r; 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. tolutanae, 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 a