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XLIVi Nineteenth. Covimunicatmi from Dr, Thorntcn rc- 

 lative to Pneumatic Medicine. 



To Mr, Tilloch. 



Dec. 20, 1 804.1 

 No. T, Hindc- street, Manchester-square, 



Case of Defective Circulation. 



M.. 



ARY Stafford^ aged thirty, servant to Mrs. Mills, No. 

 1 6, Oueen Ann-street, west, was subject to have her fingcr^t 

 swelled in both hands, looking blue, and so Ptiffas to inca- 

 pacitate her from doing any kind of needle-work ; she could 

 not clench her hand, lliis disease, if" I mav so call it, oc- 

 curred every winter, and various external renicdies were used, 

 but still it remained always throughout the v> inter. This 

 lady having observed this affliction in her maid, a valuable 

 servant, for five years, the time she h.'^.s lived with her, Mrs. 

 Mills wished her to consult nie about the vital air. In conse- 

 quence, I advised the inhalation of the vital air, a gallon per 

 diem, diluted with three of atmospheric; and at the end of 

 a week, the swelling, blueness, and tension of the fingers, 

 went off, and she obtained the perfect use of her fingers, and 

 is able to do any kind of needle-work, even during this hard 

 frost ; a circumstance she cannot remember in any former 

 winter, and she ascribes the benefit reccis'cd from the inha- 

 lation of the vital air. 



Observations on this Caae. 



1. Mra. Wilkinson, whose remarkable cure I have recv^rded 

 in my Philosophy of Medicine, had whitlows frequently 

 during the time of her inhaling of vital air, and was never 

 subject to them before or since, wliich, together with the 

 present case, evinces that the blood, by tlie vital air, is? 

 powerfully determined from the heart to the extremities. 



2. Governor Pownall mentions, in a letter tome, that he 

 knew a manufacturer who was accustomed, once a day, to 

 give to his workmen, obliged to be confined in th(? vitiated 

 air of a crowded room, after work, dilirtctl vital air, and 

 thereby preserved them both in health and spirits. He 

 makes this query — Have we in nature a more useful cordiaf 

 than the vita! air? other con/ia/.v, as they are called, indirectly 

 accelerate the motion of the heart, this mediately, and 

 without injuring in the least the tone of the stomach. 



3. When inhaling th« i'//o/ a<> for other diseases, chil- 

 blains have ceased in winter to appear. 



XLV. Me- 



