C 246 ] 



XLV. Tuenty- seventh Comminilcation from jD?. Thorn- 

 ton, relative to Pneumatic Medicine. 



To Mr. TiUoch. 



No. 1, Hinde-stieet, Manchester- 

 DEAR SIR, square, April 2, 1806. 



JL HE following cases of catalepsy and epilepsy are of con- 

 siderable iinporlance, and merit a place in voiir philosophic 

 journal. 



Case of Catahpsy cured hy Vital Air. 

 Miss Lavinia de Yrujo, tet. 10, lives at Mrs. Baylis^j 

 Brook Green House, Hanirncrsmith. She had a fit at three 

 years old : then her next attack was when five years old : 

 when eight, they would attack her two or three times a week. 

 She used to faint ; and her eyes became fixed, her finger^ 

 clenched, and all her limbs completely rigid ; the eyes would 

 remain wide open and fixed : this would continue a quarter 

 of an hqur. The last fit, before she applied to me, was in 

 October ] 804, when it came on at two and continued till 

 seven. Mr. Flower was sent for, who judiciously employed 

 the usual restoratives, and advised the young lady to be sent 

 home for further advice. She began the inhalation of a gal- 

 lon of vital air, dihited, once a day, wiih the usual tonic 

 remedies; and has not had a fit now, September 16, 1805, 

 a whole twelvemonth. She only took the vital air for three 

 weeks, and has not had any medicine, or the least occasion 

 for any, since. She is now before me, with her mother, 

 perfectly well ; and is returned to her school at Hammer^ 

 smith. The apothecary to the family, and severa^ other 

 medical gentlemen, had pronounced, to the mother and fa- 

 niily, this case as one that never would be cured by art, 

 Ohservatioiis on this Case Inj Dr. Thornton. 



1. These cases yield to the vital air when all other reme- 

 dies fail. The cause is, that the vital air give.s energy to the 

 nuiscles, and thence to the nerves, taking oft' inordinate ac- 

 tion from an undue balance of principles. 



2. And hence it is, that persons breathing much l;ad air 

 become, on the contrary, convulsed. I am, &c. 



Robert John Thorntox. 

 XLV I. Twenty.- 



