18l7i] Report of Chemistxj/i Natural PhiUsophy, S(C, 551 



cases of creat severity have been perfectly recovered by brisk calomel and antiraonial 

 purges, in conjunctiou with the extract of wild lettuce; the latter, in a dose of about 

 five grains, three times a-day, was generally administered to a child of three years. 

 This plan of treatment will be found more generally snccessfiil than any other in use. 



Measles have been severe. In seasons of moderate temperature, where the 

 patient can be, and is, taken into the open air, they are generally milder: on 

 the contrary, when the weather is intensely cold, large tives are kept, and the patients 

 are brought near to them, which never fails to aggravate the disease. Tiie period has 

 at length arrived when the prejudices on this subject begin to be dispelled, and the 

 cool treatment of measles promises to be as universal as that of sniall-pox. Any person 

 of good sense who will take the pains to examine, will lind that the inflammatory symp- 

 toms will be encreased in proportion to the heat in which the patient is kept, and 

 vies versa. John Want, 



11, North Crescent, Bedford-square. Late Surgeon to the Northern Uispensarj. 



REPORT OF CHEMISTRY, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, &c. 



MR. G. O. SvM, as the result of some very ingenious experiments with wire-gan« 

 on llame, has determined that all flame is a hollow tihn, or elliptical bubble, 

 the surface of which is formed in the part all round, where the volatilised vapour 

 unites with the pabidnm or oxygen of the atmosphere. 



MM. Geyser, of the canton of Berne, and now residing at La Chaux de-Fonds, 

 have exhibited to the Genevese Society for the Advancement of the Arts, a wheel whicli 

 seems to turn of itself, and of which the most skilful artists cannot discover tlie moving 

 principle, which the artists keep a secret. The society admire the execution of the 

 machine. Probably it is on a principle already announced in this Magazine, and in 

 IJIair's Grammar of Philosophy, which applies, as a moving power, the elasticity of the 

 atmospheric air to an exhausted cavity, which, by the unifurm pressure, is made to turn 

 out of the centre of the mass. 



Dr. Roche has published a simple metiiod of rendering rape oil equal to spermaceti 

 oil, for the purposes of illumination. He began by washing the oil with spring water; 

 which is effected by agitating the oil violently with a sixth part of the water. Tliis se- 

 parates the particles of the oil, and commixes those of the water intimately with them. 

 After this operation, it looks like tlie yolks of eggs beat up. — In less than forty-eiglit 

 hours they separate completely, the oil swimming at top, the water with all feculent and 

 extraneous particles subsiding at the bottom. He improved mucli on this, by .substi- 

 tuting sea-water in the i)lacu of fresh water. He tried whether fresh water," imp retr* 

 nated with salt, may not do as well as sea-water ; but found the light not so bright, aird 

 of a reddish cast. The oil which he has washed is rape-oil, for which he is charged 

 4s. 4d. a gallon : it gives no bad smell, and, when burning close to the spermaceti oil, is 

 not to be distin.uuishcd from it." 



A spring has been discovered near the little town of Knsow, in the circle of Lublin 

 which belonged to the late Polish minister of state, Count Polocki; the waters may be 

 compared to tliose of Pyrmont. This discovery is of importance to Poland, as there 

 art: but two mineral springs hitherto known in the kingdom, viz. at Kizeszowrie and 

 at Nalanczew ; the tirst is sulphurous, and the latter chalybeate. 



M. Orfil\ has proved, t. That the vegetable acids constantly hasten death, when 

 they exist in the stomach along with the narcotic, which is owing to the acids foraiin" 

 the solution of the poison, and consequently its absorption. 



2. That acidulated water was very useful in combating the effects of narcotics, when 

 they had been previously rejected by vomiting; thus animals, which would have died in- 

 fallibly at the end of an hour, were saved by administering to them, night and day, fi r 

 twenty-four or thirty-six hours, several doses of water soured by a little vinegar ; thos-c 

 which were nearly revived by the end of the day, and which had been neglected duriu<' 

 the night, died for vvant of assistance. 



3. That a strong int'usion of coffee is an antidote to the effects of poison by means of 

 narcotics, and the animals to which it was administered night and day recovered. 



4. That the decoctijui of coffee is much less energetic than the infusion. 



a, Tliat camphor is not the counter-j)oison to narcotics, but that it may be adminis- 

 tered in small dose to diminish their efi'ects. 



6^ That water and mucilaginous preparations, so far from being useful, hasten thc'ap- 

 proaeh of deatji, because tliry favour the absorption of tlie poison. 



7. That bleeding was never injurious, and tliat it was fVeqiiently sufficient to ope- 

 rate the revival of plethoric animals, which wonid nevertheless have died two or three 

 days afterwards, if tlicy had not been attended to; and lastly, that it is best always to 

 open, the jiisniar vein. 



K. 'Xkiii chloryu: acts nearly like the vegetaUle acids. 



