ON CUTANEOUS AERIFORM TRANSPIRATION". $\ 



by the fkin ? And if fo, what may be their nature ? Thefe are 

 the queflions I propofe to examine in the preient memoir. 



The ancients did not even fufpect the cutaneous tranfpiration 

 of air, and make no mention of it in any of their works. 



The count de Milly firfi announced, in 1777,* the dif- C. de MUlyfirfc 

 covery of an elaftic fluid which patTes off by the fkin. He obferved ic * 

 afferts that, being in a warm bath, half a pint might have been 

 collected in the fpace of three hours; and from his analyfis, 

 which was both inaccurate and very incomplete, he concluded 

 that it was fixed air (carbonic acid gas.) 



M. Ingenhouz, fome time afterwards noticed this tranfpi- D. Ingenhouz. 

 ration of air by the fkin, but he believed it to be phlogifti- 

 catedair. (nitrogen gas.) 



M. M. Prieftley and Fontana repeated the experiments of Prieftley, 

 the two preceding philofophers, but could not perceive any Fontana * 

 aeriform emanation from the {kin. 



M. Jurine, furgeon at Geneva, intending to be a competi- jurine. 

 tor for the prize propofed by the Royal Society of Medicine, f 

 repeated the experiments of M. M. Milly and Jngenhouz, not 

 only on himfeif but on feveral individuals of all ages, ufing 

 different kinds of water and varying the temperature; he in- 

 forms us that he never difcovered any emanation of air. Pre- 

 fuming that the water, by its preffure might have obftrucled 

 the paffage of the air; or that it contracted the exhaling air- 

 veflels of the Ikin, he continued his inquiries, by varying the 

 proceffes before ufed by M. M. Prieftley and Fontana, and he 

 thought he had proved by experiments, the inaccuracy of 

 which may be eafily (hewn, that a fmall quantity of fixed air 

 (carbonic acid gas) is conftantly emitted by the ikin. 



Cit. Fourcroy expreffes himfeif thus : u it is not true, as fome Fourcroy. 

 moderns have afferted, that elaftic fluids and particularly car- 

 bonic acid gas are tranfpired by the fkin" *. 



Such, a very few years ago, was the ftate of the queftion 

 which now engages us. Incorrecl experiments, the contra- 

 dictory refults of which were difputed either wholly or in part, 



* Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, for 

 1777, p. 32. 



t See Hiftory and Memoirs of the Society of Medicine, Vol. 

 X. p. 54, and fol. 

 * Fourcroy, Syftem of Chemical Knowledge, Vol. IX. p. 203. 

 E 2 left 



