Memoirs of Efasmus Darwin^ M, D. 1 0§ 



M. Gehlen's memoir appeared. M. Riffault read to me 

 every thing respecting the muriatic ether, but I found no- 

 thing about Gehlen, or the singular properties he relates of 

 the muriatic ether. Mr. Thomson only speaks oF the pro- 

 cess of Basse, which consists in mixing melted sea-salt, 

 alcohol^ and sulphuric acid ; and which > with the exception 

 of the fusion of the salt, has been pointed out by several 

 chemists. I think myself therefore entitled to conclude, 

 that in Great Britain, as well as in France and Spain, the 

 muriatic ether was unknown, and that, being ignorant of 

 M. Gehlen's labours, I have at least the merit of publishing 

 it. How often does it happen that a discovery is made in 

 one country, which had been known in another long before! 

 and this happens because all learned men do not speak one 

 language, and their works are not always translated. This 

 is the case with M. Gehlen's discovery*. 



XXIV. Memoirs cf the late Erasmus Dakwin, M.D. 



[Continued from vul. xxix. p. 339.] 

 . DARWINIANA. 



In Doctor Darwin's First Class, Ord. I. Gen. 1, irientioning 

 arterial .hre?norrhage, he suggests the breathing an air wiih 

 less of oxygen. In the hcemopioe of arterial bluod,^ he pro- 

 poses, besides the reduced air, making the patient sick by 

 whirling round in a chair suspended by a rope j- actual vo- 

 niitinir, a practice we believe (irst introduced by the I'amous 

 Dr. Willis ; bathing in cold \vat<T, or sudden inunersionof 

 some of the limbs, or sprinkling the whole body with cold 

 water. For the hcemoptoe narium, bleeding of the uo^e, he 

 advises plunging the head into cold water with powdered 

 salt hastily dissolved in it: lint strewed with wheat 'flour 



* Since wrkinjT tHe above, M. Boullay, a respcctal.'c apotliecarv' in Paris, 

 Informed me thnt he made the ether in que>tiou with the muria'tic acid and 

 iilcohoi long ago, a-thouj^h he never gave publicity to hi? ex{>€rin3eia'S, 

 because he d d not think they were so complete as they ought to have been. 

 I am proud to have an opportunity of doing justice to M. Boullay. 



Note by M. TarNARu. 

 -•^^ ^ put 



