Dr. Thornton on Pneumatic Medicine. 47 



strained himself, or met with bruises or violent treatment, 

 it indicates the absorption oF coagulated blood. In putrid 

 fevers it announces the dissolution of humours ; it may also 

 indicate the suppression of hajmorrhoidcs, or the courses : 

 and in women in childbed, the suppression of the lochia. 



But supposing that a man who has been severely beaten 

 in some scuffle, or trampled under foot, attempts to heal 

 himself by domestic medicines alone, but still feels a con- 

 tinuance of pains in his back and body; and that, after 

 bathing the parts with wine, or using some similar remedy, 

 he finds to his great surprise, at the end of three or four 

 days, that his urine is black, — immediately he sends it to 

 his physician and asks what is his disorder, — as if the phy- 

 sician could know it by divination. If the physician is not 

 aware of the real cause of the disorder, he never will divine 

 that the patient has received blows, that his back is marked 

 with black and yellow spots, and that his body contains co- 

 agulated blood, of which a part, however, escapes into the 

 urine. 



'He will more likely say, if putrid fevers are then raging, 

 that the patient labours under that species of fever, and that 

 he will die soon ; or, perhaps, he will name some of the dis- 

 orders above mentioned as giving this blackness to the urine, 

 according as he finds more or less resemblance in the ap- 

 pearance of that fluid to the indications which we usually 

 expect from it of various disorders. 



IX. Twenty -sixth Communication from Dr. Thornton, 

 relatiw to Pneumatic Medicine, 



- To Mr. Tilloch. 



No. 1, Hinde-street; Mar»ch.e;,ter- 

 Dfc.VU SIK, square, Feb. 18, 1806'. 



XJavino saved the life of a first cousin, sir John Braith- 

 waile, (who by mistake took a two ounce phial of laudanum 

 for another draught,) by means of acids and the inhalation of 

 vita! air, I had confidence in this practice, and a few days 

 back tried it in a very decided case. 



A gen- 



