218 Letter from Dr. Tlwrnton 



sophic way of remedying such a complaint, and was at- 

 tempted here. 



3. The hydro -azotic £as is made by burning a table- 

 spoonful of vitriolic aether under a bell-glass suspended 

 over water, when the oxygen gets destroyed, and some of 

 the hydrogtri or inflammable gas mixes with the remaining 

 azotic gas, producing an air of a lower standard. 



4. About forty pints of this air, the nostrils being free, 

 \\ ;> inhaled daily, and always produced a great relief. 



5. In another ease of asthma (I hope shortly to publish) 

 an cc'jual advantage was derived from the vital air; but the 

 disorder was of longer duration, and another theory of the 

 disease will be then attempted. 



In the interim, I have the honour to remain, sir, 



Your much obliged and faithful servant, 



Robert John Thornton. 



XLIL Dr. Thornton's Third Letter to Mr. Arthur 

 Aikin, Editor of the Annual Review* 



Aug st io, 1804. 

 STR, No. 1, Hind-streer, Manchester-square. 



We both of us stand upon the same ground, being able 

 to boast of fathers whose celebrity is already allowed; and 

 following their footsteps, 6i baud passibus acquis, " when we 

 come forward to the public view we are u tremblingly alive 1 * 

 not to sully a name they have honoured. As public lecturers,, 

 both of us cannot but be sensible how distressing it must be 

 to be publicly accused 6C of not understanding the sciences* 

 we pretend to teach :" also, as your brother Mr. Charles 

 Aikin, surgeon, has compiled a book, like myself, in favour 

 of vaccine inoculation *, undoubtedly with the same disinte- 

 rested motive, and is, with mvself, an honorary member of 

 Guy's Medical and Physical Society, and probably, we may 

 boast also of having had him as a pupil to that medical school, 

 where I now have the honour of being one of the teachers, — 

 it must have been doubly galling for me to see your name af- 

 iixed as editor to an attempt to hold me forth to the world u as 

 a man of the weakest memory," p. 876; i( of the most 

 impetuous and desultory imagination," p. 876 \ cc of judg- 



''■' Had I been previously acquainted with this iittle work, I might have 

 spoken in nunc iu praise of its utility, and a;-, such, recommended it to 

 ftfe pu 



merit 



