1*4 Tenth Communication from Dr. Thornton* 



3. That the superoxygenated air is not an inert powei', is 

 ahovvn bv its producing in an overdose, in a weak habit, a 

 dreadtul convulsive fit; wliich was not the case when em- 

 ployed afterwards in a less proportion. I have before re- 

 corded the case of a lady subject to epileptic fits, which had 

 ceased six months, and which recurred innncdiately upon 

 the inhalation of the superoxygenated air (vide my Philo- 

 sophy of Medicine, case xi. page 475) ; also a very wonder- 

 ful case as recorded by the ingenious and indefatigable Dr. 

 Bcddoes, (vide Philosophy of Medicine, case x. p. 474.*) 



4. The proportion being diminished, the same good arose 

 as before ; which shows that this remedy requires some 



judgment in its exhibition. 



3. That the air absorbed by the blood in the lungs influences 

 appetUe and digestion, is known by such who expose them- 

 selves to the sea air, the air of mountains, or even the. air 

 of a field ; which usually creates an appetite. 



6. That such,, but in a superior degree, is the effect of a 

 superoxygenated air, is a general remark. Mrs. Lowry, 

 wife to a well-known eminent engraver employed in your 

 magazine, a ladv endowed with a most excellent under- 

 standing, recollects what others have told her; and from her 

 journal I can collect, that upon inhaling the superoxyge- 

 nated 



■' Mr. Dav)', lecturer on chemistrv at the Royal Institution, certainly 

 .one o( the most enlightened philosophers of Europe, found, afier bieath- 

 ing the pure oxygen or vital air, that his respiration btca.me'/alioiiot/s, 

 ■and his pulse bati/er, — " i.flects as ihougli a less quantity of oxygen was ab- 

 sorbed by the blnod" (see Researches Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly 

 concerning Nitrous Oxide, p. 475"' : but this could not be the fact, for the 

 followii)g reasons : In given proportions of common and vital air, an ani- 

 mal will live four times longer in the latter than in the former; and so 

 increased are the actions of life, that in animals made to breathe the pure 

 vital air, the liver after death will be found so fir oxygenated as to lose 

 its liver-colour, and appear llorid ; marks of inflammation will every 

 ivhere be discoverable, and t'le death produced on the animal will arise 

 from an excess of life. That the absorption of oxygen is greater than 

 when breathing common atmospheric air, is shov n from the following 

 accurate experiments by my late iiigenious friend Dr. Ingcnhousz: 



Thirty cubic inches of vital air was put into a dry bladder, and all 

 drawn into the lungs, and ejected, and so employed for several timei. 

 The result was. 

 The proof of vital air was o-yS, 0-48, ("a^ a'^ «'2 t;^ = 



After the nrst inhalation, O'So, o"6o, i'6o bjc'q'"' « £ "= ^ o^ ™ '-i^ 

 After being br.eathed a second time,< -o j, 2 . ■- c g "^ g 



0-75. I 16. 2"I5 - - - - _2 i^^l "'"^ S-i £ >% 



After the third time, o-Si"), i*86 - ^ -g -^ •£. " ^- -.^ o -^ 114. 



After the fotirth time, 1-21 - - L mS = ^ "S ^H -I "o 79 



The 



