it confequently muft
 exift alfo in a confiderable proportion in the  above ex-
 cretion ;  and that this is fact, has been proved by the
 experiments of the Count  de Milly and others, who
 have colleded 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-
 vioufty an additional help to a difeafe depending upon
 too much of the  fame material.   This  explanation is
 further  conclusive on the consideration that obftruded
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 confider-
 able degree,  in  phthisis; as alfo from the circulation
 being languid, and from the torpor and debility of all
 the fundions,—vital, animal and natural, which fully
 demonstrate a deficiency of the vivifying power of ox-
 igene.
   The Deliquia, too, attending fcurvy, feem Strongly
 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-
 feffmg much irritability %  as it may, by its diYeZt inter-
 nal application to the vital " medullary nervous matter
 and mufcular  Solid,"  abftrad from them  the principle
 that gave them irritability; and hence, in proportion to
 the degree in which this application fhall be made, will
 the ftate of inanimation,  or the torpor and debility of
 the folids, whether vital or animal, be produced;  and
 this abftradion of the oxigenous principle, if carried to
 the greateft degree, will, by inducing Mr eft debility, Caufe
 ceffation of animal exifience  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
ftimulated to death.
   That the carbonaceous  principle, when in too great
 accumulation  in the  fyftem,  poffeffes a power of ex-
 tinguifhing its fufceptibility  of Stimuli 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 *

                * Lind on Scurvy, p. 312. 
(  52   )
   The conclusion, 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 Since 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 " effeds 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 phasnomena of the fame kind,"
in diSeafes  of the human constitution,  as well as in
other cafes.
   To put the matter, however, beyond the poflibility
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, exadly fimilar to the common pradice  which in-
duces confumption. -j-
                      CURE.
   FROM the foregoing obfervations,  fcorbutus ap-
pears to be a difeafe existing 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 facts may
be evinced from confidering the cafe of the poer c/eruleatus of Sandifort,
as related in the «« Obfervationes Anatomico-Pathologicae, 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," &c. p. 63, but which i» too
lengthy for infertion in a publication of this kind. 
(  53   )
fyftem fhall be carbonated, or as it fhall be in a condi-
tion opposite to that which exifts in confumption, and
therefore, to obtain a radical cure,  muft neceflarily be
treated by contrary remedies.
   The firft and moft powerful  remedy calculated to
effed a fpeedy cure appears to be that of oxigene air,
received  by refpiration; and this will the more fully
be underftood, when  we confider  that it is the only
" breath of life," as all the other gaffes  either cannot
fupport,  or immediately deftroy the living quality of
organized matter.   As this is a condition of the fyftem
in which life approaches nearly to a ftate of non-exiftence,
that nourifhing principle or fupport of life is therefore
required  which  the  ancients denominated  pabulum
vita; for Hippocrates positively fays, " Principium ali-
menti fpiritus."*  This pabulum vita, or breath of life,
then, which is effential to animal existence, we find in
the bafe of oxigene air, the operation of which animat-
 ing Stimulus,  as Soon as it is received into the fyftem
 of patients in this moribund complaint, will, on its de-
 composition,  diffufe heat, life and vigour throughout
 the constitution.
    Next  to this empyrean gas, which is proved to poffefs
  the only principle by which the quality of animation can
  be excited in organized matter  of the human type,
  poffefling  a fufceptibility of its Stimulus, we fhould
  Seek for thofe  fubftances that contain the oxigenous
  principle in the greateft quantity,  having at  the fame
  time fuch a flight attachment for it, that this animating
                                           Stimulant
* Hippocrat. de Alim. v. 68. 
C  54  )
 ftimulant may be difengaged,  and thus enter the fyf-
 tem by the prima? viae, 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
 underftood,  for the oxigene in thofe acids appears to
 be in fuch firm combination with their radicals as not
 to Suffer decomposition like the vegetable clafs.
   Of all vegetables the Citrus Stands 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 ifland  of Tinian, as  well  as  many
 others who highly extol it;* and it is upon  this that
 Kramer folely relies.-J-
   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. m.
•f Krameii Medicina Caftrenfis, part iii- cap. 2. 
(  55  )
the vivifying Stimulus that oxigene affords; fuch, for
inftance, are paralyfis, Syncope when  it arifes from
dired debility, dyfpepfia, hypochondriafis,  chlorofis,
tetanus, trifmus, convulflo, chorea, epilepsia, afthma,
dyfpnosa when it arifes from debility or paralyfis of the
muftles 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 dodrine; for " out of many hundred
children,"  fays  Rufh,*  " whom I have fent into the
country in every Stage 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 the
country."   A fad 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 paffage 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 effeds 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.-^   That the cure depends upon the
influence of oxigene is further evident from the ufe of
acids, efpecially the vegetable;  for Profeflbr Smith had
                                                two
  * i. Med. Inq. p. 118.
  + Many more fadts might be adduced of the beneficial effects of country air
from the obfervations of ProfclTors Hamerfley, Rix'^sss, &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 effeded 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 fhould be administered by way of refpira-
tion,  there would be happy  confequences arising from
its exhibition;  and  this is rendered evident from the
common  pradice of hanging up or placing young and
vigorous plants in the  apartments of thofe labouring
under the difeafe; for fuch plants not only perfpire a
large quantity of vital gas, but alfo inhale the mephitic.
The efficacy of acids alfo, efpecially the vegetable, as
poffeffing 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 Phlegmafiae, may depend upon an excefs of oxigene;
as, anafarca, afcites, hydrothorax, &c. in which difeafes
the oxigene may combine with the hydrogene, and
form  the ferous  fluids obfervable in them; and  hence,
for contrary reafons, the infpiration of carbonic acid
and  hydrogene airs muft be very ferviceable.   The
remarkable lofs of  fat  in the omentum, vifcera, &c.
renders it Still more probable that thefe difeafes depend
upon a too high oxigenated fyftem.
  Should what has been advanced hereafter  prove
true,  it would feem neceffary that a new Nosological
                                      arrangement
  * Perhaps the acid may have had a phyfiological as well as a chemical action. 
(  57  )
 arrangement of difeafes Should be formed, and claffed,
 according as they are  induced,  either by an excefs of
 oxigenation, or by the different ratios of proportion
 which the feveral ingredients, oxigene, hydrogene, car-
 bone, iron, &c. bear to each other 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 fhall 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, Shall receive fome cogent arguments in its
 favour;  for, according as the above related decomposi-
 tions and new combinations fhall enfue,  will great al-
 teration take place in the circulating humours, which
 in their peccant proportions may  induce  difeafes and
 death;  and  the corredion 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 the folids alone,.
 as Milman has done, (who feems almoft to have consi-
 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 conftantly  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 tlie
 different modes of existence  that matter, organized or
                     H                inorganized, 
(  58   )
snorganized, aflumes in the different grades of creation
—from man to the lithophyte,*—-from " the cedar that is
in Lebanon  to the hyffop 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 Stands confefs'd;
      " The prime, the one, the wond'rousand the blelt;
      " The one on various forms of UNITY exprefs'd.'1

        • " 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."
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