[ 25 1 



III. Twenty-second Communication from Dr. Thobntom 



relative to Fneumatic 3ledicijie. 



To Mr. Titloch. 

 Case of Consumption cured ly Hydro-azotic Gas. 



June 18, 1805, 

 _. No. 1, Hinde-street, Manchester-square. 



John Hughes, set. 18, helper to Mr. Cozens, livery stable 

 keeper, City Arms, LoaJon-street, had all the marked 

 symptoms of a decline. He had a very bad cough ; used 

 in 124 hours to spit up near half a pint of discoloured mat- 

 ter ; had colliquative sweats ; hectic fever; great debility: 

 appetite good, and yet reduced in flesh to a mere shadow. 

 These stronc: criterions ot consunip'ion had been progres- 

 sively increasing for more than half a year, when he applied 

 to me for advice. I pursued in this case tlic same plan as 

 had saved Mr. Gregory, of Berners-street *, viz. the in- 

 halation of hydro-azotic gas, with tonic medicines; and in 

 two months all these alarming symptoms vanished, and the 

 lad was restored to health. 



Ol'servations on this Case ly Dr. Thornton. 



1. Consuniption is deemed a fatal disease ; and the prac- 

 tice universally pursued in England has rendered it, I be- 

 lieve, still more destructive. 



2. in Dr. Rush's works, the able professor of Medicine 

 in Philadelphia, the best plan of treatment is laid down. 



3. Bark (at wHich our practitioners are so alarmed) is re- 

 commended, with other tonic medicines. 



4. Consumption must be considered either as a dcfluxion 

 of the lungs, or as an abscess, or ulceration thereof. 



5. If a^defluxion, as in other gleets, bark is advisable: 

 if ulceration, the treatment of the constitution should be as 

 in other wounds. — Bark is there universally reconmiended. 



6. Dr. Hush has recorded some eases where persons shot 

 through the lungs have recovered. Captain Christie, of 

 Liverpool, latclv applied to me for advice. In a sharp en- 

 gaa;ement with the French, a ball entered the sternum, and 

 loJged under thi. scapula. The wound in the lungs healed, 

 and he felt ailerwards only debility from the great loss of 

 blood sustained. 



7. The obj(;f;tion against bark, myrrh, and wine, is the 

 rough. Colds are, I confess, aggravated by such treatment, 



• Thii cure is recorded in Number Z;< of our Magazine, p. 05- 



7. The 



