fnake-pill to Dr. Ruffel, that he tried these pills, whofe efficacy we before proved to depend principally in arfenic, in no fewer than fourteen dif ferent perfons bitten by mad dogs, with perfect fuccefs; and with no other unpleasant symptoms than purging in moft, and a flight vomiting in a few. Lunar cauftic, the specific against the bite of the viper, both as an external application, and an internal remedy, in fuch a difeafe deferves to be tried. Added to thefe, I would recommend the inhalation of fuperoxygenated air. In a disease fo short in its fatal termination, every moment is of confequence. If this air can more immediately reach the blood, and restore to the system the oxygen which is deftroyed by the action of the poifon, it will be one of the most valuable acquifitions to the Materia Medica. Thus have I affembled a few facts towards a conjecture on the probable good effects of oxygen as the antidote of this poifon. I grant that yet more facts are wanting to afcertain this point, which is founded upon the fuppofition that the hydrophobic virus enters the fyftem, and by a certain modus operandi on the blood, creates a certain fet of actions, inducing changes, of which the ab fraction of oxygen may form the principle. SECT. SECT. XXXV. THE HOOPING COUGH. THIS difeafe, fo well known by the peculiar found of the cough, incidental to the human race but once, is a poison whose nature is but very little known. The clear air of the country, is the remedy ufually reforted to. The inhalation of oxygen air was tried with fuccefs in fome inftances by Dr. Thornton, after the exhibition of a vomit. Accident has, however, brought to light the power of arfenic over this difeafe. The white drop, fo famous for the cure of the ague (which fever is probably derived from the operation of the poifon of marshes, or marsh miafmata) being taken by children who laboured under both thefe diforders, were very foon recovered from both, and restored to health*. The trial, however, of this mineral must be made with extreme caution, for in injudicious hands the remedy would be generally found to be more fatal than the dif ease in question. *This circumftance was related to the author by Mr. Corp, an eminent furgeon of Barnet. SECT. SECT. XXXVI. THE SMALL-POX. THIS is another poifon, which is peculiar to the human race, and exerts its influence but once in the body. Nor does our wonder at the ordinance of God ceafe here, (for HE equally appears in the thunder and the tempeft, as in the ferenity of spring, which resembles our ftates of difeafe and health); for as the blood is converted into callous for bones, when wanted, into mufcular fibre, into nerve, which is by the process of affimulation, fo the minuteft particle acts throughout * Great advantage has been lately taken of this striking phænomenon. There is a diforder not unfrequent among cows, called the Cow-pox, from its producing puftules. When the matter of the fores about the teat of the cows labouring under this disease gets applied to any part of the human body, an ephemeral fever, after a certain period, enfues, and the patient is ever after rendered infufceptible, like animals, or those who have had the fmall-pox, of that dreadful fcourge of humanity. The Cow-pox, however, may be caught feveral times. This diforder had exifted unnoticed by practitioners for time immemorial, until the attention of the faculty was called to it by Dr. JENNER, and the truth of this circumftance put beyond a queftion; and it is probable that the ravages of the fmall-pox will be in future prevented by the general inoculation of the Cow-rox, as foon as truth fhall have conquered oppofition. the 1 the frame, after which matter of a fimilar nature is engendered in the whole body. In the natural way the quantity of this poifon is greater than from inoculation, hence the advantage of raifing this disease artificially. The fecondary fever is alfo common to the natural fmall-pox, and attended with great danger, from the abforption of the new-formed variolous matter; and the throat is frequently affected, and goes into gangrene. This affection of the throat, in the natural smallpox, is fuppofed, by Dr. Darwin, to arife from variolous matter imbibed and adhering to these parts. On the contrary, the celebrated Sutton thinks, that the whole difference between the natural and inoculated fmall-pox, arifes from the different states of the body for the reception of this disease: But facts daily contradict this fuppofition, where, without preparation, the inoculated go through this disease generally well, few, if any, dying from it *. * Vide the following Sections. SECT SECT. XXXVII. THE ANTIQUITY OF INOCULATION, By what means the inoculation of the Smallpox was firft difcovered, or at what time and place it was firft ufed, we are totally ignorant. It may be inferred, therefore, that the art of inoculation, which is capable of faving more lives than the whole Materia Medica, was originally a fortuitous difcovery: and I may add, that to the dishonour of the medical profeffion, it was for a long time under the management of old women, and ignorant perfons, in this and many other countries, before it was patronized and adopted by the legitimate practitioners of medicine. Inoculation was certainly first introduced into Conftantinople from Georgia*; but as this event did not take place till towards the end of the last century, we may conclude, that had the art been practifed for many ages at fo fhort a distance from that metropolis, it would have been known there much fooner. Befides, in various countries, very remote from the Cafpian fea, it is proved to have been an immemorial ufage, *It is generally thought that the Circaffians first inoculated their children in order to rear them as flaves for the Turkish Seraglio. Vide page 171 in this volume. Inoculation |