1 aVK--"- m 4.t,'W ' ■,.'-.-\i ',' -V i *, ■.'.'»'"■■, '•' >..■*■: <■ ■ • ;.■■■. ~>* * f.r^* ^>> ->» > * .> > > >; y>>> - 3>j>~> .^ » AO >;> o; :> ^>* -»•:> • >> > ;> > ^> • 3K> » 5 > > J- »_> » .»> •)->■-.> ■» »" -> > » »» VZ» o-i ■ > Jf - v> >>•>> . >> > ^o - >l>i>^T^ >~>> . jr>- >->»> >j > » > x> - ^> 5) ;> > >. > _->»» » ~ >>p>> >> • ■» „ » zz ► :>> > o jv>> _, rs5 • > O ^ •-> ¥>* ,>3>». ^ ^4)D£)'0£!T) ; ooQoacrao'QOttpo ^ 2> ->>TS> 2> >3~^SE> ~> > j£>> >^>> 3> J>> » J3S> ^>> ^ J> A3S> >\^> > >J>tD*' -> .-y»A?A> ■ A>A*l > -;>> "# ^ - "^4 ■;fc» ~>> >» > ~?> >» .» >» '•» . > > TS> »> ^ > - -» »» - >> » » ;3f> J » * . - > _3£> . ■*> ' ">j>3isw> ->^-- ^ v~>. *gs>~> 3^> .Fig. 2. lilMhllillil.illlllliHillllllllllililllllllllMkJlli 2.«)0 INQUIRY INTO THE Medicinal Qualities and Effects OF THE AERATED AILKAILI^E WATER? ILLUSTRATED BY EXPERIMENTS AND CASES. BY JOHN MONCREIFF, APOTHECARY, >' rionorary member of the Royal Society, Edinburgh. ""O WHICH IS PREFIXED , A letter to the Publisher, by a respectable Physician of Baltimore. ^Baltimore: ""^/ngtcB^* : PUBLISHED BY EDWARD J. COALB; A. Miltenberger, Printer. 1810. ADVERTISEMENT. THE following Treatise will be found not only valuable to the Physician ; but interesting and impor- tant to every one who may be afflicted with the Stone, Gravel, or GouT, diseases among the most obstinate and painful, that assail the human frame. Several respectable gentlemen, who have been restored to health from very violent attacks of these diseases, by the information they have derived from this book, have repeatedly recommended it to the attention of the Publisher. He thought proper to lay the work before a gentleman distinguished in the walks of sci- ence, for his opinion and observations on it. The result of this application will be found in the intro- ductory letter, to which the Publisher begs leave to refer the reader. \ < 4 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. To Mr. Edward J. Coale^ Dear Sir, Had not the urgent demands of my pro- fessional duties, imperiously controled the dispo- sition of my time, J-should ere this have-commu- nicated to you my opinion in answer to the ques- tion propounded to me, respecting the Treatise of Mr. John Moncreiff, on Alkaline Aerated Water. I the more regret the delay, as it must more or less, have contributed to retard the .publication of the edition of that little work, to which you have been prompted by the solicitations of several of the most respectable of your friends. The Treatise of Moncreiff, although it be dis- tinguished by no peculiar splendour of diction, or may not win the attention of the reader, by any striking sprightliness of style, yet will fully recompense him for his time and trouble, by opening to him, in plain, smooth and manly language, sources of important and interesting facts. That the author did not amuse himself in idle and vain conjecture ; that he did not con- sume his time in opening quariies of his own imagination, and then invite the attention of the public to the copiousness and richness of his materials, is evident, from the manner and form of his work. Guided by that cautious philosophy which is aware of being imposed on, he has appealed to 11 experience and observation. And still farther to guard against the impression of preconceived sentiments, he has taken care that this experience and this observation should not be of himself. He presents the reader with authorities which in- credulity itself would hardly dare to impeach. Nor are these authorities such as are generally im- posed on the public, without character or respon- sibility. They are the attestations of persons of fair reputation. So respectable indeed that most of the learned and enlightened of the medical faculty, do not hesitate to prescribe under their influence. Since the appearance of the Treatise, the old Specijicks; as they were considered by too many, have fallen into disuse. Rarely now do we meet with prescriptions of egg-shells, ley or lime. Nor can the general use of the alkaline aerated water be considered as solely attributable to the recommendations contained in the Trea- tise alluded to. The experience of patients, and observations of physicians, daily come forward in corroboration t of the suggestions we derive from that source. If the medical science has ad- vantages now, over what its pretensions were fifty or an hundred years ago, in regard to the medical management of the gravel, they are with- out doubt, derivable from the light emanating from the pen of Moncreiff. For although there were floating, undefined notions about the pro- perties of lime, alkali, and fixed air ;in nephritick diseases, it is conceded from all quarters, that this little performance was the first that suggest- ed, and recommended the combined use of the z\x and alkali, and gave a permanent rank to their value. Ill Unlike many other medicines, which disho- nesty and misguided zeal have obtruded on pub- lic notice, and which have proved efficacious in the hands of their inventors only, this continues to be the favorite prescription with the most able and judicious practisers of, medicine. Not that it is considered by those as an absolute solvent of the stone, or even that it uniformly prevents the recurrences of calculous complaints •, of this, their experience advertises them of the contrary. But they find it to be the most efficient and certain of all medicines as- yet recommended to the pub- lic confidence, in alleviating the distressful symp- toms of this most afflicting disease. It is parti- cularly gratifying to the physician to experience in any article, if not absolutely preventive proper- ties, at least those that will render the days of the unhappy subject of this disease tolerable, and comparatively pleasurable. I do not wish, whilst advocating the farther and more satisfactory trial of the medicine, to surprise you or any other person into a forget- fulness of the high encomiums bestowed, by Des- sault the physician, about a hundred and fifty years since, on the properties of mercury, aided by those of iron, in resolving tubercles of the lungs, or other scrophulous. tumours in any other part of the body. Dessault and Morton were the first, perhaps, whoever used mercury and iron in consumption and diseases of the li- ver as specificks. Nothing can be more indeco- rous and unbecoming, I may say criminal, than for a physician to give the weight of his authority to the use of any medicine where his experience does not justify his recommendation. Neither iV the experience of Dessault, nor that of any other man ever gave him reason to believe that mercury would cure Consumption, or Scrophula in any other form. Nor would I wish you to forget the splendid dreams of Beddoes and Withering on the efficien- cy of digitales in Consumption, and of other men of other things, on which I will at present be silent. I would rather invite you to lament nith me that such brilliant talents, as fell to the lot of these distinguished characters, should have been employed and wasted, in dressihg up the most studied deceptions and wanton impositions i that minds irradiated by the first rays of genius should have chosen to employ themselves in forg- ing errors for a credulous F?culty; that such ele- vated minds, forgetting the high obligations of morality, should stoop to seek employment in ma- nufacturing and recommending successful experi- ments, which they were conscious experience would reject j and which passed from their pens without their own conviction. How unhappily must genius be allied when virtue is not its con- sort! Mr. Moncreiff extended the application of the alkaline aerated water, also, to arthritick com- plaints. The gout no doubt will be excited into action by whatever may interfere with the regu- lar functions of the body, in habits under its do- minion. And so far as this water may relieve or prevent calculous indispositions, in such habits it assuredly will prove beneficial in gout; and it may, by affording relief in gravel, prevent a re- gular goutfrom degenerating into an irregularone, but farther perhaps it has no claims in this disease. V Although the gout and gravel frequently occut in the same habit, and are at times concomitant, we are not prepared to consider them as different expressions of the same disease. They appear to be radically different, notwithstanding there is some resemblance between the matter furnished by the secreting vessels of the kidneys in gravel and that which is found poured out into the joints of gouty persons. From experiments they both are ascertained to contain lithic acid. The stone in some habits is a mere lithic con- crete, as was discovered by Scheele.—In others it^contains proportions of phosphoric acid, and lime or alkali. While on the other hand what has been vulgarly denominated chalk-stones, in gouty joints, are found to be a neutral salt composed of lithic acid and mineral alkaline or soda. Mr. Moncreiff does not restrict himself to the conside- ration of the medical properties of ,the alkaline aerated water.—As the science of chymistry has varied a little since the period in which Moncreiff wrote, it may not be amiss that I should cursorily pass over the route traced out by him. Water, the vehicle of the more active materials viewed in its natural state is a solid, elastick, compound body. And according to chymical analysis is constituted by the union of oxigen and hydrogen in certain relative proportions. The liquid form of water is produced by the presence of a quantity of calorick, or the matter of heat. Calorick when added to the extent of one hun- dred and forty-seven degrees of Farenheit, over- comes the laws of aggregative affinity between the atoms of ice and reduces it to a flowing state. A 2 VI Until the matter of heat is added to this degree,- it remains latent, undiscoverable by the thermo- meter or our senses. This extraordinary fact is examined with much success and ability by pro- fessor Black, and several others, among whom is Mr. Moore of this state, in his interesting tract on the principle of preserving ice during our sum- mer months. Oxigen and Hydrogen are believed to be sim- ple and elementary substances. About calorick or the mattt r of heat, the philosophical world has been very much taken up in keen litigation. On one hand it is contended that heat is nothing more than a quality of light or other bodies; while on the other hand calorick as an element is strong- ly advocated. Among the philosophers of the present day who have distinguished themselves in behalf of the hypothesis that heat is rather a quality or mo- dification of bodies, and not an element, the very ingenious and learned Mr. Davy claims no incon- siderable rank. This intelligent chymist to as- certain the fact of heat being a quality of other bodies most industriously and zealously engaged in,a series of experiments. He fitted and care- fully coaptated two masses of ice to each other by means of smooth surfaces; and this with such attention as in his opinion would prevent decep- tion, and then subjected them to friction by vio- lent and vapid motion. The masses at their sur- faces, which were in mutual contact, readily liquified. This liquifactioa he justly attributed to heat, but as he could conceive of the matter of heat being furnished in no other than three ways, that is, " either from a diminution of the capaci- v\& ties of the acting bodies," or " from a decompo- sition of the oxigen gas in contact with one or both of the bodies," or "from a communication of calorick from the bodies in contact," he con- cluded that the heat cannot be considered as mat- ter. To thts-conclusion I object. He adduces no reasons why we should not believe the matter of heat in a latent state to be present in the bodies which were the subjects of experiment. That it is not obvious to our senses or even discoverable by the thermometer is no evidence of its absence, no argument against its presence. And if from this source, it could not be said to be either from the diminution of the capacities of the acting bo- dies or from a communication of calorick from the bodies in contact. It would be from that store of latent or insensible heat which all bodies possess, and which can be elicited into a sensible state without the diminution of the capacities of the acting bodies. From overlooking this source of heat, this justly celebrated experimenter gives us reason to sus- pect his conclusions. It is a singular and curious fact, that although water congeals or crystallizes into ice, at thirty two degrees, it requires about one hundred and forty-seven to bring if back again to the fluid state. And from vapour seven or eight hundred degrees will escape, notwith- standing water boils at two hundred and twelve in the common atmosphere. Hence the masses although giving no evidences of heat, might con- tain upwards of one hundred degrees of latent heat, capable of being elicited or brought into the state of sensible heat. And which no doubt Vlll did emerge under the process of friction, and fuse the opposing atoms reciprocally acting on each other. This doctrine of latent heat, is beautifully il- lustrated by a little experiment with a bar of iron, which, if rapidly stricken with a hammer will have its heat to rise to the degree of incandes- cence, although no higher degree of heat, than that of the surrounding bodies, was discoverable antecedently to the process. To my mind, this emersion of heat during the process of friction, in the most satisfactory manner explains the fusion of the ice at its surface. Even were it conceded that the liquifaction could not be from the emersion of the latent heat of the icy masses, there is much reason to believe that the surfaces were not and could not be so ac- curately coaptated as to prevent all atmospherick air from being interfused. And this air would carry both its sensible and latent heat with it. The experiments, performed by this gentle- man, in the exhausted receiver are still more ex- ceptionable. Neither could the receiver be com- pletely exhausted, nor could the materials of which the machinery was composed, be fully de- prived of their heat. Mr. Davy does not shed on the present subject his usual light, I roust con- tinue to believe calorick to be an elementary sub- stance. Fixed air, another constituent of the alkaline aerated water, is a compound gas, sometimes denominated carbonick acid gas, sometimes me- phitick air. It generally occupies low sunken situations, which are inaccessable to the agitating currents of the atmosphere, and is procured from IX fermenting liquors—is fatal to animal life, and extinguishes flames. It is, notwithstanding, ex- tremely salutary, when taken into the stomach. Medicai philosophers differ widely on the man- ner in which this air destroys animal life. Some of the most enlightened and learned of our pro- fession, suppose it to affect the extinction of life by properties positively deleterious. And they argue in this manner. They say that " if we pass a cord round the neck of an animal and draw it tight, he struggles and gives signs of life for ma- ny minutes," or " if an animal be submersed in water, he may after several minutes be taken out and recovered, but if we immerse an animal in fixed air, he almost instantaneously expires." The whole of this I grant to be a detail of un- questionable facts. But, nevertheless, I object to the consequence immediately deducible from such premises. When a cord is tightened about the neck of an animal, or he is submersed, a given quantity of atmospherick air is detained in his lungs, and so long as this furnishes oxigen or vital air, the animal struggles or gives signs of life, when this is no longer furnished the animal dies. On the contrary when an animal is immersed in fixed air, the fixed air, from its tenuity and superior gravity to the atmospherick air, descends into the bronchia or air-cell, expells the common air, and by a full occupation of the whole of the lungs cuts the subject off, almost in a moment of time, from all access to vital air the necessary sti- mulus of the blood, without which the heart neither beats, nor do the arteries pulsate. The animal dies, but not from any deleterious qua- lity of the air, he is denied the advantages of X oxigen. In this way the fixed air kills negatively. Certain other circumstances are appealed to by the gentlemen, who contend for the deleterious properties of this gas ; we are referred to the flexible condition of the muscular fibre, its indis- position to contract-in animals.destroyed by fixed air. But the whole of this account of the mus- cular fibre amounts to nothing. It merely points out the rapid extinction of life. For whether the animal dies from the electric fluid, or a blow on the head or stomach producing irrecoverable con- cussion, or is suddenly crushed by a falling bank of earth, or is overwhelmed suddenly amidst the ruins of a house, the muscular fibre is equally flexible, and indisposed to contract. This air is Composed of oxigen and carbon. The former of these substances, I have already mentioned as an element. The latter I conceive to be otherwise. I cannot persuade myself, not- withstanding the general authority of chymical experiments, that carbon is an elementary sub- stance. Whence, if carbon be an element, is it, that the immense forests of the world are sup- plied with the charcoal, which in such vast quan- tities they afford upon partial combustion ? As- suredly not from the soil in which they grow. This very soil is itself the result or production of perishable and deciduous vegetables, conjoined with animal matter. Nor will the candid philo- sopher refer me to the insignificant proportion supplied by the common air. The scanty re- sources from that quarter, in the space of a square mile, would not, in fifty years, afford the means of the growth and support of one solitary oak. XI Doctor Austin, some years ago, endeavoured, by experiment, to demonstrate carbon to be a compound. And a most able and ingenuous chymist of Bristol (England) Dr. John New, has lately published to the world, that the basis of carbon is hydrogen. If this be the fact, we have- at once a solution to all the difficulties against which philosophy has so long unsuccessfully con- tended, respecting the support of vegetable. De- compounded water amuers all our demands. The public has much to expect from the abi- lities, candour, and chymical science of Doctor New. The vegetable alkali, or potash, is another con- stituent of the medicine which I take the liberty of recommending to the public, and also to phy- sicians, that by both its merits may be examined. Potash is one of those substances which is by modern chymists considered indecomposable. Mr. Davy, the gentleman of whom I have said so much, has been engaged on this subject also. He considers both this and-soda as compounds, and that they have a metallic basis. As the experi- ments of Davy were made either in vessels' of Platina, or wires of Platina, as conductors, had a share in the experiments, I cannot view them as free from objection. The metallic points and globules observable in the result, I apprehend were procured from the vessel or wire, and not from the potash. I have been at much trouble, and have examined with particular care, to satisfy myself. I believe Davy to be deceived. The Platina was acted on. Other gentlemen have also tried their strength on this subject, but with no better success. xii We admit the alkaliesto be compounds, but our admission does not rest on either analytical or synthetical chymical experiments. It is the sim- ple deduction from the most obvious facts. All vegetable terrene or aquatic, produce the one or the other of these alkalies, whether they grow in water, in common soil, or silicious sand, where not a trace of alkali can be found previously to the growth of the vegetable. The fixed alkalies are the results of vegetable function in like man- ner with carbon, though not from the same mate- rials, I might say as lime is made by animal function. I would not have you infer from this, that I consider all lime the production of animal operation ; far from it. * But I do insist that both potash and lime are compound substances ; that the vegetable by its function, makes the former, and that the animal, by its function, can make the latter, from original elements; what these ele- ments may be, I will not undertake to deter- mine. But, I am getting without the limits of the pages of Moncreiff, and far beyond what I had anticipated to myself; and no doubt you feel that I have laid your patience under heavy contribu- tion. I have the honour to be, respectfully, your's. *r METHOD OF PREPARING THE AERATED ALKALINE WATER. FOR every English pint of water, that the middle part of the machine will contain, is re- quired a quarter of an ounce of Salt of Tartar, half an ounce of Chalk, and half an ounce of the strong Vitriolic Acid. - The operation to be managed in the following manner: I. Put the Salt of Tartar into a stone decanter, and pour on it about half an English pint of boiling water; allow it to stand for a night; then pour off the solution clear from any sediment that may be in the bottom of the decanter. II. Pour the Vitriolic Acid into a decanter, and add to it about seven or eight times its quantity of water. Allow this mixture to stand for an hour, before any part of it is put into the bottom part of the machine, B 14 METHOD OF PREPARING THE III. Place the middle part of the machine, separated from the rest, on the wooden pedestal; and pour into it the solution of Salt of Tartar, and fill it with spring water, or distilled water. Put the chalk through the wide glass funnel into the bottom glass, holding it in the position, as represented in Fig. I.; and shake the chalk to one side. Place the bottom as represented in Fig. II. Take the funnel out of the bottom part. Put in the other glass funnel; through which pour in the diluted vitriolic acid, till it come in contact with the chalk. Remove this funnel; and immediately join to the bottom glass the other parts of the machine, see Fig. III. The fixed air will now rise into the water contained in the middle glass, forcing it up to the top part of the machine. When no air is observed to pass up, agitate the machine gently: this will bring more of the acid into contact with the chalk, and occasion the air to rise as before. This may be repeated three or four times a day 5 and when no more air will rise, it will be neces- sary to add a fresh supply of the diluted vitriolic acid, as above directed. The water raised into the top should be let down into the middle glass twice a day; which may be done by raising the top a little from the middle one. The machine, towards the end of the opera- tion, will require to be shaken with more vio- lence, which ought however to be done cauti- ously \ the safest way, is to separate the middle from the bottom glass; then shake the bottom, and apply the middle again immediately. By observing this caution, the risk of bursting the machine will be prevented. AERATED ALKALINE WATER. 15 The quantity of chalk and vitriolic acid order- ed, is sufficient to complete the operation; but by observing the above caution, some of the fixed air will escape, and consequently more of these ingredients may be required. The same will take place when the operation is injudiciously hastened; as it requires a considerable time for the water to absorb the fixed air. IV. A machine, containing five or six English pints, will require three or four days for compleat- ing the operation. The water may be deemed sufficiently prepared, when, on drinking a glass of it, no taste peculiar to the alkaline salt, but a taste sharp and acidulous, is perceived. V. When the operation is finished, let down the water from the top into the middle glass; separate the three glasses of the machine; bottle off the water into clean English pint bottles; cork the bottles with the best kind of new corks, and seal them over with wax. Place the bottles on their sides in a cool place; and the water will keep good for several months. The Simple Aerated Water is prepared in the same manner; only leaving out the salt of tartar ; half of the chalk, and half of the vitriolic acid. One half of the time will be sufficient to com- plete the operation. N. B. The Aerated, or Aerated Alkaline, Water should be prepared in a cool place; and the machine kept clean. The middle and top glasses will be best cleaned by IS METHOD OP PREPARING &c When a proper machine for preparing the Aerated Alkaline Water is not at hand, a medi- cine nearly similar may be prepared in the fol- lowing manner : Dissolve twenty grains of salt of tartar in two or three table spoonfuls of water; add to the solution a table spoonful of the juice of lem- mons. This mixture should be swallowed imme- diately, and is the proper quantity for a dose ; and may be repeated three or four times in the day, as circumstances require. The quantity of the Aerated Alkaline Water usually taken, is a gill thrice a day, before break- fast, dinner, and supper. When the stomach will bear a larger quantity, an English pint of it may be taken in a day. When it proves cold to the Stomach, or occasions flatulency, a tea spoonful or two of brandy, gin, or tincture of cardamoms, may be taken with each dose; but this addition is seldom necessary. When the irritation of the urinary passages is great, it may be of use to take a few drops of laudanum with each dose ; but this ought to be discontinued whenever there is an abatement of these painful symptoms. No particular diet or regimen is necessary to be observed, while using this medicine, further than abstaining from acids, fat meat, and butter. a little of the diluted vitriolic or'marine acid; after which they should be well rinsed with water. MEDICINAL QUALITIES AND EFFECTS OF THE 1ERATED ALKALINE WATER. o The Aerated Alkaline Water being a chemi- cal compound of Fixed Air, Salt of Tartar, and Water, we shall examine the properties of each of the ingredients apart, and then deduce, from their combination, the qualities and effects of this medicine. I. Fixed Air. This substance is very univer- sally diffused through the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; and has been denominated Gas Sihestre, by Van Helmont,—Fixed Air, by Dr. Black,—Carbonic Acid Gas, by Mr. Lavoisier,— Aerial Acid, Acid of Chalk, Mephitic Acid, by other chemists. Though we apprehend that the name, Carbonic Acid Gas, is the most proper of any that has been given to it; yet as it is more ge- nerally known by the name, Fixed Air} given it b2 18 MEDICINAL QUALITIES OF THE by its discoverer, we shall adopt this in pre- ference to any of the other designations. Calcareous earths contain fixed air in great abun- dance ; particularly chalk, marble, limestone, and the shells of fishes. It is also separated in consi- derable quantity during the fermentation of ve- getable matters. It is to the presence of this body in a number of mineral waters, such as Pyrmont, Seltzer, German Spa, &c. that their medical vir- tues are to be ascribed When Champaign wine, perry, cyder, or malt liquors, are poured out of a bottle, it is the fixed air contained in these, which occasions their spark- ling or frothy appearances. When the fixed air has escaped from these liquors, which sometimes happens, owing to bad corks, it may again be re- stored, by means of Dr. Nooth's machine, in the same way that water is impregnated with fixed air. Fixed air can be rendered the instrument of health, disease, and death, according to the mode of its application. If an animal be immersed into pure fixed air, loss of sense and motion sudden- ly insues, and death will be the inevitable conse- quence, if the animal be not quickly removed into common air. On the other hand, when properly managed, fixed air has been found to have salutary effects in the relief and cure of dis- eases. Fixed Air possesses solvent, stimulant, tonic, and antiseptic powers. AERATED ALKALINE WATER. 19 From these properties, it may be variously adapted to the purposes of medicine ; as will bet- ter appear, when we consider it in its state of combination with salt of tartar, and water. II. Salt of Tartar. This is an alkaline salt, named salt of tartar, from its being prepared from red or white tartar, which last is a saline earthly body, deposited from red or white wines on the sides of the casks in which they are con- tained. The same kind of salt, which tartar yields, can be obtained from all vegetable matters, excepting those of the marine kind, which contain a salt somewhat different. Pearl ashes, when purified as directed by the London and Edinburgh Phar- macopoeias, from a salt equally good as that pre- pared from'tartar. This last is the only Viiidnow employed. The name given to this salt by chem- ists, is the Fixed Vegetable Alkali: but as we wish to employ those names and terms most commonly known, we shall still continue its old name, viz. salt of tartar. Salt of Tartar, as commonly to be met with in the shops, contains, beside an alkaline salt, a con- siderable quantity of fixed air. When an acid is added to it, the fixed air is disengaged, and a neu- tral salt formed. Its properties, as a medicine, are lithontriptic, antacid, and stimulant. As a lithontriptic medicine, it forms the basis of many boasted medicines for gravelishdisorders. 20 MEDICINAL OJJALITIES OF THE When submitted to the action of quicklime, it forms one of the most powerful lithontriptics we know. The Caustic ley, as it is called, is a medi- cine of this kind, and has been long celebrated; but the many instances which have occurred of its hurt- ful effects on the general health and of its producing diseases when long used, forbid its use in gravel- ishdisorders, more especially as another medicine, almost as powerful a lithontriptic, is now introdu- ced into practice, I mean the Aerated Alkaline Water, which possesses no quality that can be in the least prejudicial. Salt of tartar, as an antacid medicine, when taken in small doses, will correct the acidity com- mon in complaints of the stomach, but ought to be used sparingly; and indeed magnesia is in ge- neral preferable for this purpose. Salt of tartar, as a stimulant, will act on the nerves of the stomach, and may be of use in re- storing its tone when impaired. III. Water. This fluid was formerly consi- dered as a pure element; but from the late discoveries in chemistry, It is found to be com- posed of the bases of vital and inflammable air, or, according to the new names, of oxygen and hydrogen. Mr. Lavoisier's experiments are both curious and satisfactory on this head. Water is so universally diffused through out globe, so applicable to a variety of purposes, and its general uses so well known, that it is unnecessary to mention its various properties, AERATED ALKALINE WATER. 21 It is sufficient to say, that it enters in a large proportion into the composition of the animal fluids; that it is capable of absorbing a conside- rable quantity of fixed air, and may be consi- dered as a very universal diluent, and general solvent. We now proceed to examine the medicinal qualities and effects of the Aerated Alkaline Water.— This medicine, as we have already shown, is a chemical compound, of water, salt of tartar, and fixed air. The solution of salt of tartar ab- sorbs the fixed air, and the salt becomes neutra- lized by it. When this medicine is taken by a person in per- fect health, its sensible effects are, an increase of the quantity of urine, which is of a paler colour than usual; the circulation of the blood is quick- ened, the insensible perspiration promoted, and the appetite and digestion increased. It is rea- sonable to suppose, that to a certain degree this medicine is decomposed in the stomach, a por- tion of the fixed air being disengaged from the alkali, but not so much as to leave the alkali so caustic as it was before it was neutralized with the fixed air. It may likewise be conjectured that this medicine changes the quality of the urine; but its qualities and effects will be better understood, by considering it as a solvent, a sti- mulant, a tonic, a diuretic, a diaphoretic, and an antiseptic. 22 MEDICINAL QUALITIES OF THE I. The Aerated Alkaline Water possesses qualities peculiar to solvents. Liquid solvents are those bodies which are ca- pable of dissolving solid substances. These act upon one another by chemical attractions, or tendencies which they have to each other. As a solvent, the Aerated Alkaline Water is capable of dissolving calculus and gouty concre- tions in the human body. These concretions are of a similar nature; and it is supposed that this medicine is not only capable in some de- gree of dissolving them, but of entirely prevent- ing their formation. Fixed air could not be taken internally, with- out being combined with water; and the alkaline salt could not be taken in so large a quantity with safety, without being neutralized by fixed air.—We cannot say that the chemical union of these ingredients adds any thing to their original solvent powers; but by this combination a medi- cine is prepared, calculated to be received into the stomach with safety and advantage. We might here animadvert on the power of this me- dicine, compared with other solvents, and show, that though it does not possess greater, or per- haps not so great, solvent powers, as other lithontriptics, yet it has a superiority to all the medicines ever employed in this respect; and is not only safer, but is every way congenial to the health of the constitution; whereas the lixivia formerly in use are of such a caustic nature, as to injure the stomach, and occasion dangerous disorders. AERATED ALKALINE WATER. 23 Without inquiring further on this head, we refer the reader to the Experiments and cases, afterwards particularly detailed, which prove to a demonstration, better than a thousand argu- ments, the power of this medicine, as a safe and efficacious solvent. II. We next consider the Aerated Alkaline Water as a stimulant. Stimulants are those bodies which act upon the nervous system, and excite sensation or mo- tion. It is difficult to explain their mode of action. We can only say, that they excite the living principle, or stimulate the nervous energy, and thereby excite to action many important organs in the animal oeconomy. There is reason to think that this medicine acts as a stimulus on the nerves of the stomach, and thereby promotes the digestive powers of that organ; that it acts upon the kidneys, and promotes their secreting power; and that by exciting the nervous energy, it quickens the circulation of the blood, and pro- motes the insensible perspiration. It can only, however, be considered as a gentle stimulant. III. The Aerated Alkaline Water is a tonic. Tonics are those medicines which strengthens the body. The human body is frequently brought into a state of relaxation, or weakness, by a variety of causes. Whatever has a tendency to diminish the nervous energy will produce this state, and the organ first affected is in general the stomach, 24 MEDICINAL QUALITIES OF THE which soon occasions a lassitude of the whole bo- dy. Whatever has a tendency to excite the nervous energy will of course counteract this state. This medicine, whether we consider it as a stimulant, or a tonic, appears to have a power of increasing the tone of the nervous system, which, by the excitement it produces, gives vigour to the mov- ing fibres. We find, from actual experience, that the use of this medicine increases the diges- tive powers of the stomach, and of consequence fits that organ for receiving and giving to the whole body that nourishment from food which is so absolutely necessary for its support. This medicine cannot be considered as possessing strong tonic powers, but rather as a gentle to- nic fitted for weak habits of body, when those of a more powerful nature cannot be used, from the debilitated state of the stomach. IV. The Aerated Alkaline Water may be con- sidered as a Diuretic medicine. Diuretics are those medicines which increase the quantity of urine. A person who takes this medicine, to the quantity of an English pint in the day, will find that his urine is increased about i-4th in the day. Diuretics act by their stimulating power upon the kidneys; and, by exciting these to action, may be of use in discharging from them morbid accumulations, removing obstructions in the urinary passages, and by changing the nature of the urine, may destroy its acrimony. AERATED ALKALINE WATER. 25 V. This medicine may be considered as a Diaphoretic. Diaphoretics are those medicines which pro- mote perspiration or sweat. They are of use in discharging from the circulating fluids, any morbid or noxious matter that may be present in them. The practice of exciting by diaphoretics profuse sweat, for the relief and cure of diseases, is now very generally laid aside, as hurtful, by occasioning too great debility; gentle diaphore- tics are therefore now employed, sufficient only to counteract the causes which produce a con- striction on the surface of the body, and prevent the natural perspiration. This practice will in most cases answer the intentions of cure. On taking the Aerated Alkaline, water by way of experiment, I found that it occasioned an agreeable warmth over the surface of the body, and a moisture on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It may therefore be consider- ed as a gentle diaphoretic medicine, well calcula- ted for giving relief in several chronic disorders. VI. In the last place, we consider this medi- cine as a powerful Antiseptic. Antiseptics are those bodies which have a pow- er of preventing animal substances, from passing into a state of putrefaction, and of correcting pu- trescency when begun. It is the general opinion of physicians, that our bodies have a constant tendency to putrescency,' c '26 MEDICINAL QUALITIES, &c. and that it is this tendency that occasions a varie- ty of disorders. Dr. Cullen considered the ten- dency to putrescency as of two kinds, which he named the Acute and the Chronic ; the first is exemplified in febrile disorders, and the second in scurvy. Experiments made with the Aerated Alka- line Water out of the body, plainly shew its antiseptic powers; and experience of its use in diseases of the putrescent kind demonstrates that, in the living body, it may be employed to answer this intention with success. The remarks we have made on the qualities and effects of the Aerated Alkaline Water will, we hope, be sufficiently justified by the following Experiments and Cases ; and we have thought it the less necessary to employ a train of physical reasoning to confirm our assertions, when by these our opinions will be fully established. EXPERIMENTS. I. Comparative Experiments of the different solvent powers of the Aerated Alkaline Water, Simple Aerated Water, and pure Water, on Calculus. EXPERIMENT I. With the Aerated Alkaline Water. ■ Original weight of the Calculus. Time immersed. Diminut. of weight of the Calculus. 8 Grains. 8 Days. 1 Grain. 16 Days. 2 Grains. 32 Days. 2-£ Grains. 42 Days. 3^ Grains. ........ 50 Days. 4 Grains. EXPERIMENTS. EXPERIMENT II. With simple Aerated Water. Original weight of the Calculus. Time immersed. Diminut. of weight of the Calculus. 8 Grains. 8 Days. 16 Days. 32 Days. 42 Days. $0 Days>. Nothing. 1 Grain. 2 jGrains. * 2 Grains. 24 Grains. EXPERIMENT III. With Pure Water. Original Hueigbt of the Calculus. lime immersed. Diminut. of iveigbt of the Calculus. 8 Grainjs. 8 Days. 16 Days. 32 Days. 42 Days. 50 Days. -§- Grain. -2T Grain. | Grain. 1 Grain.. 1 Grain. EXPERIMENTS. 2$ II. Comparative Experiments of the solvent powers of the urine, made with the urine of a person using the Aerated Alkaline Water, and with the urine of the same person, when not taking that medicine. EXPERIMENT I. With the Urine of a Person taking the Aerated Alkaline Water. Original "weight of the Calculus. Time immersed. Diminut. of weight of the Calculus^ 30 Grains. 8 Days. r Grain 16 Days. 4 Grains. 32 Days. 54- Grains. 42 Days. 74- Grains. 50 Days. io-*- Grains. EXPERIMENT II. With the Urine of a Person not taking the Aerated Alkaline Water. Original weight of the Calculus. Time immersed. Qained in weight. 30 Grains. 8 Days. 16 Days. 24 Days. 3 Grains $ Grains. 5 Grains. N. B. The urine, ia both these Experiments, was changed twice every day. Before the Calculus was weigh- C 2 30 EXPERIMENTS. III. Experiment made with a Chalk-stone, or Gouty matter, in the Aerated Alkaline Water. Original iveight of the Gouty Matter. Time immersed. Diminut. of weight of the Gouty mat' ter. 5 Grains. 8 Days. f Grain. 14 Days. | of a Grain. 34 Days. 1 Grain. 42 Days. 2 Grains. 50 Days. i\ Grains. ed, it was dried before a gentle fire. Had there been time for continuing the first experiment, there is reason to be- lieve that the Calculus would have been entirely dissolved. After the Calculus had been immersed in the urine for thirty-two days, there appeared some worm-eaten like holes in it; and, between that time and forty-two days, a small fragment of it was separated ; and at fifty days,- when the experiment jvas stopped, the surface of the Calculus was softened, and, on touching it, a considerable quantity of ochrey powder adhered to the fingers. The Calculus, in both experiments, was the same, of a remarkable hard consistance, and of a very close texture. It may likewise be remarked, that no incrustation took place in the phial in which the first experiment was made, but a considerable. one in that of the second. EXPERIMENTS. 31 IV. Experiment, of the Stimulating Power of the Aerated Alkaline Water, in quickening the Circulation of the Blood. Before drinking half an English pint of the water, the pulse beat 64 strokes in the minute. Five minutes after taking it, the pulse beat —68 strokes. At 10 minutes after—72 strokes, 15 minutes after—-76 strokes, 20 minutes after—72 strokes, 30 minutes after-^-7 2 strokejs. The above Experiment was made while the person was in bed, about half an hour after he awaked in the morning. The usual state of his pulse is from 66 to 70. V. Comparative Experiments of the Antiseptic Powers of the Aerated Alkaline Water, Sim- ple Aerated Water, and Pure Water. Three pieces of lean beef, two drams each in weight, were, on the 5th of May, 1794, severally put into six ounces of Aerated Alkaline Water, into the same quantity of Simple Aerated Water, and into the same quantity of Spring Water. The phials, in which these were contained, were closely corked, and placed upon the sash of a window. On May 9th, the contents of the three phials were examinedj — when that with the spring water had acquired a reddish tinge, and an offensive smell. 32 EXPERIMENTS. No change was perceived in the colour or smell of the other two. May 13 th, The bit of beef in the phial with spring water was evidently putrid. The other two phials had acquired somewhat of a disagree- able smell. To ascertain whether the piece of beef that had been immersed in spring water, which was now putrid, could again be restored, so as to smell sweet, there was put on it six ounces of Aerated Alkaline water, the spring water having been previously poured from it. A fresh quantity of the Aerated Alkaline and Simple Aerated Water was likewise put into the other two phials. May 14th, The bit of beef, that was first im- mersed in spring water, and became putrid in nine days, had its smell much sweetened by being immersed for one day in the Aerated Alkaline Water. The phial, with the Simple Aerated Water, still smelled disagreeable ; that with the Aerated Al- kaline, scarcely any smell could be perceived. EXPERIMENTS On the solvent Effects of the Alkaline Solution satu- rated •with Fixible Air. BY BENJAMIN COLBORNE, Esq.* A Fragment of a calculus of an ochrous co- lour, and rough on the outside like a mulberry, weighing fifty-one grains, was put into about two ounces and a half of the mephitic alkaline so- lution, and corked up. After two days stand* ing, the solution was poured off, and a fresh portion put on ; and this was repeated every day, or every other day, for thirty one days successively. At the end of that time the stone was again weighed, and found to have lost thirty-six grains of its original weight. Another fragment of the same calculus, weigh- ing 41 grains, treated in the same manner, lost in thirty-seven days 32 grains. Another fragment of the same, weighing 54 grains, treated as above mentioned, lost in 13 days 32 grains. Another fragment of a calculus, of a light ochrous colour, and close texture, weighing 41 grains, lost, by the same treatment, in 33 days, 11 grains only. • See Dr. Falconer's Treatise on the Efficacy of Aqua Mephitica Alkalina, Page 110. 34 EXPERIMENTS. A Smooth white calculus was sawn into two pieces; one of which, weighing 29 grains, was put into the alkaline solution, but imperfect- ly saturated with fixible air •, the other, weighing 20 grains, was put into an equal quantity of the solution perfectly saturated: after standing 28 days, the first had lost 6 grains, the other 8 grains. ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS. By the'same. EXPERIMENT I. October 16, 1786, a fragment of a hard, close- grained human calculus, weighing 55 grains, was put into a large wide mouthed vial, and upon it was poured daily the first urine that was passed, after taking a dose of the mephitic alkaline water, by a person that was in a course of taking it every day. The vial was set in a moderately cool place, and the urine regularly changed. Loss of 1 Weight. \V tight of the Remainder. From Oct. 16, to Nov. 16. From Nov. 16, to Dec. 16. From Dec. 10, 1786, to Jan. 16, 1787. From Jan. 16. to Feb. 16. From Feb. 16. to March 16. From March 1. to April 16. 2 grs. 7 grs. 10 grs. 10 grs. 4 grs. 4 grs. 53 grs. 46 grs. 36 grs. 26 grs. 22 grs. 18 grs. 'experiment II. Another fragment of the same calculus was put into a wide-mouthed vial j and upon it was poured every day the urine of a healthy person, 36 EXPERIMENTS. who never had any signs of Gravel, and who was not in the habit of taking any medicine whatever. The calculus weighed, when the urine was first put upon it, 4c grains. Loss of Weight. Weight of the Remainder. From Oct. 16, 1786 [ to Nov. 16. J 0 45 grs. From November 16. 1 to December 16, f 0 55 grs. About the latter end of December, the urine was neglected to be changed, and the same urine remained upon the calculus, until January 26th, in which time the fluid had become more fetid and alkaline. The calculus had during this time, fallen into three pieces, and had lost in weight 10 grains. From that time the urine was changed regularly every day. On the 26th of January, the fragments of the above calculus weighed 35 grains EXPERIMENTS. 37 • Lass of Weight. Weight of the Remainder. From Jan. 26. to Feb. 26. From Feb. 26. to March 26. From March 26. to Ap. 26 0 C Gain of < Weight [gr. Iss-&i grs 35 grs. 3f4 grs. 37^ grs. EXPERIMENT III. January 24th, 1787, an entire calculus of a white colour, and 60 grains in weight, was put into a wide mouthed phial, and on it was poured every day some of the urine of a person who was in the habit of taking the mephitic alkaline water, in the same manner as is mentioned in Ex- periment I. and the urine renewed daily. In the sriace of two months, the caculus was diminish- ed in weight 8 grains, and in another month the whole diminution was 25 grains. The laminse that form the calculus also began to separate-, and it appeared that the action of the solvent had pen- etrated much deeper in one part than another, EXPERIMENT IV. A Fragmfrit of another very hard red calcu- lus, which weighed 54 grains, was treated in the same manner, and for the same time, as in the last experiment. It lost in that space of time 17 grains. 4 OBSERVATIONS On the symptoms attending persons afflicted with Calculus, and on the Effects of the Mephitic Al- kaline Water. BY THE SAME. Urine, in general, will change paper, stained with juice of turnsole, to a red colour, which will be permanent ; but the urine which is first made, after taking the mephitic alkaline water, will change the turnsole paper to a blue colour. This will take place, even if the mephitic alka- line water be taken not more than a quarter of an hour before the discharge of the urine. If the mephitic alkaline water be saturated with fixible air, it will not produce any imme- diate change on the turnsole paper ; but, after a short exposure to the air, the paper will become blue, as the superabundant quantity of fixible air flies off. The urine of almost every person in health, if suffered to remain for 24 hours in the chamber- pot, forms, more or less incrustatio|| on the bot- tom and sides. This, however, I believe, never takes place in the u ine of those who are in the habit of taking daily a competent dose of the me- phitic alkaline water. EXPERIMENTS. 39 Persons subject to the stone or gravel, ought accurately to observe the state of their chamber- pot, whether it keeps free of fur, or other ad- hesion to its bottom and sides ; this being the principal criterion, by which the increase or a- mendment of the complaint can be ascertained. If no discolouration of the vessel appears after the urine has stood in it for some time -, and par- ticularly if the urine clears away any former ad- hesion, we may rest assured that the urine is of a proper kind; but if the sides of the vessel grow foul, and this foulness accumulates, it indicatss a state of the urine that tends to produce or increase calculus. Six or eight ounces by measure of the mephi- tic alkaline water, taken daily, will be found suf- ficient to keep the urine in a proper state by the generality of people -, others may require double that quantity. The effect of the mephitic alkaline water in dissolving the incrustations formed by the urine, affords a strong presumption in favour of its dis- solving power on the calculus ; therefore, who- ever voids any calculus fragments during the time of drinking the mephitic alkaline water, has great reason to think that they are parts of an old concretion mouldering away, provided however a sufficient quantity of the remedy be taken to prevent any fur concreting on the chamber-pot. As the alkaline mephitic water is so efficacious in obviating the acrimony of the urine, it seems 40 EXPERIMENTS. likely to be of service, if given immediately al- ter the operation of lithotomy has been perform- ed, as it is well known that the healing of the wound is often much retarded by the irritation of that discharge, which is more likely to be troublesome in this way, as it is in its own na- uire more acrimonious. Schirrosities of the os uteri and of the pros- tate gland, by retarding the passage of the urine, oftenproduce symptoms similar to those that a- rise from calculus. One difference, however, may be remarked, which is, that people who have such schirri, bear the motion of a carriage, or of a horse, better than is done by those who have calculus ; and if they void mucus, it generally comes away with the last dtops of their urine, and the pain they feel lasts in much the same de- gree, during the whole of the time the urine is passing, which is seldom the case in calculus complaints ; as the pain in them is generally most acute, just as the last drops are discharg- ing. People who have ulcers in the urethra, attended with stricture, generally void purulent matter pre- vious to the coming away of the urine, which last, by being long retained, sometimes causes abscesses in the perinaeum and suppressions of urine. I have known persons, of both sexes, advan- ced in life, complain for many years, of fre- quent urgings to make water, which comes away by little at a time, and is generally of a EXPERIMENTS. 41 wheyish appearance, and after standing twenty- four, hours, deposits a large mucous sediment. Sometimes a suppression takes place. In all the cases of this kind, in which the mephitic alkaline w^ter was tried, more or less relief was found, one only excepted, which on examination proved to be a schirrus of the os uteri. In violent paroxysms of stone or strangury, I have advised the use of opiates combined with the mephitic alkaline water. Fifteen or twenty drops of the thebaic tincture may be taken in a quarter of a pint of the water, and occasionally repeated. A bag of oats heated in boiling water, I have experienced to be a convenient and safe method of applying a fomentation to the os pubis, and what generally gives ease. A clyster also of two ounces of olive oil, and forty drops of the thebaic tincture, may be injected, and retained for several hours. If nevertheless the mephitic alkaline water should prove too stimulant to be repeated during the fit, which seldom happens, burley water, with gum arabic, may be substi- tuted in its place; and when the pain has sub- sided, recourse may again be had to the mephitic alkaline water. d 2 DISEASES, FOR WHICH THE AERATED ALKALINE WATER MAY BE USED. From the qualities we have ascribed to the Aerated Alkaline Water, and from the result of the experiments we have made with this medi- cine, we are in some measure prepared to recom- mend the use of it for the relief and cure of several diseases. Our lirtiited plan forbids us to enter upon a ' full discussion of each of the disorders. We * shall, however, give some short account of them, under the following heads: Gravel,—Gout,— * Stomachic, and Putrid Disorders. I. GRAVELISH DISORDERS. The stone, or Gravel, is one of the most pain- ful di orders to which mankind is subject. All constitutions form gravel in the body more or less. The urine of every person, even of chil- dren, contains it. It is difficult to assign a rea- son, why the urine of one person is capable of MEDICINE MAY BE USED. 43 holding this matter in a state of entire solution, and not that of another. It is supposed to arise, from a greater quantity of it being present in the constitution than what the urine can dissolve; and this superabundant quantity, so far as we can judge, is in general owing to original constitu- tion. It is dilficult to say what are the causes which induce a disposition of the body to form gravel. It has been generally thought, that they arise from a sedentary life, a large use of animal food, wines, and hard waters. The experiments made by Dr. Wilson seem to prove, that vegetable has a greater tendency to produce gravel in the body'than animal food. This, however, we think, requires further con- firmation. With regard to hard waters having a tendency to predispose to gravel, this, has been confidently denied by some, and asserted by others. From a careful examination of the arguments on both sides of the question, we are rather inclined to rliink that they may. Gravelish concretions are in general, firit formed in the kidneys, and when passing from them into the bladder, occasion inflammation and great pain, which is commonly called a fit of the gravel. The inflammation and pain will be in propor- tion to the size of the stony particles ; these par- ticles, when got into the bladder increase in size, unless discharged along with the urine- When 44 DISEASES FOR WHICH THIS a stone is formed in the bladder, it will continue to increase in size, by fresh accumulations, which are daily deposited from the urine on its surface. A stone, by its weight, motion, and the roughness of .its surface, will greatly injure the coats of the bladder; and unless it be ex- tracted in time, or its bulk prevented from in- creasing, and its surface smoothed by proper solvents, wiil occasion the death of the unhappy sufferer. The signs of gravel are, pain in the loins, a sensation of coldness over the surface of the body, particularly over the lower part of the belly and loins,—sickness,—vomiting,—the urine some- times of a brownish thick appearance, at other times transparent, depositing red sand or gravel, —suppression of urine,—bloody urine, &c. In order to cure gravelish disorders, it is neces- sary to remove the inflammation and the spasm, to discharge the calculus concretions, and to strengthen the system. The inflammation is most effectually removed by bleeding; the spasm, by opiates; the solution or discharge of the calculus, by the Aerated Al- kaline Water. And to give vigour and strength to the body, exercise and tonic medicines will be necessary. If the person be of a strong robust constitution, it will be necessary to take three or four tea cup- fuls of blood away at once ; but if of a delicate habit of body, one or two will perhaps be suffici- ent. MEDICINE MAY BE USED. 45 Large doses of laudanum in very painful cases, will be necessary to overcome the spasm; but they should be discontinued as soon as that end is answered. The Aerated Alkaline Water, from its solvent and other qualities, is well calculated for dischar- ing the calculus from the kidneys and bladder, and for preventing fresh accumulations. There is good reason to believe that this medicine it capa- ble of dissolving calculus in the body; but, whatever may be its pow^r in this way, we are certain of one fact, -.^mely, that it prevents fresh accumulations. It is supposed to do this, either by dunging the quality of the urine, so as to render it capable of holding the matter which constitutes gravel, in a state of entire solution ; or, by its sudorific quality, discharging that mat- ter from the circulating' fluids, by the insensible perspiration. This fact is well deserving the at- tention of persons subject to the gravel, and should induce them to use this medicine during the remainder of their lives. So insensible are most people to the blessing of health, that until deprived of it, they seldom properly estimate its value; and as soon as their complaints are removed, they think it unnecessa- ry to continue a remedy as a preventative : but, in this disease, if they do not, they may be assured that the disorder will soon return. After having overcome the violence of the dis- ease, we have said that it will be necessary to strengthen the system, by exercise, and tonic "dicines. 46 DISEASES FOR WHICH THIS Exercise in the open air is so well known to have the effect of invigorating the body, that there is no necessity for bestowing a single argu- ment in its recommendation. We have already considered .the Aerated Alka- line Water as a gentle tonic, and as such would recommend it in this disease. When the stcv mach will admit of stronger tonics, we think it adviseable to use them with this medicine, parti- cularly Uva ursi and the Peruvian bark. Both are astringent as well as tonic medicines. These should be used, especially for some time after a fit of the gravel, as above described. To prevent a return of th6 disease, a smaller quantity of the Aerated Alkaline Water will be sufficient. A gill taken twice a day will answer this purpose. This may be applied to persons, who have un- dergone the painful operation of lithotomy; and with confidence we can recommend it as a cer- tain preventative. The experience of persons, who have for many years constantly taken thib medicine, induces us to conclude, that, if pro- perly prepared, it will never do any harm, though it be used for a lifetime. II. GOUT. This disease has such affinity to the gravel, as to be very generally conjoined with it; and the same remedies which are good for the one, ex- perience has shewn to be useful in the other. This disease, then, is one for which the Aerattd Alkaline Water may be used with advantage. 47 MEDICINE MAY BE USED. Gout is in general an hereditary disease. The exciting causes are supposed to be the same with those of the gravel; to which may be added the application of oold, particularly in a wet form, and whatever has a tendency to debilitate the body. Gout seldom attacks people in this country before the age of thirty-six or torty years; but we were lately informed that, in some parts of England, the disease occurs anong young peo- ple, owing, as is suprv-»Swd, to a particular fer- mented liquor, called White Ale, which the common people in these places, are in the habit of using. Gout attacks various parts of the body,—the head, stomach, kidneys, joints, &c. When it attacks the joints, it is called a regular gout; when other parts of the body are affected with it, ,i misplaced gout. Its attacks are sudden, and frequently without any warning. When it seizes the joints, how- ever, the following symptoms are commonly to be observed; The natural sweat of the feet is impaired; this is succeeded by a sense of coldness, prickling, and numbness. Languor speedily su- pervenes, with loss of appetite, sickness, shiver- ing, succeeded by heat aud feverishness. These are soon followed by swelling, inflammation, and great pain, in the joint attacked. The violence of the pain seldom lasts above twenty-four hours, and often not so long. Many persons, after having had frequent fits-of the 48 DISEASES FOR WHICH THIS gout, have concretions of a chalky appearance formed upon the joints affected. ' These concretions are of the same nature with calculus; but contain a great deal more calcare- ous earth. The gout is one of those diseases, which have been considered as incurable; though, at the same time, its violence may, by proper cautions and remedies, be lessened. By removing the causes, which are supposed to excite fits of the gout, the disease may be J palliated. Exercise, bodily labour, abstinence 1 from vinous and spirituous liquors, avoiding cold and wet feet, may be considered as op- i posed to the exciting causes. Dr. Cullen was of opinion, that little could be done by medicine for curing the Gout, but that a great deal might be expected from re- gimen ; and was persuaded, .that any person, who early in life, should enter upon the con- 1 stant practice of bodily labour, and abstinence i from* animal food, would be entirely preserved from this disease. * J Exercise, and hodily labour, by promoting 1 the insensible perspiration, may certainly be of I use. They should never be violent* or fatiguing, but in proportion to the strength of the body; more moderate in advanced than in the earlier periods of life. MEDICINE MAY BE USED. 49 A sudden or total change from animal or vege- table food, is rather a dangerous experiment; and it will be prudent not to give over the use of wine suddenly, if the patient has been habituated to take it. Experience is still wanting, to confirm the utility of the Aerated Alkaline Water, in this disease, though in some cases it has been deemed beneficial. .From the affinity which this disease has with the gravel, and from the experience of the good effects of this medicine, in this disease, we may conclude that in the gout it will also be found useful. We were lately informed, that a gentleman, who was for several years afflicted with the gout in his feet, used the Simple Aerated Water, and experienced a complete cure. He supposed that the medicine acted as a diapho- retic, as it restored to his feet the natural per- spiration, which had for a long time been obstructed. If the Simple Aerated Water acted in this way, and produced a cure, is not the Aerated Alkaline Water better fitted for the pur- pose ? It is certainly a more powerful solvent and a diaphoretic*. III. STOMACHIC COMPLAINTS. These arise from such a variety of causes, are so connected with other diseases, and so * See Case No. 1. and Experiment, P. 35. E 50 DISEASES FOR WHICH THIS complicated in their nature, that it is impossi- ble for us to give any complete view of the subject, consistent with our limited plan; let it therefore suffice to give a few remarks, un- der the general head of a Depraved Digestion. This distemper is often to be attributed to he- reditary diseases; but is likewise frequently brought on by those causes which have a ten- dency to weaken the body, particularly such as hurt the digestive powers of the stomach. Among these we may reckon an immoderate use of spirituous liquors; large doses of opium; the too frequent practice of taking vomits and strong purgatives; acid and unripe fruits; the large use of tobacco, and strong tea, particularly when taken too warm. To these may be added an indolent and sedentary life. The cure will consist in removing the causes, and in restoring the natural tone and strength of the stomach. Peruvian bark, Columba root, Angustura bark, and chalybeates, are in daily u e for removing stomachic complaints, and are no doubt, with proper management, often of great use; but there are certain states of weakne s of the sto- mach, owing to the above causes, or arising from other disease , particularly from bilious dis- orders, wherein these remedies are altogether in- effectual, chiefly originating from the weakened state of the digestive powers of the stomach, which makes that organ unfit for receiving or dissolving those medicines. Very gentle tonics, MEDICINE MAY BE USED. 51 therefore, are the remedies calculated for this state of debility. From the gentle tonic, antacid, and stimulant powers of the Aerated Alkaline Water, it appears to be a medicine well fitted for the purpose. We do not state this from conjec- ture, but from actual experience of the happy effects of this medicine in such debilitated states of the stomach. IV. PUTRID DISORDERS. The nature, causes, means of prevention, and cure of putrid diseases, have engaged the atten- tion of philosophers and physicians in all ages. The effluvia emitted from putrid vegetable and animal matters impregnating the atmosphere, being received into the lungs, and from thence communicated to the circulating fluids, have been long considered as the most common cause of putrid diseases. An ingenious author has lately thrown new light upon this subject, and has ascribed the cause of putrid diseases, to the want of defici- ency of that part of the common atmosphere, called Vital Air, or Oxygen. But, without at- tempting to examine Dr. Beddoes's theory, we shall go on to remark, that the living animal has a constant tendency to a putrescent state, independent of these foreign causes, and would uniformly run into that state, unless constantly supplied with antiseptics. It is well known, that our food, composed of fresh animal and vegetable substances, contains 52 DISEASES FOR WHICH THIS fixed air, which gives to the body that constant supply of an antiseptic, so absolutely necessary : to the want or deficiency of this, in the food of seamen, may be justly attributed the putrid dis- eases with which they are attacked, particularly the scurvy. As an evidence of the truth of this opinion, it may be stated, that, in general, the scurvy of seamen will be cured by a supply of fresh vegetable and animal food. The Aerated Alkaline Water, from its an- tiseptic quality, is well calculated for speedily and successfully counteracting putrescent disor- ders. With deference to the opinions of Doctors Percival, Withering, and Dobson, we think the practice they recommend, of breathing fixed air, is by no means adviseable. It is well known that the breathing of fixed air is destructive of animal life ; and though its exhibition in this form may counteract putrescent symptoms, yet, if not cautiously managed indeed, it must do hurt. The antiseptic quality of fixed air, may be ex- pected under the form of the Aerated Alkaline Water. This medicine, as a powerful antiseptic, claims particular attention, and as such it may be used in putrid fevers, putrid sore throat, confluent small-pox, foul ulcers, consumption of the lungs, scurvy, &c. MEDICINE MAY BE USED. 53 To give an account of each of these putrid disorders would carry us beyond the bounds pre- scribed for this treatise. But, before closing our remarks on the diseases for which we have recommended the Aerated Alkaline Water, we should beg leave to suggest that, in our opinion, this medicine would be found of use in the Scrophula, and should earnestly wish that medi- cal practitioners would make a trial of it in this disease. We hope that, future experience will more amply prove the truth of our assertions, con- firm our conclusions, and throw more light upon so interesting a subject. s 2 CASES. No. i. February $tht 1794. Charles Dairymple, Esq. began about fifteen years, ago to be afflicted with gravelish complaints, which continued to increase during the succeed- ing eleven years. He passed each year four or five small stones, about the size of the seed of a Seville orange, which rendered his situation most distressing. Honey, as a remedy, was recom- mended to him, which he used constantly for two years, to the quantity of fifteen Scots pints, each year, but without experiencing the least benefit. He also used with the same ill success, a variety of other remedies. About four years ago he consulted Mr. Benja- min Bell, surgeon in Edenburgh, who recom- mended to him the Aerated Alkaline Water, which he began immediately to take, to the quan- tity of half an English pint twice in the day. Soon after he experienced great benefit, and has ever since been entirely free of all gravelish com- plaints, except when he discontined taking the wa- ter. This he did last summer, by way of ex- periment, and he then had a return of his disor- der, and passed several, small stones without any pain. ^Having had recourse to his medicine, he was again soon restored to health. CASES. 55 Besides experiencing a complete cure, he has reason to believe that the water has been of sin- gular service to him in other respects. When about forty years of age, he was attacked with the Gout; and has ever since, at times, been more or less afflicted with it. But from the time he began to use the water, the fits of Gout have been less frequent ; and when they did return, were by no means so severe as formerly. He has had none for these twelve months past, which he attributes entirely to the use of the Aerated Al- kaline Water. During the continuance of these complaints, he never altered his manner of life. He lives freely; and is now in perfect health. When I applied to Mr. Dalrymple for his case, he most readily Consented to give it, and to allow it to be published. The above account he dicta- ted himself ; and it may be depende d upon as au- thentic. No. II. The two following letters, from Sir Alexander Livingstone, contain an important case of the Stone. WEST QUARTER HOUSE, Feb. 15, 1794. Sir, I am favoured with your letter, wishing to know the effects of the Aerated Alkaline Wa- ter on me, and to allow my name to a new treatise you mean to publish. 56 CASES. As I have received great benefit from the use of that Water, I consent to your using my name ; and you have as follows what happene'd to me for these twelve years. In 1781, then about forty years of age, and in an active military line, I was suddenly seized with a strangury. When the urine came, it was mix- ed with blood. This disorder prevented me from taking exercise on horseback ; a carriage was ve- ry disagreeable; and I walked with pain. It was not till 1783 that a friend suggested I had a stone. I was then sounded, and a stone found in the bladder. Though I then intended to be cut, it was not till Sept. 1785 the operation was done, and I had a happy recovery. From the time I was sounded till cut, I took twenty-five guinea bottles of Adams's solvent, which certainly eased my pain at times. I pas- sed much sand ; but the weight at the neck of the bladder increasing, almost deprived me of tak- ing any kind of exercise. The operation suc- ceeded ; and a stone upwards of three ounces was taken away. I continued free from pain up- wards of ten years, when I found some very disa- greeable returns of pain in those parts, particu- larly after hard exercise, which I often took on horseback and on foot I suspected" a return of the stone, was again sounded, and a stone found in the bladder. I then intended to submit a second time to the operation ; but a friend at Bath having, in conversation with Benjamin Colburne, Esq. recommended my reading, and sent me, a pamph- let on the Alkaline Water, by Dr. F*lconer. The CASES. 57 many cases there stated, and the happy effects of that Water on Mr. Colburne himself, and many others, determined me to give it a ttial; and I have, from that time, till now taken an English pint of the Water every day ; from the use of which I have been enabled to take moderate ex- ercise, without pain, passing my water freely, and seldom any bloody urine, except when I impro- perly leaped over or down a fence. I began to take the water in June 1792. It has agreed perfectly well with me, and my health is better than before I began to take it. I mean to continue to take it, being convinced that it is from that water I feel so easy, and enjoy so good health ; but if my pains return, I shall not hesi- tate to undergo another operation, and afterwards to take the water constantly. I am,' Sir, Your most obedient servant, A. LIVINGSTONE Ta Mr. John Moncreiff. WEST QUARTER HOUSE, 12th March, 1794. Sir, I have your favour, with the medicines ordered. In about two months after I began to take the Aerated Alkaline Water, I was able to bear the jolting of a carriage, without passing bloody u- rine, or much pain; and have continued better. 58 CASES. so that I can ride on horsebr.ck twenty miles, with- out inconvenience, cxctpt alighting sometimes to make water, but no blood follows. The water is most agreeable to my stomach ; and I shall continue to take it, as I believe that it is from its good effects that I feel so ea^y, and hope that it will be tried by all in my situation. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, A. LIVINGSTONE; To Mr. John Mancreiff, From the above case, it appears that Sir Alex- ander Livingstone has received great benefit from the Aerated Alkaline Water. It is probable, that this medicine has had the effect of in'part dissolving the stone in his bladder, or at least has smoothed its surface, and thereby prevented it from injur- ing the bladder, and occasioning pain and bloody urine. One thing seems to be perfectly certain, that no fresh accumulation has taken place, since he began to take the water. It apears, likewise, that Adams's solvent, taken in considerable quan- tities, had no other effect, than to give some tem- porary ease, and that it did not prevent the growth of the stone*. To be delivered from excruciating pain,—to have health restored,—to be able to take exercise, * Dr. Rotheram informed the author, that Adams's solvent is a composition of nitre and opium. CASES. sy and enjoy the company of friends, are the benefits here received; which none can rightly estimate, but those who have been taught by experience, the transition from the sorrows of disease to the hap- piness of restored health. No. III. WEST-QUARTER HOUSE, Feb. 28, 1794. Sir, When I informed you, in my letter of the 15th instant, of the good effects of the Alkaline Water on myself, I did not think of the follow- ing case. The subject of it was a son of James Finlay- son, a weaver in Falkirk, whose wife, about ten years since, nursed a child of mine, and who occasionally came to my house.—She often men- tioned the distressed situation of her son Wil- liam, now about six years of age. On particu- lar inquiry, I found that the child, from ten weeks old, had been distressed by a stoppage of urine ; that application had been made^ to the surgeons in Falkirk, without obtaining relief for him, except when she gave him laudanum. She said, when he was three years old, he was often in great distress, screaming from six o'clock in the evening to four in the morning, passing drops of blood; and could get no rest, until he was quite exhausted, or had got a dose of laudanum. 60 CASES. Fmding so much relief from the Alkaline Water myself, I gave her a> bottle of it, and desired her to give her son a wine glassful of the water every morning,—which was done; and in four weeks the pain subsided, so that the child slept tolerably easy; and in a month more was so well, as to be able to go to school. His water is now passed freely, without any blood, and he seldom feels any pain. He continues to take the water. It is now about fifteen months since he began to use it,—a sure instance of its good effects in both cases, which I can attest. I am, sir, Your most obedient servant, A LIVINGSTONE To Mr. John Moncrieff. No. IV. / am authorised, by the Rev. Dr. Blair, to publish the following paragraph, contained in his letter to me of the "$d Feb. 1794. " Dr. Blair having been for some time trou- bled with disorders of the gravelish kind, was advised, by Dr. Black, to use the Aerated Alka- line Water. After having used it for some months, he found himself relieved, and has now for several years continued entirely free from any disorders of that nature. But conceiving that water to have a good effect on his general health, he still continues to takj every day, about two- thirds of a Scots mutchkin, which is furnished him by Mr. Moncreiff." CASES. 61 No. V. Extract of a letter from the Rev. Dr. Shaw. COYLTOUN, Feb. 8, 1795. Sir, *. I am favoured with your letter, of the first current, in which you desire rne to give you an account of the manner in which I have been affected with gravelish complaints, and what effects the Aerated Alkaline Water has had since I began to use it. With pleasure I give what in- formation f can as to these particulars. Iirthe years 1789 and 1790, but never before, I passed four stones, the largest of which was about the size of a field pea. I had no pain, ex- cept when passing them. In August, 1790, after being in a carriage, I passed a considerable quantity of blood with my water, which I did frequently the winter and spring following. Du- ring all that time, I felt veiiy great pain at the neck of the bladder, but never at any time in my back and loins. In May, 1790, I sent for the Alkaline Water from you ; but soon after I purchased a machine, as it was inconvenient to get the water from Edinburgh ; and prepared it myself. For several months, I was not sensible of any benefit from the water, though I took it regular- ly, which I still do, a mutchkin of it at three times. In ten months", my intervals of ease were greater; and when the pain returned, it was F 62 CASES. not quite so violent; so that last summer, and this winter, I have been much easier ; though after riding, which I seldom do, or being in a carriage, my water is tinged with blood, and the pain pret- ty acute. Before I took the water, I was sounded, but no stone was felt;" however, I am told there may be one, or more, which may escape that opera- tion. I put one of the stones I passed into a vial, with Alkaline water. After some weeks, I took it out of the vial; and upon touching it with my fingers, it crumbled, and felt like clay dissolved in water. From this, I imagine that the Alkaline water may dissolve some stones ; and if it should not always have that effect, I hope it prevents the accumulation of that matter which is called a stone. If so, every person, who has a tendency to gravelish complaints, should, upon the first symptom, use the water. I generally took a good deal of exercise; and when, from bad weather, I kept my house, I had little appetite or digestion,''and no relish for meat; but though I have taken less exercise than ever for some years, yet since I used the Alkaline water, I never had abetter appetite, or digestion, and never enjoyed better health. I am, sir, Your most obedient servant, DAVID SHAW, To Mr. John Moncreiff. CASES. 63 COYLTON, May 16th, 1794. SlK, I Am favoured with yours of the 14th current, in which you desire me to allow you to publish, my name along with my case I lately sent you. Though I wrote it in a hurry, and there- fore suspect it is not very accurate, I have no objection, if you think it can be of any service in recommending the use of the Alkaline Aerated Water. I impute the ease I have enjoyed these last nine months to it; and though I have had some returns of my complaint, these have not been so frequent, and the pain very moderate, in comparison of what it was for three preceding years. I c.'a now go in a chaise without any in- conveniency, which wa > by no means the case for several years. In every other respect, I enjoy ex- ceeding good health. I think it is probable the wa- ter, when properly prepared, and taken regularly, dissolves some kind of stones, and prevents the accumulation of that matter of which stones are composed. If the water is taken when the'first symptoms of the disorder are felt, I am persuad- ed it would be of great service. I most sincere- ly wish success to your publication upon a sub- ject so interesting ; and am, with regard, Sir, Your most obedient servant, david .s;i \vr. The above two letters from the Rev. Dr. Shaw- afford an instance of the good effects of the 64 CASES. Aerated Alkaline Water on the appetite, diges- tion, and general health; and though the water seems to have required longer time in relieving his gravelish complaints than is usual, yet he still may expect greater benefit by continuing to take it. NO. VI. Extract of a letter from Mr. Peebles. EDINBURGH, Orphan Hospital, March 25th, 1794. Sir, In answer to your request, I send you the following narration respecting ir.y complaints. A number of years ago I began to feel a diffi- culty in passing water. Sometime after this com- plaint began, I passed with my urine considera- ble quantities of sand. I was advised to take Castile soap, which I did, and thought myself somewhat relieved by it, yet notwithstanding, I had frequent returns of my dis- order, and it became more severe, so that I often passed blood with my urine, especially after walk- ing but a short way, if performed hastily. Dur- ing this time I suffered great pain, and had a most unaccountable coldness over the lower part of my belly, back, and loins, which I felt even in the warmest summer day. About two years ago, I had a severe fit of the gravel. At that time you called to see me; and CASES. C3 both you and Mr. Kerr, then surgeon to the hos- pital, insisted with me to take the Aerated Alka- line Water. I consented to try it ; and you sent me some of the water, which I began to use, by your directions. Soon after, I felt more ease in passing my water, than I had done for a long time before. I have continued to takg the water ever since, and have never had another fit of the gravel, and the coldness is entirely gone. About two weeks ago, I passed two small pieces of a stone, resembling nutshells, which I ima- gine were separated from one in my bladder. This I attribute to the effects of the water; and I hope, by my continuing to take it, it may in time bring away what remains. The water agrees perfect- ly well with my stomach, and never has impaired my appetite. + Though I cannot now recollect all the particu- lars you might wish to know, yet I hope the above general account will be sufficient for the purpose of recommending the use of that water. to those in similar circumstances with me. I am, Sir, Your very humble tervant, Wm. PEF.BLK^ To Mr. John Moncreiff. F 2 6o CASES. No. VII. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Mr. John Robert, on. KILMARNOCK, May 7, 1794. Sir, I have received your two letters; and am sorry that I have been so long prevented from returning you an answer. But that which has prevented me from doing so, will evince, I think, the good effects of the continued use of the Aerated Alkaline Water, in the .'tone or gravel, more fully than all I could before have said on the subject. The fact is, that about the time when I wrote Mr. Russel's card, the calcu- lus began to crumble down; and, as it is of a very hard and flinty substance, some of the bits blfcken off, being rough, and the corners sharp and pointed, with great difficulty made their way through the passage, and tore it so much about the rVeck of the bladder, as to occasion for a good while a considerable loss of blood; so that I durst '. not, in that situation, confine myself to the pos- ture of writing, so long as the account I meant to have sent you required; and as this still con- tinues in some degree, I must confine what I have to say as much as possible; but, in the short account I shall give you, I shall not neglect any thing that seems of importance, so far as I can now remember particular facts or circum- stances. On the last day of December 1785, I was seized with a slow fever, which continued ai CASES. 67 days before the crisis took place. A week or two after this, I was seized with a very sharp rose fever; and the rose, which began in my left ear, and came at last to a suppuration there, went gradually over my whole head, and swelled it so much that I saw none for several days. About eight or ten days after this went off, I had a relapse; and the rose began where it had done before, but now descended down the length of my shoulders. In about the same time as before, after this went off, I was seized with it a third time; and, observing the same pro- gress, the rose now descended to my loins, leav- ing only about the breadth of my palm on my breast free, and a small stripe down tne back bone. When I had providentially weathered all these, and continued- some considerable time getting better, I chose a fine warm day, and with some assistance took a turn in my garden ; but finding myself much fatigued, I sat down, dreading no harm, and rested about ten mi- nutes on a summer-seat. Here, though the day was warm and fine, in my emaciated state, I had undoubtedly catched a little cold. By the time I got in, I felt a pain at the ball of one of my great toes; andupon looking to it, found it considerably swelled and inflamed. This in- creased considerably for eight or ten days; and it was not doubted but it was the beginning of a goutish disorder: but it soon terminated in a rheumatic fever. The whole of my feet and legs became greatly swollen; my feet to such a degree, that it was for a long while dreaded that the skin of them would have burst. Fronv the 63 CASES; beginning, I was confined to my bed, and could only lay on my back; and as I continued in this confined situation for near two months, and in that emaciated state in which I was, when seized with this last fever, I lost a good deal of the skin on some parts of my back, never being able to turn to either side for the smallest relief. The torture I underwent by the least motion, both from this last cause, and from the rheumatic spasms, that were ever and anon taking place, was inexpressible, and was not even exceeded by the severest paroxysms of the stone afterwards. During all this time, I could only pass my urine in the position in which I lay, and as it never was or could be fully thrown off at any one time in that position, I imagined it was then that a calculus was formed in the bladder; for soon after I begun to get better, I found always a small degree of heat at the neck of the bladder, at the time of passing urine; and it took some time before it could begin to make is way. This rather gradually increased, but not so as to be troublesome. At last, in the spring following (1787,) I observed my urine once or twice a little tinged with blood; and having one day gone from home a few miles in a chaise, which had to drive along a very rough road, I was sur- prised, on coming home, that 1 passed a great deal of blood, but without the smallest pain at the time, though I had felt a little uneasy on the road. It went off next day; but always after that, upon my walking to any distance, or after any false step made, I still passed blood, so that I was obliged to walk with the utmost care CASES. 69 and circumspection. Thinking it might tend to strengthen me (for I was still very weak) I had determined to go. and bathe in the salt water this summer, and accordingly went about the beginning of July. As I had about thirty miles to go to the place intended, I was afraid lest it might have increased my tendency to lose blood by urine ; but luckily as the road was mostly very good, I made out the journey in one day with the loss of very little, and continued bathing regu- larly for two months. During this time, I found myself gradually recover more strength; but still, as before, now and then lost some blood when passing my urine; and the feeling of heat at the time became gradually greater. I had never hitherto suspected the gravel or a stone ; but Giily 1.7.-g;r.C« th-tlT// CCusntution being weaken- ed by the long and severe distress I had had, the parts about the neck of the bladder had probably suffered most. But, as I found that, though I was otherwise getting more strength now, yet I continued still to lose blood, and this seemed ra- ther to be increasing both in quantity and fre- quency, I began to be a little alarmed about it, and consulted a gentleman of established good character, and .long experience in the physical line; and he suggested to me first, that it might probably be a stone in the bladder; and, at the same time, he gave me some of the Alkaline Aera- ted Water to make a trial of it, I took it for a few days, but found in that time no difference in my situation. I then was obliged to return home, and made Out my journey as well as at first, and having brought some of the water with me, I took it for a day or two. It was now that I was 70 CASES. alarmed in the most effectual manner : Uncertain as yet what my disorder was, whether a stone, or some weakness contracted in the prostrate gland and the parts adjacent, by my long and severe ill- ness, and consequently not knowing what to ap- ply for relief, I was in a few days all at once seiz- ed with an amazing loss of blood. Making eve- ry allowance for the urine that was mixed with it, I could not think foi ten or fifteen days, that I lost less than a Scotch mutchkin per day, and some days double that quantity, if not more ; and that whe- ther I moved or not. Indeed I had no hopes, but that it would in a few days finish my life. I was soon reduced to be unable to walk from my bed to the fire side without assistance ; and even with it, J once and again fainted from weakness ere it could be done. Yet, all this time, to my great asto- nishment, I did not feel the least pain in the parts from whence the blood proceeded, so as to be able to ascertain whether it came from the kidneys or from the bladder. At last, about the end of fourteen days, so far as I now remember, the discharge of blood gradually abated and wore off. Though I had used every thing that could be thought of, none of them seemed to be of. the smallest ser- vice, till I imagined there was little blood left in my body. The weakness to which it had reduced me, and the small quantity of blood that could now remain, or at least the inferior quality it be- hoved to be possessed of, made me seriously a- fraid of a consumption ; yet, by degrees, and by using nourishing victuals I began again gra- dually to recover strength, still loosing how- ever at times some little blood as formerly. But I now began to find the loss of it accompanied CASES. 71 with excruciating pain; and upon using means to free the urine from the blood, I was able some- times to collect as much fine sand from one pot as might nearly lie on a sixpence. I supposed it was this passing over the wound that had been made, when I lost so much blood, that occa- sioned the. pain. Being now in some degree as- certained of a gravelish disorder, if not of a stone, I was indifced by strong recommendations to try Adam's Solvent. I did not like to return to the Alkaline Water, as I had some apprehensions that it had been partly the cause of that exces- sive loss of blood which I had sustained. Before I used any of the Solvent, I had begun to have regular paroxysms, once a month or six weeks, attended with the usual concomitants, particular- ly the strangury, which was sometimes so violent that I was obliged to have recourse to the warm bath, or what I found at last answered the pur- pose still more effectually, which was now and then through the day, and particularly when going to bed, to drink at once about a mutchkin of plain water, made as hot as I could drink it. This never failed to afford me in a little time more or less relief. I used eight or ten bottles of the solvent; but after the first bottle which I thought was of considerable service to me, I never found the smallest relief from it. Mr. Perry, who at that time sold it, I think now, accounted for this very justly. He told me, in my correspondence with him, that tho.ugh he believed I bad had a stone of long standing, yet, if there was any blood in the composition of it, the solvent could not .'.fleet it; and I have of late found that there is a great deal of hlood in the composition of 72 CASES. the one I have. My paroxysms becoming at last very frequent, and almost intolerable by the torture they gave me, and thinking that the caustic remedies sometimes used behoved soon to finish me, as I was still weak and feeble, and had never fully recovered the shock I sustained by the loss of so much blood, I resolved, as a last attempt for my health, to make one other trial of the Alkaline Water, though I did it almost in the persuasion that it might occasion such another effusion of blood as I had before, and which I was sure I could not then stand. I sent for some time to the same gentleman I had got it from; but as I could not be well and regularly supplied with it from him, I at last got a machine to make it for myself, which my good friend Mr. Creech was so kind as to send me. At first I began with great caution, and for some weeks did not take above a wine glassful or two in the day; and at the times I was losing any blood, I ab- stained a day or two from it altogether; it was near half a year, to the best of. my remembrance, before I durst bring myself to use the full quan- tity per day, which I now take, and have done for some years past; which is a Scots mutchkin. I had not taken this quantity very long, till I found it begin to have a happy effect. My pa- roxysms became more seldom, and not so severe. I think I had only two or three that were any thing severe after this. But in about six or eight months they were become so easy, that I just knew the time of them, by feeling a little of the strangury that used to attend them, and by being oftener than usual obliged to make urine. It is CASES. 73 now two full years since I have been so far free from paroxysms and pain; but as I still know, as I have mentioned, the time of a paroxysm, I am persuaded if I was to give up the use of the water, I would soon be as bad as ever;—and considering the ease and relief which it affords in this dreadful disorder, I think the world is more indebted to the goodness of Providence for the discovery that has been made of it, than perhaps for any other discovery that has ever been made in the physical line. I shall only further mention a few facts, to ascertain, in my case the certainty of its possess- ing a solvent power in some degree, as well as its efficacy in giving relief from pain. I men- tioned before that, when losing blood with great pain, I had been able to separate from the blood and urine, at different times, a considerable quantity of fine sand, which ascertained that my disorder was gravelish; but I had been all along prevented from being sounded, lest that might have hurt or increased the wound from which so much blood had issued. After having been above twelve months in perfect ease, and without losing any blood, I, about the end of July last year, ventured two or three miles in a chaise for the first time. A day or two after that, I passed a triangular stone, about one fourth of an inch at the base in length. It gave me not the least pain ; for it was as polished as a piece of china. In this I observed that a great part of the composi- tion was blood. A numberof small strata appeared in it; one of which I supposedjit might have ac- quired at each time that I was losing blood. I G 74 CASES tried* a chaise once more during the course of the summer ; but it had no farther effect. All this last winter I had been very well ; but during a few cold days we had in the beginning of the, spring, I was all at once surprised in the morn^J ing to find I had passed a good deal of blood, as at the first, without any pain. I own I now begajh to give less credit to the Alkaline Water thjm what I had for a long time done, and was afraid such another scene was awaiting me as what had happened at first. I confined myself to a smal- ler quantity of the water than usual for some pays, during which I continued to lose blood, but not in a great quantity. At last, about five da*ys af- ter it had begun, having not had the least pain all this time, I felt a stone fairly enter the urethra, which gave me violent pain. It gradually wrought its way, bit and bit, for two days, before I got quit of' it. It was not half the bulk of the former one, and was evidently broke off from a larger mass, smooth on one side, and rough, jagged, and prickly, on the other, which had occasioned the difficulty of the passage and the pain. In about twelve hours, I lost no more blood, nor have done since ; though still smaller bits are almost every day since coming away, and some of them occa- sioning a little pain, but no blood during their passage. Now this last seems fully to evince that the stone is yielding fry degrees to the power of the Alkaline water ; for I use no other thing by way of remedy. All the different bits I have passed are as hard as flint, and a great part of the composition of every one of them is blood. Per- haps where the |tone is united only by mucus, and softer, the solution may be much quicker than in CASES. 75 mine; for blood, I believe is"a very strong cement, which Mr. Perry thought Adam's solvent could not at all effect; and perhaps the Alkaline Water i only affects it, by dissolving the mucus that *> in \the stone, opening of consequence the pores of it, \nd thus exposing it more fully to the action of th»: urine that is often passing over it: but one ttyng seems to be pretty certain, that it is not very loAg before it renders the stone smooth on the surface, and thus gives ease to the patient. I think thi.«ast circumstance, of the stone's occasioning me \e loss of blood for five or six days before it cameiaway, and the blood's immediately ceasing nfter it came away, leaves now little doubt, that the great effusion of blood, which I had, must have been owing to a much larger stone affecting and tearing a larger surface of the bladder, though till now I could never think that could have been the case,,_ without some degree of pain; but it would appear frcm hence, that the bladder is not itself susceptible of much pain, though pretty se- verely wounded, as mine must have been. I shall now only add one or two observations, which I make from my own experience. The first is, that the more fully the water is impregnated with the fixed air, it is the less irritating ; and if it is kept in the machine for three days compleat under a stream of the air, and frequently shaken during the last day, any irritation it occasions is scarcely perceptible ; whereas, if it is kept in the machine 40 or 48 hours only, it occasions a very considerable degree of irritation. I made an expe- riment of this on myself not very long ago; and using it when it 1 ad only been kept in the ma- 76 CASES. chine for 36 or 40 hours, I had almost brought myself under a violent paroxysm, but give it up in time to prevent that. I do not know, however, but, in this state its solvent power may perhaps be greater, where the patient having never lost any blood, may not run any risk in that respect ; but I had suffered so much in this way formerly, that when I found the irritation great, and my urine beginning to be tinged with blood, I immediately gave it up, and betook myself to what was more fully impregnated ; when the symptoms of an ap- proaching paroxysm immediately gave way. It was however not long after this, that the piece of stone which gave me the greatest pain in getting quit of, came away ; which made me think that nerhaps the water in that state had- a greater solvent power than when more fully impregnated, and of consequence was less irritating. Another observation I have to make is, that the water seems to be most friendly to the human constitution. It begets a keen appetite, and great- ly assists digestion, and consequently, in this un- happy disorder, in a good- measure, supplies the want of exercise, when the patient is rendered ut- terly incapable of it. I have given it to many persons,' young and old, and found it always to have this effect, and I have never found, in any one instance any bad effect flow from it. One person and only one, complained of being rendered cos- tive by it, which is the great objection to Adams's Solvent; but in all other cases, it had the contra- ry effect, not to any high degree, but just to keep the belly gently open. When I begun to use it, I had been using a very strict regimen. It was but CASES. 77 a few things I could or durst take, without being much hurt by them ; and 1 was, in consequence of this, and the long and severe distress I had been under, greatly emaciated, and very weak ; but I no sooner began to use it in any considerable quanti- ty, but my appetite, returned keen and sharp; and I soon found that I could with safety take a share of every thing, even of what had before hurt me most, such as salt meat, fish and even barley broth, which had long been most pernicious to me. The only things which I found I could not use with full freedom, were all kinds of wine and spirits ; and for a long while too I found even ale, both strong and weak rather hurtful: But now I can take a few glasses of wine, or of spi- rits pretty much diluted with water, and can safe- ly drink good brisk beer to my meat. I find, how- ever, that the using as much as possible a' milk diet is both most favourable to the disorder, and agrees best with the use of the water. Everything too that is gently acid I have found agree well with botW^uch as, in the season, strawber- ries, hind or rasp-berries, black-currant-berries, rhubarb tarts, |fbose-berries and tarts made of them, with'apples and pears in every way they are used. i A third observation I may make concerning the use of this water is, that I have found it of great use to me in other complaints, besides that of the gravel or stone. I had been, for many years of my life, much distressed with a frequent return of a " severe billious complaint, and with frequent roses upon my head, always attended with a vio- lent fever of two or three days continuance, and G 2 78 CASES. sometimes longer. Since I begun to take the Alkaline Water though I have had several times symptoms of the rose, yet it has never come the length of forming fully into one, or been attend- ed with any fever ; and I have had only one attack this last winter of the bilious complaint, and I found that much alleviated by taking at the time a double quantity of the water. Upon the whole, for these two years past, since I got free of the severe paroxysms of the stone, I have en- joyed as good health as ever I remember to have done for so long a time in any part of my life. I mentioned that I had given the water to many persons, chiefly for sore throats and bilious com- plaints, in almost all of which it had a good effect; and in many effectually has cured them for the time. One person, who had been for a long time, in the decline of* life,1 distressed with an involuntary passage of urine, took it for some time very ful- ly saturated, and in about two months got free of that troublesome disorder, and has now continued so for these two years past. A servant of my own, that was subject to a se- vere hysterical disorder, came to be so bad of it, that, after keeping her bed for some days, she was just endeavouring to collect her things to go and leave her service, when it occured'to me that I might try her with a tumbler of the water. She had not taken it ten minutes, when she found her- self much better, that, upon coming into the house, I found her at her wheel, as she thought perfectly well; however, two or three more tumb- lers of it actually made her so. She has continu- CASES. 79 ed with me two years since ; and whenever she begins to feel it approaching, the same ddse has regularly had the same effect. But the most extraordinary case or recovery happened to a young gentleman in this neighbour- hood, from a putrid disorder, by its means. The case is such, that it would not be easily^ credited, if not from himself or one of the family ; and I cannot use the freedom of giving it to you. Yet I think it might be of much importance to be ful- ly narrated and known. If you will take the trouble to write to Mr. Rowan, minister of the the Largs, near Greenock, in whose family it hap- pened, I think it is more than probable he will not refuse to give you "an account of it; and he can do it more fully than any other. Thus, sir, I have given you as brief an account of my disorder, and of the benefit I have receiv- ed from the use of the Alkaline water, as I could, in my -gravelish and other disorders. I could, no doubt, have still been much more particular, but I have not neglected any circumstance that I thought of importance. As to the publishing it, with my name added to it,I am not very fond of this; how- ever, if you think it is of any considerable • impor- tance to the public to do so, and if Mr. Creech, to whom I consider myself as highly indebted in the whole matter, wishes it to be done, I shall give my consent. I beg my compliments to him ; and am, with esteem, Sir, Your most sincerely, JOHN ROBERTSON. To Mr. John Moncreiff. 80 CASES. No. VIII. From Dr. Falconer's Treatise on the Aqua Me- phitica Alkalina. Benjamin Colborne, Esq. of Bath, was, in the year 1760, attacked with a violent nephritic pa- roxysm, which, after continuing seven or eight days, and being treated with anodyne, oily, and mucilaginous medicines and bleeding, terminated in the discharge by urine of a red stone, larger than a vetch or tare; after which he continued tolerably well for eight or ten months ; often, however, observing, small calculous concretions to come away, attended with irritation of the urinary passages. In about ten'month after the first attack, he had another, but neither so violent nor of so long duration, which terminated like the first in the discharge of a stone of a similar co- lour to the foregoing, but of a smaller size. The nephritic paroxysm again returned in about five or six months, but not so violent as at first. Dur- ing this time he was in a course of taking mu- cilaginous and lubricating remedies. After this he made trial of Mrs. Stephen's remedy, as prepared by Dr D'EscKernay, of which he took about an ounce in a day, once or twice a week. After this, he continued free of nephritic complaints about a year and a half. That medi- cine, however, agreed so ill with his stomach, producing nausea, indigestion, and crudities, that he was obliged to leave it off. About three or CASES. 81 four months afterwards he had another attack, which returned again' upon him every ten or twelve weeks. At this time he was in a course of taking an infusion of the wild carrot seed, and drank distilled water as his usual drink. In the year 1766, he made trial of Blackrie's lixivium (or Chittick's remedy), and though it agreed with him rather better than the soap, yet it was so caustic and irritating to the mouth and throat, and produced such painful sensations in tus stomach, that he was obliged to leave it off; after which his nephritic paroxysm returned every eight or ten weeks as before. In the year 1774* he went to Spa for a complaint in his bowels, which he ascribed to the use of his caustic lixivi- um, and during the time of his drinking these waters, had no return of calculous complaints; but on his coming back to England, he was attack- ed as formerly. In the beginning of the year 1778, he made trial of water simply impregnated with Fixible Air, whieh proved too irritating and diuretic. On March 27th of the same year, he had an attack of the gout, which continued on him until the 14th of April, when he was taken with a violent vo- miting, attended with pain in the left kidney. By the help of the warm bath and bleeding, he passed another calculous. After this he had a second attack of the gout, which continued a few days. As soon as it was over, he began the use of the alkaline medicine with Fixible Air, as above des- cribed, of which he took about six or seven ounces 82 CASES. twice a day. During the use of this, he parted with no gravel; his urine deposited no sediment whatsoever, nor discoloured the vessel, though, if it was omitted even for a few days, these appear- ances took place, and small bits of gravel were perceivable in his water. From this time he continued in perfect health, and free of all nephritic complaints, until the 26th of August, 1783, when about three in the morn- ing he was taken with an irritation in the urinary passages, which prevented his sleep; his urine, however was not high coloured. About seven in the morning he had two purging stools. He had but little pain in the kidney, but a heavy obtuse sensation over the os pubis, which continued with some sickness till about two o'clock, when the stone seemed to enter the bladder. From that time he became perfectly easy. In order to discharge the stone from the blad- der, he drank large quantities of mucilaginous liquors, and retained his urine as long as possible. About six in the evening, he discharged a red cal- culous, smaller than what he had before done. It is proper to observe that he had been at Har- rowgate about four or five weeks before this hap- pened, and drank the Harrowgate water, which as it acted not only as a purgative, but as a di- uretic also, he was induced to think he might safe- ly omit the alkaline solution. It appeared how- ever, to his great disappointment, that the calcu- lus was generated during that interval. From this time to the present, he has never, for two days successively omitted taking the mephitic alkaline CASES. 83 solusion, and has never since felt the smallest un- easiness ; no grains of sand or other precipitation in the urine, nor any discoloration of the vessel, except when the medicine is omitted for a day. But, upon taking the solution again, the urine made afterwards dissolves the former disco- loration, and still continues perfectly clear. Dur- ingthe time he wassubject to nephritic paroxysms, hi^ urine was subject to putrefy very soon ; but since he has taken the solution, it will keep three or four days in the warmest weather, without shewing any signs of that dispositon. His ge- neral dose, as a preventative, is about seven oun- ces daily. His health, strength, and spirits, are all perfectly good ; and as he thinks, better than they were twenty years ago. Since the above account was written, which is now about two years ago, Mr. Colborne has had two fits of the gout; the one slight, the other more severe, which last confined him for a fort- night. Both fits, however, went off perfectly well, without any translation of the gout to the head, lungs, or any of the viscera. He drank the me- phitic Alkaline W ater, with the addition of a lit- tle brandy, during both the fits, and it agreed with him perfectly well. His health, strength, and spi- rits, are as good now as they were two years «go. DR. FALCONER'S REMARKS. This case exhibits an instance of a complete cure of a person, considerably past the meridian 84 CASES. of life, who had been eighteen years afflicted in the most grievous manner, with this complaint ; and who had tried almost all the boasted reme- dies, without their affording any abatement of his sufferings, and with manifest injury to his gener- al health. In this instance, the mephitic Alkaline Water seems not only to have proved a specific remedy for the calculous complaint, but also to have repaired, to a degree superior to what could have been expected, the injuries done to the con- stitution, both by the fatigue and distress inci- dent to the disorder, and by the violent remedies which were used previous to his being acquainted with the efficacy of the mephitic alkaline water. Time, the only test of truth in such instances, seems to have ascertained the fact of his recovery beyond any possibility of doubt. Nearly eleven years have now elapsed since he began to make trial of this remedy ; and during that time he has had no other interruption of ease than what might, as clearly as we can trace any occurrence in medi- cinal practice, be ascribed to the omission of the remedy, before the tendency of the system to generate calculus was subdued. That time, how- ever appears to be now in a good measure arrived, as he is at present able to intermit the use of the mephitic Alkaline Water, without hazarding any of the painful symptoms, which before occurred, when it was omitted. It is not however, clear that he would be able to forbear its use altogether, nor does this gentleman, I believe, mean to try such an experiment, which would be dangerous only, without utility. CASES. 85 The obvious effects of the water upon the ge- neral health, are in this case worthy of notice. Mr. Colborne's appetite, strength, complexion, and spirits, all indicate as good and confirmed a state of health, as is possessed by persons of the best constitution at his time of life ; and the re- t urns of the gout, to which he is constitutionally subject, seem to have been rendered milder, and to have gone off more favourably, whilst he was under a course of the mephitic alkaline water, than at other times; and never to have produced, as they frequently do, any aggravation of the cal- culous complaint. No. IX. FROM THE SAME—PAGE Z6. The Reverend Dr. Cooper, of Sunning, in Berkshire, a most worthy and amiable character, is likewise a remarkable instance of the efficacy of the neutralized alkaline solution. But this gentleman's case is related by himself, in a letter to my late friend, with such accuracy and propriety, as well as animated description, suggested by the memory of feelings too severe to be erased, that I cannot forbear giving it to the reader in his own words; subjoining also a con- firmation of the benefit he had received, and of his present good state of health, extracted from a letter I myself had the pleasure lately to receive from him. One trivial circumstance I will take H 86 CASES the liberty to remark, that Dr. Cooper, in one part of his letter to Dr. Dobson, seems to have thought that the aqua mephitica alkalina, or alka- line solution, saturated with Fixible air, was re- commended in the Medical Commentary, as a re- medy for caculous disorders; whereas it is only recommended there as containing a large quantity of Fixible Air, which was to be set loose by a subsequent addition of an acid, which was di- rected to be taken immediately after the exhibi- tion of -rhe alkaline solution. It docs not appear that Dr. Dobson, at the time he composed the Medical Commentary on Fixed Air, was at all acquainted with the good effects of the alkaline solution, thus impregnated, in these complaints. Though he recommends its use, it is only with a view to its immediate decomposition by an acid. The remedy, however, from which Dr. Cooper received benefit, was, as appears from his own account, the alkaline solution saturated with Fixed Air, without any other addition ; though he occasionally made use of the effervescent sa- line draught, when a machine for impregnating the water with the Fixed Air was not at hand. The Reverend Dr. Cooper's letter to Dr. Dobson. Df.ar sir, It gives me great pleasure to hear you design taking up the pen again in favour of Fixed Air. The efficacy of that volatile principle (when combined with some alkaline salt) in putrid and other disorders, is sufficiently manifested in your / CASES. 87 very ingenious Commentary on that subject; and nothing now is wanting completely to establish its character, than the making better known to the world its superior virtues in nephritic com- plaints also. Of this superiority, I am sensible you have several proofs before you, even in this place, and some of them much stronger than perhaps my case may be; nevertheless, if that can in the least degree promote the cause of truth, and assist your benevolent design, it is most heartily at your service. Indeed I feel myself un- der so great obligations to the virtues of Salt of Tartar, and Fixed Air, for rescuing me from a state of misery and pain, and restoring me to the full enjoyment of health and ease, that it would appear the highest ingratitude in me to be silent whenever it is in my power to do justice to their worth. It was in the beginning of August, 1772, if I recollect, that I was first attacked with what is called a fit of the gravel, -which lasted about twelve hours; hinc mihi prima labes. As I had till then been quite a stranger to the nature as well as the symptoms of the disorder, I was at a loss how to account for the sickness and pains I felt, till a small stone, which came away, too well convinced me from what cause they arose. The -continual apprehensions I now was under of hav- ing a return of tho?e pains, and the dread I en- tertained of being afflicted with a complaint which I had .always heard styled the opprobrium medico- rum, destroyed every comfort, and embittered every hour of my life. I did not fail, however, you may be sure, Sir, having recourse to the best advice I could find, and took care scrupulously to adhere to everv rule and every method of cure 88 CASES. prescribed me. I soon perceived, nevertheless, with great concern, that my disorder, instead of abating, gradually increased, conformable to the just observation of Mr. Pope, that " The young disease, which must subdue at length, "Grows with our growth, and strengthens with our " strength " I now continually voided great quantities of sand, or rather, of very small stones of a bright red co- lour ; and, at the distance of every two or thriie months, and sometimes oftener, when a larget stone was formed than could easily pass the ure- ters, I underwent the most excruciating torments before it reached the bladder. The paroxyms, at these times, lasted full thirty hours, and once or twice much longer, attended with an acute burn- ing pain in the region of the kidneys and round the abdomen, a numbness down my thighs and legs, a constipation of my bowels, with violent sickness at my stomach. Castor oil, fomentations, emollients, and warm bathing, which used before to afford me ease in common fits, here often fail- ed of success, and nothing but opiate draughts could administer the least relief. Nor did my suffer- ings always terminate with the stone's being at length safely lodged in the bladder ; for twice, in its endeavours to pass the urethra, the stone un- happily-remained fixed there for several hours, and consequently brought on again an intolerable pain, with a total suppression of urine. To at- tempt giving an idea of what I felt on these occa- sions, is beyond the power of words : even at this distance of time, while I am now writing, an':mu: CASES. 89 meminisse horret: It is to be conceived only by those who have had the misfortune to be afflicted with the stone. As I was convinced that the milder remedies, which I had hitherto followed, were unable to prevent a frequent return of these paroxysms, I determined to have recourse to more violent ones, such as lixivium and solvents. Of the former, I preferred that recommended by Mr. Blackrie, known before by the name of Chittick's Receipt for the Stone. This I took regularly for four months, strictly observing the rules laid down with it. I do not remember I had any very violent attack of my complaint, during the course of this medicine; but it sometimes occasioned me to make bloody water, and I continually voided a good deal of gravel. Perceiving, however, that my health, spirits and appetite, began to be affected by the sceptic regimen, enjoined to assist the operations of the lixivium, I thought it high time to leave it off; and soon after had the additional mortifi- cation to know, that, whilst every thing else, that could render life an object of desire, was about to leave me, my calculous complaints remained firm and rooted as ever. From this caustic medicine, I turned my eyes to Perry's Solvent, which, as I found its character and virtues came strongly recommended to the public under the sanction of many very respect- able names, I lamented that I had not thought of sooner, and considered all the time as thrown away, which I had hitherto bestowed on other re- medies. My application, however, to this boast- 90 CASE* ed medicine was followed by no better s-uccess than what had attended me before ; for at the end of three months, during which time I took it, I found all my fond hopes and expectations at once destroyed, by one of the severest fits of the stone I had ever felt. Willing to give this celebrated solvent the fairest trial, I persevered in the use of it long after I found it by no means suited to my constitution; for it induced such a costive habit of body as rendered my life very uncomfor- table, and sometimes was indeed quite alarming. It would be difficult, as well as tiresome, to endeavour to enumerate the variety of other nos- trums, which, during the course of full seven years, I was persuaded to swallow : " Non, mihi si linguae centum sint, oraque centum, ' Ferrea vox, omnes possim comprendere formas." Let it suffice to say, that finding from none of them any other kind of benefit than temporary suspensions of pain, I quite despaired of ever meeting with any thing that would afford me es- sential and permanent relief. At length, how- ever, in the beginning of April 1780, a friend of mine put into my hands your publication, before- mentioned, on Fixed Air: pleased with the ac- count given in it, of the many cures performed by that and Salt of Tartar, on putrid and other diseases, and with the great probability of the success of these combined articles in nephritic complaints, as likewise encouraged by the estab- lished character and reputation of its amiable author, I determined immediately to make trial CASES, 01 of this extraordinary medicine; and accordingly provided myelf with a Fixed Air machine, and apparatus necessary for the purpose. About the middle of the same month I entered on a course of the Medicated Water and Fixed Air, taking it in the form and quantity prescribed as in your pamphlet, and soon had great reason to con~ gratulate myself on my undertaking. In about a fortnight's time I perceived a very sensible altera- tion in myself, as well with respect to my com- plaint in particular, as to my health in general; the latter I found greatly mended both as to my spirits and appetite; and the uneasy sensations of the former, about the kidneys, were entirely re- moved. I no longer voided either sand or gravel; nor did I feel that continual irritation to make water, which I did before; nor was my sleep disturbed by such frequent, yet fruitless calls to it; in short, from the happy enjoyment of ease and comfort, to which I had so long been a stran- ger, I now seemed to myself quite a new crea* ture. I pursued this method about four monthsj when my fafther progress in it was stopped by a feverish attack, which confined me for three weeks. As soon as that was removed, I had re- course again to the Salt of lartar and Fixed Air, and have continued it, with little interruption, ever since. I can assure you, sir, with the greatest truth, that from the time I began taking this medicine, to the date of the present writing, I have never had any the least return of my com- 92 CASES. plaint, excepting once about two years and a halt ago, I avoided a small stone, without pain, about the size of a little pea or vetch, quite smooth, and almost perfectly round. I have, moreover, in every other respect, enjoyed an uninterrupted state of good health. When I am on a journey, or absent from home, when I cannot be supplied with the Fixed Air machine, I neutralize a dose of the solution of Salt of Tartar (sweetened with a little sugar) with lemon juice, which has the same effect as the mephitic acid. With regard to regimen, I confess, I observe none, except the avoiding every thing salted or dressed too high. No other restriction of diet can be necessary with a medicine, whose virtues seem best assisted by those things which are at the same time, most salutary and agreeable to the nature and constitution of the human frame, such as wine, milk, fruits, vegetables, and the like. On this account, the medicine in question has certainly great advantages over those of the caus- tic kind; for the same reason, perhaps, it may be supposed to yield to them in solvent powers. Nevertheless, if, as experience shews, it prevents the formation of those substances in the kidneys and bladder, which form the human calculi, or the increase of them after they are formed, its claim to merit as a preventative is equally great; at the same time, when its perfect innocence, nay even beneficial effects on the constitution, are taken into consideration, few people, I believe, will hesitate to pronounce the Medicated Water and Fixed Air superior to all other medicines hitherto recommended for nephritic complaints. CASES. 93 A fair trial of them for three years, wih\ I hope, fully justify me in asserting this superiority; and if health, ease, and comfort, are blessings we all covet and desire, they having reinstated me in the happy enjoyment of them, when well-nigh lost, must ever entitle the Salt of Tartar and Fixed Air remedy to my sincerest thanks and most grateful acknowledgments. I am, dear sir, with the truest esteem, Your very obedient, and very humble servant. EDWARD COOPER. Bath, April 16th, 1783. N. B. 1 forgot to mention, that, in the spring of the year 1782, I was seized with a fit of the gout in both my feet, which confined me full three weeks; nevertheless, I still continued the use of my medicine, adding only to each dose about half a tea-spoonful of rum ; nor did I find the least prejudice or inconvenience from it. Extract of a letter from the Rev. Dr. Cooper, to Wm. Cooper, M. D. dated Dec. 18, J 784. All that I have farther to add now, respecting myself, is, that I still continue as well, and as free from any return of ray complaint, as I was when I drew up my case in April 1783. I con- stantly persevere in the use of the Alkaline Solu* tion with Fixible Air, drinking once or twice a day, as it happens, about two ounces of the Me- dicated Water, which never fails acting as a pre- ventative, and keeping me entirely free from every the least symptom of gravel or stpne ; though I 94 OASES. have great reason to think, from the pain I have formerly felt in the region of my kidneys, that a stone is formed in one of them.— It may be necessary to remind the reader, that the quantity of alkali, contained in the solution used by Dr. Cooper, is double to that used by Mr. Colborne; so that the two ounces mentioned in Dr. Cooper's letter as his daily dose, are equal to twice that quantity of the solution directed in the former part of this work. Extract of a letter, dated April ist 1787. My health is, I thank God, full as good as when you last heard from me, nor have I had any, even the least, return of my old complaint, which I can attribute to nothing but my persevering in a course of the above mentioned medicine. I pur- sue the same method of taking it that I have done hitherto, excepting that now, I have seldom recourse to it above once a day, instead of twice, ' which I formerly had. The effects of it as a preventative I find equally powerful as they have ever been, and long experience has fully convin- ced me that this medicine is no less innocent, than it is salutary to my constitution. It is true indeed I have had two fits of the gout, the one in September 1785, and the other in January 1787; but in neither did I desist from taking the Aqua Mephitica Alkalina. On rhe contrary, I conti- CASES. 95 nued it during the whole time of both these se- vere visitations, and with the precaution of add- ing a tea-spoonful of rum or brandy to each dose, found it sit quite easy and comfortable on my stomach. Extract of a letter from the Rev. Dr. Cooper, dated November 26, 1788. To answer more particularly your inquiries concerning my present state of health, I have the pleasure to assure you, that it is full as good as when I saw you last winter at Bath, 'bating the somewhat farther advance in age, and its at- tendant infirmities. I believe I then told you, that for the whole preceding summer, and great part of the autumn, I had been afflicted with a very painful and dangerous illness; and that dur- ing my confinement under it, which lasted near five months, I was obliged to abstain from the Aqua Mephitica Alkalina. I found, however, no inconvenience from the disuse of it, either by any return of pain in my kidneys, or any other (even the least) hint of a gravelly complaint.— Since that time I have again entered upon a course of that medicine, but neither in so large a quan- tity, nor so frequently repeated as before, as I now take it once only in the day, and that not re- gularly. Besides, whenever business or engage- ments call me from home, I oftentimes omit it for a fortnight together, and find myself justi- fied in this omission by a total freedom from every symptom of, or tendency to, either the 96 CASES. stone or gravel. Should I unfortnnately find any hints of either of these, sufficient to alarm me, I should immediately increase my dose, and be more attentive to the frequent and regular returns of taking it; nor have I the least doubt, but that the virtues of the Aqua Mephitica Alkalina would soon disperse every anxious fear and uneasv forebodhftg. DR. FALCONER'S REMARKS. This case requires very little comment; it exhi- biting a full and even minute account of a com- plete recovery from as painful a state as almost ever takes place from calculus. It is worthy re- mark here, that the tendency of the system to ge- nerate calculus seems nearly subdued, as appears from the use of the Mephitic Alkaline water being now capable of being omitted for a time, and that a pretty long one with impunity. Whe- ther it -might with safety be totally laid aside, does not appear ; nor would it be prudent to hazard the trial. No. X. Extract of a letter from Capt. Bunbury. SCIENNES, 12th July, 1790. Sir, I have been violently affected, for many years past, with a billious or stomachic complaint. CASES. 97 Iii the years 1787 and 1788, it was so severe, as to deprive me for several weeks of the use of my limbs. For two years, I hardly knew what sleep was, and I totally lost my appetite. Although J consulted several eminent physi- cians, both in Britain and Ireland, I never receiv- ed more than temporary relief. On the 18th of January last I began to drink the Aerated Alka- line water prepared at your shop. Before I had used two dozen of English pints of water, I reco- vered my appetite and sleep; and by continuing to use it, I have obtained strength in my limbs, and have not altogether been so well for several years. I wish, not only in justice to you, but for the benefit of tbjt world, to make this as generally known as possible. I am, Sir, Your most humble servant, Abm. BUNBURY. To Mr. John Moncreiff. FROM THE SAME- SCIENNES, 10th June, 1794. Sir, As you wish to be informed of the state of my health, since my letter to you, dated the 12th of July, 1790, with a view to be inserted in your intended treatise on the Aerated Alkaline Water, I most' chearfully comply with your desire. 98 CASES. I continued to take the Aerated Alkaline Wa- ter from the 1 8th January, 1790, to the 19th of August, 1791, at which time I was so completely recovered, as to think that it was no longer neces- sary to take the water ; and never since have my complaints returned in such a degree, as to re- quire the use of that medicine. I still, however, have at times some little return of my stomach complaint, which is generally occasioned by cold or Wet feet. The only remedy I now take is magnesia, mixed in peppermint water, which al- ways gives me relief. Before I began to take the water, magnesia had but little effect. I tried laudanum to ease the pain ; but it always dis- agreed with me. All kinds of spirits, diluted or taken plain, had the same effect. It is to the Aerated Alkaline Water that I attribute the reco- very of my appetite and strength, and the good health I now enjoy. And I am persuaded that there is no medicine so well calculated as that water, for relieving or curing stomachic or bilious disorders. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, Abm. BUNBURY. To Mr. John Moncreiff. No. XI. Extract of a letter from the Rev. Mr. Stephen Rowan, Minister at Largs. May 13, 1794. hiR, According to your desire, I transmit to you as distinct an account of the case of the young man who resides with me as I can. It is as fol- lows: CASES. 99 The young man, when returning from Grena- da, in autumn 1791, was seized with a swelling in his thigh. As none on board the ship knew the nature of the disease he was treated very im- properly. A suppuration began ; and he was about ten days confined to bed before the vessel arrived at Greenock, in the month of October said year, where he lay under the care of a medi- cal gentleman ten days longer, till I got an op- portunity of conveying him in the packet from Greenock to Irvine, where I then resided. His thigh, from the ham to the tip of the buttock, was then distended with bloody matter, which soon broke; but during the time that this matter had been in collecting, the mass of his blood had been corrupted; and a hectic fever now com- menced. Dr. Fleming, whose assistance had been called, used every means to check the vio- lence of the fever, which however continued so high, that his pulse was commonly no, till about the middle of March 1792, when he was seized with an universal rheumatism. About the crisis of this fever, his body smelled very of- fensively, though no part of his skin at this time was broken, and though the room was frequently sprinkled with vinegar, yet the smell was intole- rable to a person continuing in it for a quarter of an hour. A physician and surgeon, whose as- sistance had been joined to that of Dr. Fleming, had for some time considered his case as hopeless. As the only remaining effort, Dr. Fleming re- commended the use of the Mephitic Water; adding, that, as the whole mass of the youth's blood seemed to be fast going into a state of cor- ruption, if any medicine could stop its progress, 100 CASE.-, that water would produce the effect. Without a moment's delay, I wrote a few lines, stating his case ; and sent it by express to the Rev. Mr. John Robertson, one of the ministers of Kilmar- nock, who had an apparatus for preparing the water, requesting him to send me what quantity he could spare, till I got a supply from Glasgow. In return he wrote me a most friendly letter, in which he expressed the strongest hopes of the use of the water proving, by the blessing of God, the means of his recovery. He instantly began to use the water, taking three wine glasses of it during the day. In the space of two days the putrid smell began to abate ; by the evening of the fourth day it was gone ; on the fifth and sixth day, his appetite quickened. The fever began gradually to abate, and his appetite continued to increase ; so that, in the beginning of May, he was able to bear the jolt- ing of a carriage, at which time I removed him to Largs. There he began to walk about with the assistance of crutches, and to try salt-water bathing, which perfected the cure which the Mephitic Water had begun. He still continues to reside with me, and now enjoys good health. The above is a general account of the young man's case, which you wish to communicate to the public, but which I have unavoidably been obliged to narrate in a hurry. I am, Sir, Yours sincerely, STEPHEN ROWAN. CONCLUSION. * From the foregoing Experiments and Cases, it appears, that the Aerated Alkaline Water pos- sesses the medicinal qualities we have ascribed to it; and that the success with which its use has been attended, entitles it to particular attention. The author could have laid before the public a greater variety of Cases; but, as the persons, who were the subjects of these, would not per- mit their names to appear, h~ judged it improper to publish Cases that might appear not suffici- ently authenticated. He has taken the liberty to reprint two Cases from Dr. Falconer's Treatise on the Aqua Mephitica Alkalina; principally, because few copies of that work have come to Scotland, and because the reputation of the Ae- rated Alkaline Water, in gravelish disorders, chiefly took its rise from the success with which it was attended in both these cases. As the author wishes to continue his enquiries respecting the Aerated Alkaline Water, he would 102 CONCLUSION. beg leave to request those into whose hands this Treatise may come, and who may have received benefit from the use of that medicine, that they would be pleased to communicate to him a parti- cular relation of their cases. He likewise would be greatly obliged to medical gentlemen, if they would favour him with their observations, and mention any experience they may have had, in the course of their practice, of the use of that water, in relieving and curing diseases*. VALUABLE WORKS FOR SALE BY Edward J. Coale, 116, Market-Street, Baltimore; Among which are a number of English Books On Law, Physic, and Divinity. PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS: Port Fo!io—Select Reviews—Boston Anthology -—Edinburgh Review—Quarterly Review—A- merican Medical and Philosophical Register— Doctor Barton's Philadelphia Medical and Physi- cal Journal, and a new and valuable work enti- tled, THE ARCHIVES OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, A WORK DEVOTED TO COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, RURAL and DOMESTIC ECONOMY, AGRICULTURE, THE USEFUL ARTS, &C. By James Mease, M. D. Secretary to the Agricultural Society of Philadelphia. 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