Natural History. 233 



silum and the nitre, and the strength of the solution require to 

 be varied according to circumstances ; and, in order to tho- 

 roughly impregnate the anatomical preparation, the liquor 

 must for some time be occasionally renewed. The solution 

 possesses such antiseptic powers, that the most putrid and 

 offensive animal substances are rendered perfectly free from 

 foetor by it in a few days. — Med. Rep. xvii. p. 169. 



6. Use of Phosphoric Acid in Jaundice. — Dr. Caleb Miller has 

 in Silliman's Journal, stated the success he obtained in cases 

 of jaundice, by the use of phosphoric acid. His practice is to 

 give a cathartic of calomel and julip, or some of the neutral 

 salts, and then balm-tea moderately acidulated with the phos- 

 phoric acid, which is to be continued till it operates as a 

 diuretic, and until the urine becomes clear, or nearly so. One 

 patient had taken eight pints in twenty-four hours. In general 

 the yellowness disappears in three or four days from the urine, 

 and in a few days more from the skin. Dr. Miller has met 

 with biit one case, (a person eighty years of age), that had not 

 yielded to this treatment. 



7. Use of Sub-nitrate of Bismuth in Intermittent Fever. — Dr. 

 Henkesew, a physician at Hildesheim, has been in the habit of 

 prescribing this remedy in agues, for several years. He con- 

 siders it to be a powerful febrifuge and anti-spasmodic. He 

 exhibits this salt in the dose of four grains, with a few grains 

 of sugar every two hours. 



8. Height of the Mountains in Owhyec and Mowee. — Captain 

 Kotzebue found the height of these enormous masses to be as 

 follows : 



Island of Owhyee — Merino Roa . . 2482.4 toises. 



Merino Kaah . 2180.1 



Merino Wororai 1687.1 . 



Island of Mowee — Highest peak . 1669.1 



9. On the Existence of Mercury in the waters of the Ocean. 

 By M. Proust. — 1. Hilaire Rouiille remarked, a long while 

 ago, that whenever he purified the crude salt of the custom- 

 house in silver basins, they became covered here and there with 

 those spots which are particular to mercury. 



2. The same salt, decomposed by sulphuric acid, always 

 gave, in the top of the retorts, small quantities of a sublimate 

 decidedly mercurial. 



3. The fact generally known of whitening yellow metals, by 

 putting them for some time into crude or rough salt, added to the 

 preceding results, determined Rouelle to announce that there 

 was no doubt of the existence of mercui-y in marine salt. 



Vol. XIH. R 



