SECTION VIII.. _queries, Speculations, and Hints._

QUERIES, SPECULATIONS, and HINTS.

I begin to be apprehensive lest, after being considered as a dry experimenter, I should pass, with many of my readers, into the opposite character of a visionary theorist. A good deal of theory has been interspersed in the course of this work, but, not content with this, I am now entering upon a long section, which contains nothing else.

The conjectures that I have ventured to advance in the body of the work will, I hope, be found to be pretty well supported by facts; but the present section will, I acknowledge, contain many random thoughts. I have, however, thrown them together by themselves, that readers of less imagination, and who care not to advance beyond the regions of plain fact, may, if they please, proceed no farther, that their delicacy be not offended.

In extenuation of my offence, let it, however, be considered, that theory and experiment necessarily go hand in hand, every process being intended to ascertain some particular hypothesis, which, in fact, is only a conjecture concerning the circumstances or the cause of some natural operation; consequently that the boldest and most original experimenters are those, who, giving free scope to their imaginations, admit the combination of the most distant ideas; and that though many of these associations of ideas, will be wild and chimerical, yet that others will have the chance of giving rise to the greatest and most capital discoveries; such as very cautious, timid, sober, and slow-thinking people would never have come at.

Sir Isaac Newton himself, notwithstanding the great advantage which he derived from a habit of patient thinking, indulged bold and excentric thoughts, of which his Queries at the end of his book of Optics are a sufficient evidence. And a quick conception of distant analogies, which is the great key to unlock the secret of nature, is by no means incompatible with the spirit of perseverance, in investigations calculated to ascertain and pursue those analogies.

§ 1. Speculations concerning the CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES of the different kinds of AIR, and the CONSTITUTION and ORIGIN of the ATMOSPHERE, &c.

All the kinds of air that appear to me to be essentially distinct from each other are fixed air, acid and alkaline; for these, and another principle, called phlogiston, which I have not been able to exhibit in the form of air, and which has never yet been exhibited by itself in any form, seem to constitute all the kinds of air that I am acquainted with.

Acid air and phlogiston constitute an air which either extinguishes flame, or is itself inflammable, according, probably, to the quantity of phlogiston combined in it, or the mode of combination. When it extinguishes flame, it is probably so much charged with the phlogistic matter, as to take no more from a burning candle, which must, therefore, necessarily go out in it. When it is inflammable, it is probably so much charged with phlogiston, that the heat communicated by a burning candle makes it immediately separate itself from the other principle with which it was united, in which separation heat is produced, as in other cases of ignition; the action and reaction, which necessarily attends the separation of the constituent principles, exciting probably a vibratory motion in them.

Since inflammable, air, by agitation in water, first comes to lose its inflammability, so as to be fit for respiration, and even to admit a candle to burn in it, and then comes to extinguish a candle; it seems probable that water imbibes a great part of this extraordinary charge of phlogiston. And that water can be impregnated with phlogiston, is evident from many of my experiments, especially those in which metals were calcined over it.

Water having this affinity with phlogiston, it is probable that it always contains a considerable portion of it; which phlogiston having a stronger affinity with the acid air, which is perhaps the basis of common air, may by long agitation be communicated to it, so as to leave it over saturated, in consequence of which it will extinguish a candle.

It is possible, however, that inflammable air and air which extinguishes a candle may differ from one another in the mode of the combination of these two constituent principles, as well as in the proportional quantity of each; and by agitation in water, or long standing, that mode of combination may change. This we know to be the case with other substances, as with milk, from which, by standing only, cream is separated; which by agitation becomes butter. Also many substances, being at rest, putrefy, and thereby become quite different from what they were before. If this be the case with inflammable air, the water may imbibe either of the constituent parts, whenever any proportion of it is spontaneously separated from the rest; and should this ever be that phlogiston, with which air is but slightly overcharged, as by the burning of a candle, it will be recovered to a state in which a candle may burn in it again.

It will be observed, however, that it was only in one instance that I found that strong inflammable air, in its transition to a state in which it extinguishes a candle, would admit a candle to burn in it, and that was very faintly; that then the air was far from being pure, as appeared by the test of nitrous air; and that it was only from a particular quantity of inflammable air which I got from oak, and which had stood a long time in water, that I ever got air which was as pure as common air. Indeed, it is much more easy to account for the passing of inflammable air into a state in which it extinguishes candles, without any intermediate state, in which it will admit a candle to burn in it, than otherwise. This subject requires and deserves farther investigation. It will also be well worth while to examine what difference the agitation of air in natural or artificial sea-water will occasion.

Since acid air and phlogiston make inflammable air, and since inflammable air is convertible into air fit for respiration, it seems not to be improbable, that these two ingredients are the only essential principles of common air. For this change is produced by agitation in water only, without the addition of any fixed air, though this kind of air, like various other things of a foreign nature, may be combined with it.

Considering also what prodigious quantities of inflammable air are produced by the burning of small pieces of wood or pit-coal, it may not be improbable but that the volcanos, with which there are evident traces of almost the whole surface of the earth having been overspread, may have been the origin of our atmosphere, as well as (according to the opinion of some) of all the solid land.

The superfluous phlogiston of the air, in the state in which it issues from volcanos, may have been imbibed by the waters of the sea, which it is probable originally covered the surface of the earth, though part of it might have united with the acid vapour exhaled from the sea, and by this union have made a considerable and valuable addition to the common mass of air; and the remainder of this over-charge of phlogiston may have been imbibed by plants as soon as the earth was furnished with them.

That an acid vapour is really exhaled from the sea, by the heat of the sun, seems to be evident from the remarkably different states of the atmosphere, in this respect, in hot and cold climates. In Hudson's bay, and also in Russia, it is said, that metals hardly ever rust, whereas they are remarkably liable to rust in Barbadoes, and other islands between the tropics. See Ellis's Voyage, p. 288. This is also the case in places abounding with salt-springs, as Nantwich in Cheshire.

That mild air should consist of parts of so very different a nature as an acid vapour and phlogiston, one of which is so exceedingly corrosive, will not appear surprising to a chemist, who considers the very strong affinity which these two principles are known to have with each other, and the exceedingly different properties which substances composed by them possess. This is exemplified in common sulphur, which is as mild as air, and may be taken into the stomach with the utmost safety, though nothing can be more destructive than one of its constituent parts, separately taken, viz. oil of vitriol. Common air, therefore, notwithstanding its mildness, may be composed of similar principles, and be a real sulphur.

That the fixed air which makes part of the atmosphere is not presently imbibed by the waters of the sea, on which it rests, may be owing to the union which this kind of air also appears to be capable of forming with phlogiston. For fixed air is evidently of the nature of an acid; and it appears, in fact, to be capable of being combined with phlogiston, and thereby of constituting a species of air not liable to be imbibed by water. Phlogiston, however, having a stronger affinity with acid air, which I suppose to be the basis of common air, it is not surprising that, uniting with this, in preference to the fixed air, the latter should be precipitated, whenever a quantity of common air is made noxious by an over-charge of phlogiston.

The fixed air with which our atmosphere abounds may also be supplied by volcanos, from the vast masses of calcareous matter lodged in the earth, together with inflammable air. Also a part of it may be supplied from the fermentation of vegetables upon the surface of it. At present, as fast as it is precipitated and imbibed by one process, it may be set loose by others.

Whether there be, upon, the whole, an increase or a decrease of the general mass of the atmosphere is not easy to conjecture, but I should imagine that it rather increases. It is true that many processes contribute to a great visible diminution of common air, and that when by other processes it is restored to its former wholesomeness, it is not increased in its dimensions; but volcanos and fires still supply vast quantities of air, though in a state not yet fit for respiration; and it will have been seen in my experiments, that vegetable and animal substances, dissolved by putrefaction, not only emit phlogiston, but likewise yield a considerable quantity of permanent elastic air, overloaded indeed with phlogiston, as might be expected, but capable of being purified by those processes in nature by which other noxious air is purified.

That particles are continually detaching themselves from the surfaces of all solid bodies, even the metallic ones, and that these particles constitute the most permanent part of the atmosphere, as Sir Isaac Newton supposed, does not appear to me to be at all probable.

My readers will have observed, that not only is common air liable to be diminished by a mixture of nitrous air, but likewise air originally produced from inflammable air, and even from nitrous air itself, which never contained any fixed air. From this it may be inferred, that the whole of the diminution of common air by phlogiston is not owing to the precipitation of fixed air, but from a real contraction of its dimensions, in consequence of its union with phlogiston. Perhaps an accurate attention to the specific gravity of air procured from these different materials, and in these different states, may determine this matter, and assist us in investigating the nature of phlogiston.

In what manner air is diminished by phlogiston, independent of the precipitation of any of its constituent parts, is not easy to conceive; unless air thus diminished be heavier than air not diminished, which I did not find to be the case. It deserves, however, to be tried with more attention. That phlogiston should communicate absolute levity to the bodies with which it is combined, is a supposition that I am not willing to have recourse to, though it would afford an easy solution of this difficulty.

I have likewise observed, that a mouse will live almost as long in inflammable air, when it has been agitated in water, and even before it has been deprived of all its inflammability, as in common air; and yet that in this state it is not, perhaps, so much diminished by nitrous air as common air is. In this case, therefore, the diminution seems to have been occasioned by a contraction of dimensions, and not by a loss of any constituent part; so that the air is really better, that is, more fit for respiration, than, by the test of nitrous air, it would seem to be.

If this be the case (for it is not easy to judge with accuracy by experiments with small animals) nitrous air will be an accurate test of the goodness of common air only, that is, air containing a considerable proportion of fixed air. But this is the most valuable purpose for which a test of the goodness of air can be wanted. It will still, indeed, serve for a measure of the goodness of air that does not contain fixed air; but, a smaller degree of diminution in this case, must be admitted to be equivalent to a greater diminution in the other.

As I could never, by means of growing vegetables, bring air which had been thoroughly noxious to so pure a state as that a candle would burn in it, it may be suspected that something else besides vegetation is necessary to produce this effect. But it should be considered, that no part of the common atmosphere can ever be in this highly noxious state, or indeed in a state in which a candle will not burn in it; but that even air reduced to this state, either by candles actually burning out in it, or by breathing it, has never failed to be perfectly restored by vegetation, at least so far that candles would burn in it again, and, to all appearance, as well, and as long as ever; so that the growing vegetables, with which the surface of the earth is overspread, may, for any thing that appears to the contrary, be a cause of the purification of the atmosphere sufficiently adequate to the effect.

It may likewise be suspected, that since agitation in water injures pure common air, the agitation of the sea may do more harm than good in this respect. But it requires a much more violent and longer continued agitation of air in water than is ever occasioned by the waves of the sea to do the least sensible injury to it. Indeed a light agitation of air in putrid water injures it very materially; but if the water be sweet, this effect is not produced, except by a long and tedious operation, whereas it requires but a very short time, in comparison, to restore a quantity of any of the most noxious kinds of air to a very great degree of wholesomeness by the same process.

Dr. Hales found that he could breathe the same air much longer when, in the course of his respiration, it was made to pass through several folds of cloth dipped in vinegar, in a solution of sea-salt, or in salt of tartar, especially the last. Statical Essays, vol. 1. p. 266. The experiment is valuable, and well deserves to be repeated with a greater variety of circumstances. I imagine that the effect was produced by those substances, or by the water which they attracted from the air, imbibing the phlogistic matter discharged from the lungs. Perhaps the phlogiston may unite with the watery part of the atmosphere, in preference to any other part of it, and may by that means be more easily transferred to such salts as imbibe moisture.

Sir Isaac Newton defines flame to be fumus candens, considering all smoke as being of the same nature, and capable of ignition. But the smoke of common fuel consists of two very different things. That which rises first is mere water, loaded with some of the grosser parts of the fuel, and is hardly more capable of becoming red hot than water itself; but the other kind of smoke, which alone is capable of ignition, is properly inflammable air, which is also loaded with other heterogeneous matter, so as to appear like a very dense smoke. A lighted candle soon shews them to be essentially different from each other. For one of them instantly takes fire, whereas the other extinguishes a candle.

It is remarkable that gunpowder will take fire, and explode in all kinds of air, without distinction, and that other substances which contain nitre will burn freely in those circumstances. Now since nothing can burn, unless there be something at hand to receive the phlogiston, which is set loose in the act of ignition, I do not see how this fact can be accounted for, but by supposing that the acid of nitre, being peculiarly formed to unite with phlogiston, immediately receives it. And if the sulphur, which is thereby formed, be instantly decomposed again, as the chemists in general say, thence comes the explosion of gunpowder, which, however, requires the reaction of some incumbent atmosphere, and without which the materials will only melt, and be dispersed without explosion.

Nitrous air seems to consist of the nitrous acid vapour united to phlogiston, together, perhaps, with some small portion of the metallic calx; just as inflammable air consists of the vitriolic or marine acid, and the same phlogistic principle. It should seem, however, that phlogiston has a stronger affinity with the marine acid, if that be the basis of common air; for nitrous air being admitted to common air, it is immediately decomposed; probably by the phlogiston joining with the acid principle of the common air, while the fixed air which it contained is precipitated, and the acid of the nitrous air is absorbed by the water in which the mixture is made, or unites with any volatile alkali that happens to be at hand.

This, indeed, is hardly agreeable to the hypothesis of most chemists, who suppose that the nitrous acid is stronger than the marine, so as to be capable of dislodging it from any base with which it may be combined; but it agrees with my own experiments on marine acid air, which shew that, in many cases, this weaker acid, as it is called, is capable of separating both the vitriolic and the nitrous acids from the phlogiston with which they are combined.

On the other hand, the solution of metals in the different acids seems to shew, that the nitrous acid forms a closer union with phlogiston than the other two; because the air which is formed by the nitrous acid is not inflammable, like that which is produced by the oil of vitriol, or the spirit of salt. Also, the same weight of iron does not yield half the quantity of nitrous air that it does of inflammable.

The great diminution of nitrous air by phlogiston is not easily accounted for, unless we suppose that its superabundant acid, uniting more intimately with the phlogiston, constitutes a species of sulphur that is not easily perceived or catched; though, in the process with iron, and also in that with liver of sulphur, part of the redundant phlogiston forms such an union with the acid as gives it a kind of inflammability.

It appears to me to be very probable, that the spirit of nitre might be exhibited in the form of air, if it were possible to find any fluid by which it could be confined; but it unites with quicksilver as well as with water, so that when, by boiling the spirit of nitre, the fumes are driven through the glass tube, fig. 8, they instantly seize upon the quicksilver through which they are to be conveyed, and uniting with it, form a substance that stops up the tube: a circumstance which has more than once exposed me to very disagreeable accidents, in consequence of the bursting of the phials.

I do not know any inquiry more promising than the investigation of the properties of nitre, the nitrous acid, and nitrous air. Some of the most wonderful phenomena in nature are connected with them, and the subject seems to be fully within our reach.

§ 2. Speculations arising from the consideration of the similarity of the ELECTRIC MATTER and PHLOGISTON.

There is nothing in the history of philosophy more striking than the rapid progress of electricity. Nothing ever appeared more trifling than the first effects which were observed of this agent in nature, as the attraction and repulsion of straws, and other light substances. It excited more attention by the flashes of light which it exhibited. We were more seriously alarmed at the electrical shock, and the effects of the electrical battery; and we were astonished to the highest degree by the discovery of the similarity of electricity with lightning, and the aurora borealis, with the connexion it seems to have with water-spouts, hurricanes, and earthquakes, and also with the part that is probably assigned to it in the system of vegetation, and other the most important processes in nature.

Yet, notwithstanding all this, we have been, within a few years, more puzzled than ever with the electricity of the torpedo, and of the anguille temblante of Surinam, especially since that most curious discovery of Mr. Walsh's, that the former of these wonderful fishes has the power of giving a proper electrical shock; the electrical matter which proceeds from it performing a real circuit from one part of the animal to the other; while both the fish which performs this experiment and all its apparatus are plunged in water, which is known to be a conducting substance.

Perhaps, however, by considering this fact in connexion with a few others, and especially with what I have lately observed concerning the identity of electricity and phlogiston, a little light may be thrown upon this subject, in consequence of which we may be led to consider electricity in a still more important light. Many of my readers, I am aware, will smile at what I am going to advance; but the apprehension of this shall not interrupt my speculations, how chimerical soever they may be thought to be.

The facts, the consideration of which I would combine with that of the electricity of the torpedo, are the following.

First, The remarkable electricity of the feathers of a paroquet, observed by Mr. Hartmann, an account of which may be seen in Mr. Rozier's Journal for Sept. 1771. p. 69. This bird never drinks, but often washes itself; but the person who attended it having neglected to supply it with water for this purpose, its feathers appeared to be endued with a proper electrical virtue, repelling one another, and retaining their electricity a long time after they were plucked from the body of the bird, just as they would have done if they had received electricity from an excited glass tube.

Secondly, The electric matter directed through the body of any muscle forces it to contract. This is known to all persons who attend to what is called the electrical shock; which certainly occasions a proper convulsion, but has been more fully illustrated by Father Beccaria. See my History of Electricity, p. 402.

Lastly, Let it be considered that the proper nourishment of an animal body, from which the source and materials of all muscular motion must be derived, is probably some modification of phlogiston. Nothing will nourish that does not contain phlogiston, and probably in such a state as to be easily separated from it by the animal functions.

That the source of muscular motion is phlogiston is still more probable, from the consideration of the well known effects of vinous and spirituous liquors, which consist very much of phlogiston, and which instantly brace and strengthen the whole nervous and muscular system; the phlogiston in this case being, perhaps, more easily extricated, and by a less tedious animal process, than in the usual method of extracting it from mild aliments. Since, however, the mildest aliments do the same thing more slowly and permanently, that spirituous liquors do suddenly and transiently, it seems probable that their operation is ultimately the same.

This conjecture is likewise favoured by my observation, that respiration and putrefaction affect common air in the same manner, and in the same manner in which all other processes diminish air and make it noxious, and which agree in nothing but the emission of phlogiston. If this be the case, it should seem that the phlogiston which we take in with our aliment, after having discharged its proper function in the animal system (by which it probably undergoes some unknown alteration) is discharged as effete by the lungs into the great common menstruum, the atmosphere.

My conjecture suggested (whether supported or not) by these facts, is, that animals have a power of converting phlogiston, from the state in which they receive it in their nutriment, into that state in which it is called the electrical fluid; that the brain, besides its other proper uses, is the great laboratory and repository for this purpose; that by means of the nerves this great principle, thus exalted, is directed into the muscles, and forces them to act, in the same manner as they are forced into action when the electric fluid is thrown into them ab extra.

I farther suppose, that the generality of animals have no power of throwing this generated electricity any farther than the limits of their own system; but that the torpedo, and animals of a similar construction, have likewise the power, by means of an additional apparatus, of throwing it farther, so as to affect other animals, and other substances at a distance from them.

In this case, it should seem that the electric matter discharged from the animal system (by which it is probably more exhausted and fatigued than by ordinary muscular motion) would never return to it, at least so as to be capable of being made use of a second time, and yet if the structure of these animals be such as that the electric matter shall dart from one part of them only, while another part is left suddenly deprived of it, it may make a circuit, as in the Leyden phial.

As to the manner in which the electric matter makes a muscle contract, I do not pretend to have any conjecture worth mentioning. I only imagine that whatever can make the muscular fibres recede from one another farther than the parts of which they consist, must have this effect.

Possibly, the light which is said to proceed from some animals, as from cats and wild beasts, when they are in pursuit of their prey in the night, may not only arise, as it has hitherto been supposed to do, from the friction of their hairs or bristles, &c. but that violent muscular exertion may contribute to it. This may assist them occasionally to catch their prey; as glow-worms, and other insects, are provided with a constant light for that purpose, to the supply of which light their nutriment may also contribute.

I would not even say that the light which is said to have proceeded from some human bodies, of a particular temperament, and especially on some extraordinary occasions, may not have been of the electrical kind, that is, produced independently of friction, or with less friction than would have produced it in other persons; as in those cases related by Bartholin in his treatice De luce animalium. See particularly what he says concerning Theodore king of the Goths, p. 54, concerning Gonzaga duke of Mantua, p. 57, and Gothofred Antonius, p. 123: But I would not have my readers suppose that I lay much stress upon stories no better authenticated than these.

The electric matter in passing through non-conducting substances always emits light. This light I have been sometimes inclined to suspect might have been supplied from the substance through which it passes. But I find that after the electric spark has diminished a quantity of air as much as it possibly can, so that it has no more visible effect upon it, the electric light in that air is not at all lessened. It is probable, therefore, that electric light comes from the electric matter itself; and this being a modification of phlogiston, it is probable that all light is a modification of phlogiston also. Indeed, since no other substances besides such as contain phlogiston are capable of ignition, and consequently of becoming luminous, it was on this account pretty evident, prior to these deductions from electrical phenomena, that light and phlogiston are the same thing, in different forms or states.

It appears to me that heat has no more proper connexion with phlogiston than it has with water, or any other constituent part of bodies; but that it is a state into which the parts of bodies are thrown by their action and reaction with respect to one another; and probably (as the English philosophers in general have supposed) the heated state of bodies may consist of a subtle vibratory motion of their parts. Since the particles which constitute light are thrown from luminous bodies with such amazing velocity, it is evident that, whatever be the cause of such a projection, the reaction consequent upon it must be considerable. This may be sufficient not only to keep up, but also to increase the vibration of the parts of those bodies in which the phlogiston is not very firmly combined; and the difference between the substances which are called inflammable and others which also contain phlogiston may be this, that in the former the heat, or the vibration occasioned by the emission of their own phlogiston, may be sufficient to occasion the emission of more, till the whole be exhausted; that is, till the body be reduced to ashes. Whereas in bodies which are not inflammable, the heat occasioned by the emission of their own phlogiston may not be sufficient for this purpose, but an additional heat ab extra may be necessary.

Some philosophers dislike the term phlogiston; but, for my part, I can see no objection to giving that, or any other name, to a real something, the presence or absence of which makes so remarkable difference in bodies, as that of metallic calces and metals, oil of vitriol and brimstone, &c. and which may be transferred from one substance to another, according to certain known laws, that is, in certain definite circumstances. It is certainly hard to conceive how any thing that answers this description can be only a mere quality, or mode of bodies, and not substance itself, though incapable of being exhibited alone. At least, there can be no harm in giving this name to any thing, or any circumstance that is capable of producing these effects. If it should hereafter appear not to be a substance, we may change our phraseology, if we think proper.

On the other hand I dislike the use of the term fire, as a constituent principle of natural bodies, because, in consequence of the use that has generally been made of that term, it includes another thing or circumstance, viz. heat, and thereby becomes ambiguous, and is in danger of misleading us. When I use the term phlogiston, as a principle in the constitution of bodies, I cannot mislead myself or others, because I use one and the same term to denote only one and the same unknown cause of certain well-known effects. But if I say that fire is a principle in the constitution of bodies, I must, at least, embarrass myself with the distinction of fire in a state of action, and fire inactive, or quiescent. Besides I think the term phlogiston preferable to that of fire, because it is not in common use, but confined to philosophy; so that the use of it may be more accurately ascertained.

Besides, if phlogiston and the electric matter be the same thing, though it cannot be exhibited alone, in a quiescent state, it may be exhibited alone under one of its modifications, when it is in motion. And if light be also phlogiston, or some modification or subdivision of phlogiston, the same thing is capable of being exhibited alone in this other form also.

In my paper on the conducting power of charcoal, (See Philosophical Transactions, vol. 60. p. 221) I observed that there is a remarkable resemblance between metals and charcoal; as in both these substances there is an intimate union of phlogiston with an earthy base; and I said that, had there been any phlogiston in water, I should have concluded, that there had been no conducting power in nature, but in consequence of an union of this principle with some base; for while metals have phlogiston they conduct electricity, but when they are deprived of it they conduct no longer. Now the affinity which I have observed between phlogiston and water leads me to conclude that water, in its natural state, does contain some portion of phlogiston; and according to the hypothesis just now mentioned they must be intimately united, because water is not inflammable.

I think, therefore, that after this state of hesitation and suspence, I may venture to lay it down as a characteristic distinction between conducting and non-conducting substances, that the former contain phlogiston intimately united with some base, and that the latter, if they contain phlogiston at all, retain it more loosely. In what manner this circumstance facilitates the passing of the electric matter through one substance, and obstructs its passage through another, I do not pretend to say. But it is no inconsiderable thing to have advanced but one step nearer to an explanation of so very capital a distinction of natural bodies, as that into conductors and non-conductors of electricity.

I beg leave to mention in this place, as favourable to this hypothesis, a most curious discovery made very lately by Mr. Walsh, who being assisted by Mr. De Luc to make a more perfect vacuum in the double or arched barometer, by boiling the quicksilver in the tube, found that the electric spark or shock would no more pass through it, than through a stick of solid glass. He has also noted several circumstances that affect this vacuum in a very extraordinary manner. But supposing that vacuum to be perfect, I do not see how we can avoid inferring from the fact, that some substance is necessary to conduct electricity; and that it is not capable, by its own expansive power, of extending itself into spaces void of all matter, as has generally been supposed, on the idea of there being nothing to obstruct its passage.

Indeed if this was the case, I do not see how the electric matter could be retained within the body of the earth, or any of the planets, or solid orbs of any kind. In nature we see it make the most splendid appearance in the upper and thinner regions of the atmosphere, just as it does in a glass tube nearly exhausted; but if it could expand itself beyond that degree of rarity, it would necessarily be diffused into the surrounding vacuum, and continue and be condensed there, at least in a greater proportion than in or near any solid body, as Newton supposed concerning his ether.

If that mode of vibration which constitutes heat be the means of converting phlogiston from that state in which it makes a part of solid bodies, and eminently contributes to the firmness of their texture into that state in which it diminishes common air; may not that peculiar kind of vibration by which Dr. Hartley supposes the brain to be affected, and by which he endeavours to explain all the phenomena of sensation, ideas, and muscular motion, be the means by which the phlogiston, which is conveyed into the system by nutriment, is converted into that form or modification of it of which the electric fluid consists.

These two states of phlogiston may be conceived to resemble, in some measure, the two states of fixed air, viz. elastic, or non-elastic; a solid, or a fluid.

THE APPENDIX.

In this Appendix I shall present the reader with the communications of several of my friends on the subject of the preceding work. Among them I should with pleasure have inserted some curious experiments, made by Dr. Hulme of Halifax, on the air extracted from Buxton water, and on the impregnation of several fluids, with different kinds of air; but that he informs me he proposes to make a separate publication on the subject.

NUMBER I.

EXPERIMENTS made by Mr. Hey to prove that there is no OIL of VITRIOL in water impregnated with FIXED AIR.

It having been suggested, that air arising from a fermenting mixture of chalk and oil of vitriol might carry up with it a small portion of the vitriolic acid, rendered volatile by the act of fermentation; I made the following experiments, in order to discover whether the acidulous taste, which water impregnated with such air affords, was owing to the presence of any acid, or only to the fixed air it had absorbed.

EXPERIMENT I.

I mixed a tea-spoonful of syrup of violets with an ounce of distilled water, saturated with fixed air procured from chalk by means of the vitriolic acid; but neither upon the first mixture, nor after standing 24 hours, was the colour of the syrup at all changed, except by its simple dilution.

EXPERIMENT II.

A portion of the same distilled water, unimpregnated with fixed air, was mixed with the syrup in the same proportion: not the least difference in colour could be perceived betwixt this and the above-mentioned mixture.

EXPERIMENT III.

One drop of oil of vitriol being mixed with a pint of the same distilled water, an ounce of this water was mixed with a tea-spoonful of the syrup. This mixture was very distinguishable in colour from the two former, having a purplish cast, which the others wanted.

EXPERIMENT IV.

The distilled water impregnated with so small a quantity of vitriolic acid, having a more agreeable taste than when alone, and yet manifesting the presence of an acid by means of the syrup of violets; I subjected it to some other tests of acidity. It formed curds when agitated with soap, lathered with difficulty, and very imperfectly; but not the least ebullition could be discovered upon dropping in spirit of sal ammoniac, or solution of salt of tartar, though I had taken care to render the latter free from causticity by impregnating it with fixed air.

EXPERIMENT V.

The distilled water saturated with fixed air neither effervesced, nor shewed any clouds, when mixed with the fixed or volatile alkali.

EXPERIMENT VI.

No curd was formed by pouring this water upon an equal quantity of milk, and boiling them together.

EXPERIMENT VII.

When agitated with soap, this water produced curds, and lathered with some difficulty; but not so much as the distilled water mixed with vitriolic acid in the very small proportion above-mentioned. The same distilled water without any impregnation of fixed air lathered with soap without the least previous curdling. River-water, and a pleasant pump-water not remarkably hard, were compared with these. The former produced curds before it lathered, but not quite in so great a quantity as the distilled water impregnated with fixed air: the latter caused a stronger curd than any of the others above-mentioned.

EXPERIMENT VIII.

Apprehending that the fixed air in the distilled water occasioned the coagulation, or separation of the oily part of the soap, only by destroying the causticity of the lixivium, and thereby rendering the union less perfect betwixt that and the tallow, and not by the presence of any acid; I impregnated a fresh quantity of the same distilled water with fixed air, which had passed through half a yard of a wide barometer-tube filled with salt of tartar; but this water caused the same curdling with soap as the former had done, and appeared in every respect to be exactly the same.

EXPERIMENT IX.

Distilled water saturated with fixed air formed a white cloud and precipitation, upon being mixed with a solution of saccharum saturni. I found likewise, that fixed air, after passing through the tube filled with alkaline salt, upon being let into a phial containing a solution of the metalic salt in distilled water, caused a perfect separation of the lead, in the form of a white powder; for the water, after this precipitation, shewed no cloudiness upon a fresh mixture of the substances which had before rendered it opaque.

NUMBER II.

A Letter from Mr. HEY to Dr. PRIESTLEY, concerning the Effects of fixed Air applied by way of Clyster.

Leeds, Feb. 15th, 1772.

Reverend Sir,

Having lately experienced the good effects of fixed air in a putrid fever, applied in a manner, I believe not heretofore made use of, I thought it proper to inform you of the agreeable event, as the method of applying this powerful corrector of putrefaction took its rise principally from your observations and experiments on factitious air; and now, at your request, I send the particulars of the case I mentioned to you, as far as concerns the administration of this remedy.

January 8, 1772, Mr. Lightbowne, a young gentleman who lives with me, was seized with a fever, which, after continuing about ten days, began to be attended with those symptoms that indicate a putrescent state of the fluids.

18th, His tongue was black in the morning when I first visited him, but the blackness went off in the day-time upon drinking: He had begun to doze much the preceding day, and now he took little notice of those that were about him: His belly was loose, and had been so for some days: his pulse beat 110 strokes in a minute, and was rather low: he was ordered to take twenty-five grains of Peruvian bark with five of tormentil-root in powder every four hours, and to use red wine and water cold as his common drink.

19th, I was called to visit him early in the morning, on account of a bleeding at the nose which had come on: he lost about eight ounces of blood, which was of a loose texture: the hæmorrhage was suppressed, though not without some difficulty, by means of tents made of soft lint, dipped in cold water strongly impregnated with tincture of iron, which were introduced within the nostrils quite through to their posterior apertures; a method which has never yet failed me in like cases. His tongue was now covered with a thick black pellicle, which was not diminished by drinking: his teeth were furred with the same kind of sordid matter, and even the roof of his mouth and sauces were not free from it: his looseness and stupor continued, and he was almost incessantly muttering to himself: he took this day a scruple of the Peruvian bark with ten grains of tormentil every two or three hours: a starch clyster, containing a drachm of the compound powder of bole, without opium, was given morning and evening: a window was set open in his room, though it was a severe frost, and the floor was frequently sprinkled with vinegar.

20th, He continued nearly in the same state: when roused from his dozing, he generally gave a sensible answer to the questions asked him; but he immediately relapsed, and repeated his muttering. His skin was dry, and harsh, but without petechiæ. He sometimes voided his urine and fæces into the bed, but generally had sense enough to ask for the bed-pan: as he now nauseated the bark in substance, it was exchanged for Huxham's tincture, of which he took a table spoonful every two hours in a cup full of cold water: he drank sometimes a little of the tincture of roses, but his common liquors were red wine and water, or rice-water and brandy acidulated with elixir of vitriol: before drinking, he was commonly requested to rinse his mouth with water to which a little honey and vinegar had been added. His looseness rather increased, and the stools were watery, black, and foetid: It was judged necessary to moderate this discharge, which seemed to sink him, by mixing a drachm of the theriaca Andromachi with each clyster.

21st. The same putrid symptoms remained, and a subsultus tendinum came on: his stools were more foetid; and so hot, that the nurse assured me she could not apply her hand to the bed-pan, immediately after they were discharged, without feeling pain on this account: The medicine and clysters were repeated.

Reflecting upon the disagreeable necessity we seemed to lie under of confining this putrid matter in the intestines, lest the evacuation should destroy the vis vitæ before there was time to correct its bad quality, and overcome its bad effects, by the means we were using; I considered, that, if this putrid ferment could be more immediately corrected, a stop would probably be put to the flux, which seemed to arise from, or at least to be encreased by it; and the fomes of the disease would likewise be in a great measure removed. I thought nothing was so likely to effect this, as the introduction of fixed air into the alimentary canal, which, from the experiments of Dr. Macbride, and those you have made since his publication, appears to be the most powerful corrector of putrefaction hitherto known. I recollected what you had recommended to me as deserving to be tried in putrid diseases, I mean, the injection of this kind of air by way of clyster, and judged that in the present case such a method was clearly indicated.

The next morning I mentioned my reflections to Dr. Hird and Dr. Crowther, who kindly attended this young gentleman at my request, and proposed the following method of treatment, which, with their approbation, was immediately entered upon. We first gave him five grains of ipecacuanha, to evacuate in the most easy manner part of the putrid colluvies: he was then allowed to drink freely of brisk orange-wine, which contained a good deal of fixed air, yet had not lost its sweetness. The tincture of bark was continued as before; and the water which he drank along with it, was impregnated with fixed air from the atmosphere of a large vat of fermenting wort, in the manner I had learned from you. Instead of the astringent clyster, air alone was injected, collected from a fermenting mixture of chalk and oil of vitriol: he drank a bottle of orange-wine in the course of this day, but refused any other liquor except water and his medicine: two bladders full of air were thrown up in the afternoon.

23d. His stools were less frequent; their heat likewise and peculiar foetor were considerably diminished; his muttering was much abated, and the subsultus tendinum had left him. Finding that part of the air was rejected when given with a bladder in the usual way, I contrived a method of injecting it which was not so liable to this inconvenience. I took the flexible tube of that instrument which is used for throwing up the fume of tobacco, and tied a small bladder to the end of it that is connected with the box made for receiving the tobacco, which I had previously taken off from the tube: I then put some bits of chalk into a six ounce phial until it was half filled; upon these I poured such a quantity of oil of vitriol as I thought capable of saturating the chalk, and immediately tied the bladder, which I had fixed to the tube, round the neck of the phial: the clyster-pipe, which was fastened to the other end of the tube, was introduced into the anus before the oil of vitriol was poured upon the chalk. By this method the air passed gradually into the intestines as it was generated; the rejection of it was in a great measure prevented; and the inconvenience of keeping the patient uncovered during the operation was avoided.

24th, He was so much better, that there seemed to be no necessity for repeating the clysters: the other means were continued. The window of his room was now kept shut.

25th, All the symptoms of putrescency had left him; his tongue and teeth were clean; there remained no unnatural blackness or foetor in his stool, which had now regained their proper consistence; his dozing and muttering were gone off; and the disagreeable odour of his breath and perspiration was no longer perceived. He took nourishment to-day, with pleasure; and, in the afternoon, sat up an hour in his chair.

His fever, however, did not immediately leave him; but this we attributed to his having caught cold from being incautiously uncovered, when the window was open, and the weather extremely severe; for a cough, which had troubled him in some degree from the beginning, increased, and he became likewise very hoarse for several days, his pulse, at the same time, growing quicker: but these complaints also went off, and he recovered, without any return of the bad symptoms above-mentioned.

I am, Reverend Sir,

Your obliged humble Servant,

WM. HEY.

POSTSCRIPT

October 29, 1772.

Fevers of the putrid kind have been so rare in this town, and in its neighbourhood, since the commencement of the present year, that I have not had an opportunity of trying again the effects of fixed air, given by way of clyster, in any case exactly similar to Mr. Lightbowne's. I have twice given water saturated with fixed air in a fever of the putrescent kind, and it agreed very well with the patients. To one of them the aërial clysters were administred, on account of a looseness, which attended the fever, though the stools were not black, nor remarkably hot or foetid.

These clysters did not remove the looseness, though there was often a greater interval than usual betwixt the evacuations, after the injection of them. The patient never complained of any uneasy distention of the belly from the air thrown up, which, indeed, is not to be wondered at, considering how readily this kind of air is absorbed by aqueous and other fluids, for which sufficient time was given, by the gradual manner of injecting it. Both those patients recovered though the use of fixed air did not produce a crisis before the period at which such fevers usually terminate. They had neither of them the opportunity of drinking such wine as Mr. Lightbowne took, after the use of fixed air was entered upon; and this, probably, was some disadvantage to them.

I find the methods of procuring fixed air, and impregnating water with it, which you have published, are preferable to those I made use of in Mr. Lightbowne's case.

The flexible tube used for conveying the fume of tobacco into the intestines, I find to be a very convenient instrument in this case, by the method before-mentioned (only adding water to the chalk, before the oil of vitriol is instilled, as you direct) the injection of air may be continued at pleasure, without any other inconvenience to the patient, than what may arise from his continuing in one position during the operation, which scarcely deserves to be mentioned, or from the continuance of the clyster-pipe within the anus, which is but trifling, if it be not shaken much, or pushed against the rectum.

When I said in my letter, that fixed air appeared to be the greatest corrector of putrefaction hitherto known, your philosophical researches had not then made you acquainted with that most remarkably antiseptic property of nitrous air. Since you favoured me with a view of some astonishing proofs of this, I have conceived hopes, that this kind of air may likewise be applied medicinally to great advantage.

W. H.

NUMBER III.

Observations on the MEDICINAL USES of FIXED AIR. By THOMAS PERCIVAL, M. D. Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY, and of the SOCIETY of ANTIQUARIES in LONDON.

These Observations on the MEDICINAL USES OF FIXED AIR have been before published in the Second Volume of my Essays; but are here reprinted with considerable additions. They form a part of an experimental inquiry into this interesting and curious branch of Physics; in which the friendship of Dr. Priestley first engaged me, in concert with himself.

Manchester, March 16, 1774.

In a course of Experiments, which is yet unfinished, I have had frequent opportunities of observing that FIXED AIR may in no inconsiderable quantity be breathed without danger or uneasiness. And it is a confirmation of this conclusion, that at Bath, where the waters copiously exhale this mineral spirit, the bathers inspire it with impunity. At Buxton also, where the Bath is in a close vault, the effects of such effluvia, if noxious, must certainly be perceived.

Encouraged by these considerations, and still more by the testimony of a very judicious Physician at Stafford, in favour of this powerful antiseptic remedy, I have administered fixed air in a considerable number of cases of the PHTHISIS PULMONALIS, by directing my patients to inspire the steams of an effervescing mixture of chalk and vinegar; or what I have lately preferred, of vinegar and potash. The hectic fever has in several instances been considerably abated, and the matter expectorated has become less offensive, and better digested. I have not yet been so fortunate in any one case, as to effect a cure; although the use of mephitic air has been accompanied with proper internal medicines. But Dr. Withering, the gentleman referred to above, informs me, that he has been more successful. One Phthisical patient under his care has by a similar course intirely recovered; another was rendered much better; and a third, whose case was truly deplorable, seemed to be kept alive by it more than two months. It may be proper to observe that fixed air can only be employed with any prospect of success, in the latter stages of the phthisis pulmonalis, when a purulent expectoration takes place. After the rupture and discharge of a VOMICA also, such a remedy promises to be a powerful palliative. Antiseptic fumigations and vapours have been long employed, and much extolled in cases of this kind. I made the following experiment, to determine whether their efficacy, in any degree, depends on the separation of fixed air from their substance.

One end of a bent tube was fixed in a phial full of lime-water; the other end in a bottle of the tincture of myrrh. The junctures were carefully luted, and the phial containing the tincture of myrrh was placed in water, heated almost to the boiling point, by the lamp of a tea-kettle. A number of air-bubbles were separated, but probably not of the mephitic kind, for no precipitation ensued in the lime water. This experiment was repeated with the tinct. tolutanæ, ph. ed. and with sp, vinos. camp. and the result was entirely the same. The medicinal action therefore of the vapours raised from such tinctures, cannot be ascribed to the extrication of fixed air; of which it is probable bodies are deprived by chemical solution as well as by mixture.

If mephitic air be thus capable of correcting purulent matter in the lungs, we may reasonably infer it will be equally useful when applied externally to foul ULCERS. And experience confirms the conclusion. Even the sanies of a CANCER, when the carrot poultice failed, has been sweetened by it, the pain mitigated, and a better digestion produced. The cases I refer to are now in the Manchester infirmary, under the direction of my friend Mr. White, whose skill as a surgeon, and abilities as a writer are well known to the public.

Two months have elapsed since these observations were written, and the same remedy, during that period, has been assiduously applied, but without any further success. The progress of the cancers seems to be checked by the fixed air; but it is to be feared that a cure will not be effected. A palliative remedy, however, in a disease so desperate and loathsome, may be considered as a very valuable acquisition. Perhaps NITROUS AIR might be still more efficacious. This species of factitious air is obtained from all the metals except zinc, by means of the nitrous acid; and Dr. Priestley informs me, that as a sweetener and antiseptic it far surpasses fixed air. He put two mice into a quantity of it, one just killed, the other offensively putrid. After twenty-five days they were both perfectly sweet.

In the ULCEROUS SORE THROAT much advantage has been experienced from the vapours of effervescing mixtures drawn into the fauces. But this remedy should not supersede the use of other antiseptic applications.

A physician who had a very painful APTHOUS ULCER at the point of his tongue, found great relief, when other remedies failed, from the application of fixed air to the part affected. He held his tongue over an effervescing mixture of potash and vinegar; and as the pain was always mitigated, and generally removed by this vaporisation, he repeated it, whenever the anguish arising from the ulcer was more than usually severe. He tried a combination of potash and oil of vitriol well diluted with water; but this proved stimulant and increased his pain; probably owing to some particles of the acid thrown upon the tongue, by the violence of the effervescence. For a paper stained with the purple juice of radishes, when held at an equal distance over two vessels, the one containing potash and vinegar, the other the same alkali and Spiritus vitrioli tenuis, was unchanged by the former, but was spotted with red, in various parts, by the latter.

In MALIGNANT FEVERS wines abounding with fixed air may be administered, to check the septic ferment, and sweeten the putrid colluvies in the primæ viæ. If the laxative quality of such liquors be thought an objection to the use of them, wines of a greater age may be given, impregnated with mephitic air, by a simple but ingenious contrivance of my friend Dr. Priestley.

The patient's common drink might also be medicated in the same way. A putrid DIARRHA frequently occurs in the latter stage of such disorder, and it is a most alarming and dangerous symptom. If the discharge be stopped by astringents, a putrid fomes is retained in the body, which aggravates the delirium and increases the fever. On the contrary, if it be suffered to take its course, the strength of the patient must soon be exhausted, and death unavoidably ensue. The injection of mephitic air into the intestines, under these circumstances, bids fair to be highly serviceable. And a case of this deplorable kind, has lately been communicated to me, in which the vapour of chalk and oil of vitriol conveyed into the body by the machine employed for tobacco clysters, quickly restrained the diarrhoea, corrected the heat and foetor of the stools, and in two days removed every symptom of danger. Two similar instances of the salutary effects of mephitic air, thus administered, have occurred also in my own practice, the history of which I shall briefly lay before the reader. May we not presume that the same remedy would be equally useful in the DYSENTERY? The experiment is at least worthy of trial.

Mr. W----, aged forty-four years, corpulent, inactive, with a short neck, and addicted to habits of intemperance, was attacked on the 7th of July 1772, with symptoms which seemed to threaten an apoplexy. On the 8th, a bilious looseness succeeded, with a profuse hoemorrhage from the nose. On the 9th, I was called to his assistance. His countenance was bloated, his eyes heavy, his skin hot, and his pulse hard, full, and oppressed. The diarrhoea continued; his stools were bilious and very offensive; and he complained of griping pains in his bowels. He had lost, before I saw him, by the direction of Mr. Hall, a surgeon of eminence in Manchester, eight ounces of blood from the arm, which was of a lax texture; and he had taken a saline mixture every sixth hour. The following draught was prescribed, and a dose of rhubarb directed to be administered at night.

Rx. Aq. Cinnam. ten. oz. j. Succ. Limon. recent. oz. ß. Salis Nitri gr. xij. Syr. è Succo Limon. dr. j. M. f. Haust. 4tis horis sumendus.

July 11. The Diarrhoea was more moderate; his griping pains were abated; and he had less stupor and dejection in his countenance. Pulse 90, not so hard or oppressed. As his stools continued to be foetid, the dose of rhubarb was repeated; and instead of simple cinnamon-water, his draughts were prepared with an infusion of columbo root.

12. The Diarrhoea continued; his stools were involuntary; and he discharged in this way a quantity of black, grumous, and foetid blood. Pulse hard and quick; skin hot; tongue covered with a dark fur; abdomen swelled; great stupor. Ten grains of columbo root, and fifteen of the Gummi rubrum astringens were added to each draught. Fixed air, under the form of clysters, was injected every second or third hour; and directions were given to supply the patient plentifully with water, artificially impregnated with mephitic air. A blister was also laid between his shoulders.

13. The Diarrhoea continued, with frequent discharges of blood; but the stools had now lost their foetor. Pulse 120; great flatulence in the bowels, and fulness in the belly. The clysters of fixed air always diminished the tension of the Abdomen, abated flatulence, and made the patient more easy and composed for some time after their injection. They were directed to be continued, together with the medicated water. The nitre was omitted, and a scruple of the Confect. Damocratis was given every fourth hour, in an infusion of columbo root.

14. The Diarrhoea was how checked, His other symptoms continued as before. Blisters were applied to the arms; and a drachm and a half of the Tinctura Serpentariæ was added to each draught.

15. His pulse was feeble, quicker and more irregular. He dosed much; talked incoherently; and laboured under a slight degree of Dyspnæa. His urine, which had hitherto assumed no remarkable appearance, now became pale. Though he discharged wind very freely, his belly was much swelled, except for a short time after the injection of the air-clysters. The following draughts were then prescribed.

Rx Camphoræ mucilag. G. Arab, solutæ gr. viij. Infus. Rad. Columbo oz. jfs Tinct. Serpent. dr. ij Confect. Card. scruple j Syr. è Cort. Aurant dr. i m. f. Haust. 4tis horis sumendus.

Directions were given to foment his feet frequently with vinegar and warm water.

16. He has had no stools since the 14th. His Abdomen is tense. No change in the other symptoms. The Tinct. Serpent. was omitted in his draughts, and an equal quantity of Tinct. Rhæi Sp. substituted in its place.

In the evening he had a motion to stool, of which he was for the first time so sensible, as to give notice to his attendants. But the discharge, which was considerable and slightly offensive, consisted almost entirely of blood, both in a coagulated and in a liquid state. His medicines were therefore varied as follows:

Rx. Decoct. Cort. Peruv. oz. iss Tinct. Cort. ejusd. dr. ij. Confect. Card. scruple j Gum. Rubr. Astring. gr. xv. Pulv. Alnmin. gr. vij. m. f. Haustus 4tis horis sumendus.

Red Port wine was now given more freely in his medicated water; and his nourishment consisted of sago and salep.

In this state, with very little variation, he continued for several days; at one time ostive, and at another discharging small quantities of fæces, mixed with grumous blood. The air-clysters were continued, and the astringents omitted.

20. His urine was now of an amber colour, and deposited a slight sediment. His pulse was more regular, and although still very quick, abated in number ten strokes in a minute. His head was less confused, and his sleep seemed to be refreshing. No blood appeared in his stools, which were frequent, but small in quantity; and his Abdomen was less tense than usual. He was extremely deaf; but gave rational answers to the few questions which were proposed to him; and said he felt no pain.

21. He passed a very restless night; his delirium recurred; his pulse beat 125 strokes in a minute; his urine was of a deep amber colour when first voided; but when cold assumed the appearance of cow's whey. The Abdomen was not very tense, nor had he any further discharge of blood.

Directions were given to shave his head, and to wash it with a mixture of vinegar and brandy; the quantity of wine in his drink was diminished; and the frequent use of the pediluvium was enjoined. The air-clysters were discontinued, as his stools were not offensive, and his Abdomen less distended.

22. His pulse was now small, irregular, and beat 130 strokes in a minute. The Dyspnoea was greatly increased; his skin was hot, and bedewed with a clammy moisture; and every symptom seemed to indicate the approach of death. In this state he continued till evening, when he recruited a little. The next day he had several slight convulsions. His urine which was voided plentifully, still put on the appearance of whey when cold. Cordial and antispasmodic draughts, composed of camphor, tincture of castor, and Sp. vol. aromat. were now directed; and wine was liberally administered.

24. He rose from his bed, and by the assistance of his attendants walked across the chamber. Soon after he was seized with a violent convulsion, in which he expired.

To adduce a case which terminated fatally as a proof of the efficacy of any medicine, recommended to the attention of the public, may perhaps appear singular; but cannot be deemed absurd, when that remedy answered the purposes for which it was intended. For in the instance before us; fixed air was employed, not with an expectation that it would cure the fever, but to obviate the symptoms of putrefaction, and to allay the uneasy irritation in the bowels. The disease was too malignant, the nervous system too violently affected, and the strength of the patient too much exhausted by the discharges of blood which he suffered, to afford hopes of recovery from the use of the most powerful antiseptics.

But in the succeeding case the event proved more fortunate.

Elizabeth Grundy, aged seventeen, was attacked on the 10th of December 1772, with the usual symptoms of a continued fever. The common method of cure was pursued; but the disease increased, and soon assumed a putrid type.

On the 23d I found her in a constant delirium, with a subsultus tendinum. Her skin was hot and dry, her tongue black, her thirst immoderate, and her stools frequent, extremely offensive, and for the most part involuntary. Her pulse beat 130 strokes in a minute; she dosed much; and was very deaf. I directed wine to be administered freely; a blister to be applied to her back; the pediluvium to be used several times in the day; and mephitic air to be injected under the form of a clyster every two hours. The next day her stools were less frequent, had lost their foetor, and were no longer discharged involuntarily; her pulse was reduced to 110 strokes in the minute; and her delirium was much abated. Directions were given to repeat the clysters, and to supply the patient liberally with wine. These means were assiduously pursued several days; and the young woman was so recruited by the 28th, that the injections were discontinued. She was now quite rational, and not averse to medicine. A decoction of Peruvian bark was therefore prescribed, by the use of which she speedily recovered her health.

I might add a third history of a putrid disease, in which the mephitic air is now under trial, and which affords the strongest proof both of the antiseptic, and of the tonic powers of this remedy; but as the issue of the case remains yet undetermined (though it is highly probable, alas! that it will be fatal) I shall relate only a few particulars of it. Master D. a boy of about twelve years of age, endowed with an uncommon capacity, and with the most amiable dispositions, has laboured many months under a hectic fever, the consequence of several tumours in different parts of his body. Two of these tumours were laid open by Mr. White, and a large quantity of purulent matter was discharged from them. The wounds were very properly treated by this skilful surgeon, and every suitable remedy, which my best judgment could suggest, was assiduously administered. But the matter became sanious, of a brown colour, and highly putrid. A Diarrhoea succeeded; the patient's stools were intolerably offensive, and voided without his knowledge. A black fur collected about his teeth; his tongue was covered with Aphthæ; and his breath was so foetid, as scarcely to be endured. His strength was almost exhausted; a subsultus tendinum came on; and the final period of his sufferings seemed to be rapidly approaching. As a last, but almost hopeless, effort, I advised the injection of clysters of mephitic air. These soon corrected the foetor of the patient's stools; restrained his Diarrhoea; and seemed to recruit his strength and spirits. Within the space of twenty-four hours his wounds assumed a more favourable appearance; the matter discharged from them became of a better colour and consistence; and was no longer so offensive to the smell. The use of this remedy has been continued several days, but is now laid aside. A large tumour is suddenly formed under the right ear; swallowing is rendered difficult and painful; and the patient refuses all food and medicine. Nourishing clysters are directed; but it is to be feared that these will renew the looseness, and that this amiable youth will quickly sink under his disorder.

The use of wort from its saccharine quality, and disposition to ferment, has lately been proposed as a remedy for the SEA SCURVY. Water or other liquors, already abounding with fixed air in a separate state, should seem to be better adapted to this purpose; as they will more quickly correct the putrid disposition of the fluids, and at the same time, by their gentle stimulus increase the powers of digestion, and give new strength to the whole system.

Dr. Priestley, who suggested both the idea and the means of executing it, has under the sanction of the College of Physicians, proposed the scheme to the Lords of the Admiralty, who have ordered trial to be made of it, on board some of his Majesty's ships of war. Might it not however give additional efficacy to this remedy, if instead of simple water, the infusion of malt were to be employed?

I am persuaded such a medicinal drink might be prescribed also with great advantage in SCROPHULOUS COMPLAINTS, when not attended with a hectic fever; and in other disorders in which a general acrimony prevails, and the crasis of the blood is destroyed. Under such circumstances, I have seen vibices which spread over the body, disappear in a few days from the use of wort.

A gentleman who is subject to a scorbutic eruption in his face, for which he has used a variety of remedies with no very beneficial effect, has lately applied the fumes of chalk and oil of vitriol to the parts affected. The operation occasions great itching and pricking in the skin, and some degree of drowsiness, but evidently abates the serous discharge, and diminishes the eruption. This patient has several symptoms which indicate a genuine scorbutic DIATHESIS; and it is probable that fixed air, taken internally, would be an useful medicine in this case.

The saline draughts of Riverius are supposed to owe their antiemetic effects to the air, which is separated from the salt of wormwood during the act of effervescence. And the tonic powers of many mineral waters seem to depend on this principle. I was lately desired to visit a lady who had most severe convulsive REACHINGS. Various remedies had been administered without effect, before I saw her. She earnestly desired a draught of malt liquor, and was indulged with half a pint of Burton beer in brisk effervescence. The vomitings ceased immediately, and returned no more. Fermenting liquors, it is well known, abound with fixed air. To this, and to the cordial quality of the beer, the favourable effect which it produced, may justly be ascribed. But I shall exceed my design by enlarging further on this subject. What has been advanced it is hoped, will suffice to excite the attention of physicians to a remedy which is capable of being applied to so many important medicinal purposes.

NUMBER IV.

Extract of a Letter from WILLIAM FALCONER, M.D. of BATH.

Jan 6, 1774,

Reverend Sir,

I once observed the same taste you mention (Philosophical Transactions, p. 156. of this Volume, p. 35.) viz. like tar water, in some water that I impregnated with fixed air about three years ago. I did not then know to what to attribute it, but your experiment seems to clear it up. I happened to have spent all my acid for raising effervescence, and to supply its place I used a bottle of dulcified spirit of nitre, which I knew was greatly under-saturated with spirit of wine; from which, as analogous to your observation, I imagine the effect proceeded.

As to the coagulation of the blood of animals by fixed Air, I fear it will scarce stand the test of experiment, as I this day gave it, I think, a fair trial, in the following manner.

A young healthy man, at 20 years old, received a contusion by a fall, was instantly carried to a neighbouring surgeon, and, at my request, bled in the following manner.

I inserted a glass funnel into the neck of a large clear phial about oz. x. contents, and bled him into it to about oz. viii. By these means the blood was exposed to the air as little a time as possible, as it flowed into the bottle as it came from the orifice.

As soon as the quantity proposed was drawn, the bottle was carefully corked, and brought to me. It was then quite fluid, nor was there the least separation of its parts.

On the surface of this I conveyed several streams of fixed air (having first placed the bottle with the blood in a bowl of water, heated as nearly to the human heat as possible) from the mixture of the vitriolic acid and lixiv. tartar, which I use preferably to other alkalines, as being (as Dr. Cullen observes) in the mildest state, and therefore most likely to generate most air.

I shook the phial often, and threw many streams of air on the blood, as I have often practised with success for impregnating water; but could not perceive the smallest signs of coagulation, although it stood in an atmosphere of fixed air 20 minutes or more. I then uncorked the bottles, and poured off about oz. ii to which I added about 6 or 7 gtts of spirit of vitriol, which coagulated it immediately. I set the remainder in a cold place and it coagulated, as near as I could judge, in the same time that blood would have done newly drawn from the vein.

P. 82. Perhaps the circumilance of putrid vegetables yielding all fixed and no inflammable air may be the causes of their proving so antiseptic, even when putrid, as appears by Mr. Alexander's Experiments.

P. 86. Perhaps the putrid air continually exhaled may be one cause of the luxuriancy of plants growing on dunghills or in very rich soils.

P. 146. Your observation that inflammable air consists of the union of some acid vapour with phlogiston, puts me in mind of an old observation of Dr. Cullen, that the oil separated from soap by an acid was much more inflammable than before, resembling essential oil, and soluble in V. sp.

I have tried fixed air as an antiseptic taken in by respiration, but with no great success. In one case it seemed to be of service, in two it seemed indifferent, and in one was injurious, by exciting a cough.

NUMBER V.

Extract of a Letter from Mr. WILLIAM BEWLEY, of GREAT MASSINGHAM, NORFOLK.

March 23, 1774.

Dear Sir,

When I first received your paper, I happened to have a process going on for the preparation of nitrous ether, without distillation. I had heretofore always taken for granted that the elastic fluid generated in that preparation was fixed air: but on examination I found this combination of the nitrous acid with inflammable spirits, produced an elastic fluid that had the same general properties with the air that you unwillingly, though very properly, in my opinion, term nitrous; as I believe it is not to be procured without employing the nitrous acid, either in a simple state, or compounded, as in aqua regia. I shall suggest, however, by and by some doubts with respect to it's title to the appellation of air.

Water impregnated with your nitrous air certainly, as you suspected from it's taste, contains the nitrous acid. On saturating a quantity of this water with a fixed alcali, and then evaporating, &c. I have procured two chrystals of nitre. But the principal observations that have occurred to me on the subject of nitrous air are the following. My experiments have been few and made by snatches, under every disadvantage as to apparatus, &c. and with frequent interruptions; and yet I think they are to be depended upon.

My first remark is, that nitrous air does not give water a sensibly acid impregnation, unless it comes into contact, or is mixed with a portion of common or atmospherical air: and my second, that nitrous air principally consists of the nitrous acid itself, reduced to the state of a permanent vapour not condensable by cold, like other vapours, but which requires the presence and admixture of common air to restore it to its primitive state of a liquid. I am beholden for this idea, you will perceive, to your own very curious discovery of the true nature of Mr. Cavendish's marine vapour.

When I first repeated your experiment of impregnating water with nitrous air, the water, I must own tasted acid; as it did in one, or perhaps two trials afterwards; but, to my great astonishment, in all the following experiments, though some part of the factitious air, or vapour, was visibly absorbed by the water, I could not perceive the latter to have acquired any sensible acidity. I at length found, however, that I could render this same water very acid, by means only of the nitrous air already included in the phial with it. Taking the inverted phial out of the water, I remove my finger from the mouth of it, to admit a little of the common air, and instantly replace my finger. The redness, effervescence, and diminution take place. Again taking off my finger, and instantly replacing it, more common, air rushes in, and the same phenomena recur. The process sometimes requires to be seven or eight times repeated, before the whole of the nitrous vapour (as I shall venture to call it) is condensed into nitrous acid, by the successive entrance of fresh parcels of common air after each effervescence; and the water becomes evidently more and more acid after every such fresh admission of the external air, which at length ceases to enter, when the whole of the vapour has been condensed. No agitation of the water is requisite, except a gentle motion, just sufficient to rince the sides of the phial, in order to wash off the condensed vapour.

The acidity which you (and I likewise, at first) observed in the water agitated with nitrous air alone, I account for thus. On bringing the phial to the mouth, the common air meeting with the nitrous vapour in the neck of the phial, condenses it, and impregnates the water with the acid, in the very act of receiving it upon the tongue. On stopping the mouth of the phial with my tongue for a short time and afterwards withdrawing it a very little, to suffer the common air to rush past it into the phial, the sensation of acidity has been sometimes intolerable: but taking a large gulph of the water at the same time, it has been found very slightly acid.--The following is one of the methods by which I have given water a very strong acid impregnation, by means of a mixture of nitrous and common air.

Into a small phial, containing only common air, I force a quantity of nitrous air at random, out of a bladder, and instantly clap my finger on the mouth of the bottle. I then immerse the neck of it into water, a small quantity of which I suffer to enter, which squirts into it with violence; and immediately replacing my finger, remove the phial. The water contained in it is already very acid, and it becomes more and more so (if a sufficient quantity of nitrous air was at first thrown in) on alternately stopping the mouth of the phial, and opening it, as often as fresh air will enter.

Since I wrote the above, I have frequently converted a small portion of water in an ounce phial into a weak Aqua fortis, by repeated mixtures of common and nitrous air; throwing in alternately the one or the other, according to the circumstances; that is, as long as there was a superabundance of nitrous air, suffering the common air to enter and condense it; and, when that was effected, forcing in more nitrous air from the bladder, to the common air which now predominated in the phial--and so alternately. I have wanted leisure, and conveniences, to carry on this process to its maximum, or to execute it in a different and better manner; but from what I have done, I think we may conclude that nitrous air consists principally of the nitrous acid, phlogisticated, or otherwise so modified, by a previous commenstruation with metals, inflammable spirits, &c. as to be reduced into a durably elastic vapour: and that, in order to deprive it of its elasticity, and restore it to its former state, an addition of common air is requisite, and, as I suspect, of water likewise, or some other fluid: as in the course of my few trials, I have not yet been able to condense it in a perfectly dry bottle.

NUMBER VI.

A Letter from Dr. FRANKLIN.

Craven Street, April 10, 1774.

Dear Sir,

In compliance with your request, I have endeavoured to recollect the circumstances of the American experiments I formerly mentioned to you, of raising a flame on the surface of some waters there.

When I passed through New Jersey in 1764, I heard it several times mentioned, that by applying a lighted candle near the surface of some of their rivers, a sudden flame Would catch and spread on the water, continuing to burn for near half a minute. But the accounts I received were so imperfect that I could form no guess at the cause of such an effect, and rather doubted the truth of it. I had no opportunity of seeing the experiment; but calling to see a friend who happened to be just returned home from making it himself, I learned from him the manner of it; which was to choose a shallow place, where the bottom could be reached by a walking-stick, and was muddy; the mud was first to be stirred with the stick, and when a number of small bubbles began to arise from it, the candle was applied. The flame was so sudden and so strong, that it catched his ruffle and spoiled it, as I saw. New-Jersey having many pine-trees in different parts of it, I then imagined that something like a volatile oil of turpentine might be mixed with the waters from a pine-swamp, but this supposition did not quite satisfy me. I mentioned the fact to some philosophical friends on my return to England, but it was not much attended to. I suppose I was thought a little too credulous.

In 1765, the Reverend Dr. Chandler received a letter from Dr. Finley, President of the College in that province, relating the same experiment. It was read at the Royal Society, Nov. 21, of that year, but not printed in the Transactions; perhaps because it was thought too strange to be true, and some ridicule might be apprehended if any member should attempt to repeat it in order to ascertain or refute it. The following is a copy of that account.

"A worthy gentleman, who lives at a few miles distance, informed me that in a certain small cove of a mill-pond, near his house, he was surprized to see the surface of the water blaze like inflamed spirits. I soon after went to the place, and made the experiment with the same success. The bottom of the creek was muddy, and when stirred up, so as to cause a considerable curl on the surface, and a lighted candle held within two or three inches of it, the whole surface was in a blaze, as instantly as the vapour of warm inflammable spirits, and continued, when strongly agitated, for the space of several seconds. It was at first imagined to be peculiar to that place; but upon trial it was soon found, that such a bottom in other places exhibited the same phenomenon. The discovery was accidentally made by one belonging to the mill."

I have tried the experiment twice here in England, but without success. The first was in a slow running water with a muddy bottom. The second in a stagnant water at the bottom of a deep ditch. Being some time employed in stirring this water, I ascribed an intermitting fever, which seized me a few days after, to my breathing too much of that foul air which I stirred up from the bottom, and which I could not avoid while I stooped in endeavouring to kindle it.--The discoveries you have lately made of the manner in which inflammable air is in some cases produced, may throw light on this experiment, and explain its succeeding in some cases, and not in others. With the highest esteem and respect,

I am, Dear Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

B. FRANKLIN.

NUMBER VII.

Extract of a Letter from Mr. HENRY of Manchester.

It is with great pleasure I hear of your intended publication on air, and I beg leave to communicate to you an experiment or two which I lately made.

Dr. Percival had tried, without effect, to dissolve lead in water impregnated with fixed air. I however thought it probable, that the experiment might succeed with nitrous air. Into a quantity of water impregnated with it, I put several pieces of sheet-lead, and suffered them, after agitation, to continue immersed about two hours. A few drops of vol. tincture of sulphur changed the water to a deep orange colour, but not so deep as when the same tincture was added to a glass of the same water, into which one drop of a solution of sugar of lead had been instilled. The precipitates of both in the morning, were exactly of the same kind; and the water in which the lead had been infused all night, being again tried by the same test, gave signs of a still stronger saturnine impregnation--Whether the nitrous air acts as an acid on the lead, or in the same manner that fixed air dissolves iron, I do not pretend to determine. Syrup of violets added to the nitrous water became of a pale red, but on standing about an hour, grew of a turbid brown cast.

Though the nitrous acid is not often found, except produced by art, yet as there is a probability that nitre may be formed in the earth in large towns, and indeed fossile nitre has been actually found in such situations, it should be an additional caution against the use of leaden pumps.

I tried to dissolve mercury by the same means, but without success.

I am, with the most sincere esteem,

Dear Sir,

Your obliged and obedient servant,

THO. HENRY.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

See Dr. Falconer's very useful and ingenious treatise on the Bath water, 2d edit. p. 313.

May, 1772.

Vid. Mr. White's useful treatise on the management of pregnant and lying-in women, p. 279.

See the author's observations on the efficacy of external applications in the ulcerous sore throats, Essays medical and experimental, Vol. I. 2d edit. p. 377.

The author of these observations.

Directions for impregnating water with fixed air, in order to communicate to it the peculiar spirit and virtues of Pyrmont water, and other mineral waters of a similar nature.

Referring to the case communicated by Mr. Hey.

He languished about a week, and then died.

The vegetables which are most efficacious in the cure of the scurvy, possess some degree of a stimulating power.

This refers, to an experiment mentioned in the first publication of these papers in the Philosophical Transactions, but omitted in this volume.

The first account of this curious process was, I believe, given in the Mem. de l'Ac. de Sc. de Paris for 1742. Though seemingly less volatile than the vitriolic ether, it boils with a much smaller degree of heat. One day last summer, it boiled in the coolest room of my house; as it gave me notice by the explosion attending its driving out the cork. To save the bottle, and to prevent the total loss of the liquor by evaporation, I found myself obliged instantly to carry it down to my cellar.

ERRATA.

P. 15. l. 13. for it to read to it

p. 24. l. 20. ---- has ---- had

p. 60. l. 22. ---- inflammable ---- in inflammable

p. 84. l. 5. ---- experiments ---- experiment

p. 145. l. 16. ---- with ---- of

p. 153. l. 1. ---- that is ---- this air

p. 199. l. 17. ---- ingenious ---- ingenuous

p. 211. l. 23. ---- of ---- , if

p. 243. l. 27. ---- diminishing ---- diminished

p. 272. l. 21. ---- seem ---- seems

p. 301. l. 31. ---- ---- ---- one end

p. 303. l. 5. ---- ---- ---- the nitrous

p. 304. l. 21. ---- deslrium ---- delirium

p. 306. l. 2. ---- recet. ---- recent.

p. 308. l. 7. ---- per ---- Peruv.

p. 313. l. 27. ---- usual ---- useful

p. 300. to 314. passim ---- Diarrhæa ---- Diarrhoea

p. 316. l. 11. ---- remains ---- remainder

p. 524. l. 15. ---- it ---- iron.

A CATALOGUE of BOOKS written by

JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S.,

And printed for

J. JOHNSON, BOOKSELLER, at No. 72,

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1. The HISTORY and PRESENT STATE of ELECTRICITY, with original Experiments, illustrated with Copper Plates. 4th Edit, corrected and enlarged, 4to. 1l. 1s.

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