Philadelphia Medical Sodely. 69 



PHILADELPHIA MEDICAL SOCIETY. 



' the Philadelphia Medical Society, defircus of increafing 

 the ftock of ufeful medical knowledge, have determined. to 

 t)ffer a medal, of the value of fixty dollars, for the bcft dif- 

 fertation in anfwer to the following queftibn :—'"•' What are 

 the efefts of the following medicines upon the human body, 

 efpecially upon the pulfe ; viz, hyofcyamus niger (black hen-* 

 bane), datura ftramonium (thorn-apple), conium macula- 

 turn (hemlock), camphor, amber, mufk, digitalis purpurea 

 (fox-glove), fcilla maritima (fea-fquill), rhododendron maxi- 

 mum (an indigenous American plant called mountain laurel), 

 and the principal preparations of lead V* 



Difliertations on this fubjed, competing for the prize, and 

 written either in the Englifli, French, or Latin languages^ 

 iiiuft be forwarded (poll: paid) to the fecretary of the Phila- 

 delphia Medical Society, on or before the fir ft Saturday in 

 February i8oa« To each of the dilTertatious a motto muft 

 be prefixed, and the fame motto muft be put upon the back 

 of a fcalcd letter containing the name of the author^ Ail 

 the diflertations, excepting that to which the prize fliall be 

 adjudged, will be returned to any place that may be direcled, 

 with the letters which accompanied them unopened. Thus 

 the njtmes of unfucccfsful candidates Will be kn-jwn only to 

 thofe to whom they may thcmfclves communicate them. 



The American Medical Repofitory, Vol. IV^. contains the 

 following remarks: — If the fixed vegetable alkali is an ele- 

 mentary materialj it might be expefted to fhow itfelf after 

 the decompolition of plants by putrefaction as well as by in- 

 cineration. Yet the American forefts, where immenfe quan- 

 tities of timber are rotting down, afford no evidence of this. 

 On the contrary, the trunks of the largeft trees, as they un- 

 dergo gradual decay upon the ground, give no fign of pot-afli. 

 Trcquently in the progrefs of decompofition, the annual cir- 

 cles are fo detached from each other as to be eafily peeled off, 

 and the cohefion of the wood fo much leffened, that the 

 blade of a knife or of a fword can be thruft in toward the 

 medullary part of their w^hole length. Now there is no faline 

 efflorefcence on this rotten timber in dry weather, nor is there 

 ^ny alkaline talle, nor any pot-afli to be obtained by mace- 



VoL. IX, M rating 



