^94 Account of Mr. Sfniib's Air-pump Vapour-bnth. 



the fame thins;, will not, from want of profeffional difcri- 

 mination, be liiffered to fink into obhvion. With this part 

 of the bufinefs, not being a medical man, I have nothing to 

 do : leaving it, therefore, in better hands, I fhall attempt, 

 I ft, Some account of its origin ; 2dly, What, a priori^ might 

 have been expected from it in a philofophical point of view j 

 and, laftlv, Such an explanation of its principles as, I hope, 

 may prove that it has a fair claim to its daily increafmg po- 

 pularity. 



ift. Mr. Smith, of Brighton, my father-in-law, from the 

 llory of king P^dward, at the crufades, having had the poifoil 

 of an arrow fucked from a wound by the mouth of his fair 

 queen, iong ago conceived the idea of this Apparatus. His 

 firit attempts at putting it in execution were rude, and almoft 

 laughable: but the great engine of his mind, on this as on 

 other occafions, rofe fuperior to all difficulties ; and at length 

 the acconipliftiment of his objeft rewarded his perfeverance ': 

 for what will not perfeverance achieve ! 



With every poffible refpeft for the faculty, thay we hot 

 here t»ke the liberty to exprefs our furprife that they fhould 

 have left this ext nfion of the powers of the cupping-glafs to 

 be di.'covered by an individual altogether unacquainted with 

 the principles of their fcience ? For the intelligent reader 

 will prefenlly be informed, that the Air-pump Vapour-bath 

 afts upon the fame principle as the cupping-glafs ; and, to 

 ufe the inventor's own words, " is neither more nor lefs 

 than a cupping-glafs on a large fcale." This defcription is 

 accurate as far as it goes ; but Mr. Smith did not at the time 

 take into account, that by means of his apparatus, fomenta- 

 tion can be applied, and its temperature regulated, with a 

 degree of certainty and accuracy which, I apprehend, were 

 never attained, or fo much as expected, before this happy 

 difcovery. For I think it requires little fagacity to obferve, 

 that in lomcnting with flannels the temperature can never be 

 for a minute equably preferved; but the limb muft be ex- 

 pofed to various degrees of heat and cold during the applica- 

 tion. 



adiy, To thofc of your readers who have vifited the tops of 

 high mountains, n ir, unneceflfary to defcribe the effefts of the 

 diminution of atmofpheric preifure. M. de SaufTure, who 

 has publiflied an intercfting account of his journey v\i Mount 

 Blanc, flates it moft forcibly. lie found that the mercury 

 in his barometer funk to i6 inches and a line (17*145 inches 

 Engli(li), and that the air had confcquently little more than 

 hair the prefllire of that on (he plains. In fuch fituations, the 

 ^rteries on the furface of the body, deprived of their accuf- 



^omed 



