72 Thirteenth Commtm'ication from Dr. Thornton', 



and suffer the voung lady to expire in cjuiet : and the reluc- 

 tant parent having retired, on a sudden he roused iVom his 

 despair, and said, '• he would set oll'lbr Dr. Thornton di- 

 rectly in a chaise, to try what the vital air could accom- 

 plish." The chance of her dying hei'orc he cor.ld arrive 

 was urged ; but Mr. Corp was bent upon it, and he came 

 in violent haste to me. 1 v. as out: but he soon I'ollowcd 

 hiDiicit where I was gone, and found me. I made no delay 

 to prepare iho apparatus: a oailoon of silk with a pipe lor 

 the inseitic/ii and emission of the air, a SlUows to inflate it, 

 and son)e tin vessels filled with the oxygen gas. The 

 horses were oood, the roads fine, and tlie boy made willing ; 

 and soon I rei-ched the house of sickness and despair. She 

 was yet alive, and that was all. The. mother requested " I 

 would attempt nothing that would add a pang lo her last 

 moments." The nurse, v.ho pretended to be very knowing, 

 gaid " tliat my being lirought down was a licinous sin ; and 

 if Mi-?s Corp was her child 1 should not b ; allowed even to 

 see her." Such obstruction we arc prepared to meet ; and 

 ordering all out who were in the room, except her friend Mrs. 

 Smith, vvhowas weeping by her bed-side, 1 filled my balloon 

 with .early equal part^ of vital and atmospheric air, and by 

 closing the mouth and one nostril, and inserting the tube 

 into the other, and pressing up the superoxygenated air, 

 wa:chiu"- the times of inspiration, suffering the expiration 

 to be free, this most reviving of all cordials reanimated an 

 almost sunk frame ; the subsultus ceased ; the eyes became 

 more ihcmselvcs ; the pulse diminished in velocity, and 

 increased in vigour ; and when I spoke to her, as did Mrs. 

 Smith, after the inhalation, she appeared to understand, 

 took down a glass of wine, was revived ; morj;j air was i'n- 

 haled, and I quitted the room to tell Mr. Corp of th<: 

 effects, and for him to give her her former medicines, which 

 she raUonallv received and swallowed. Ha^•ing exhausted 

 my air, and written my directions for the night, I remained 

 at Mr. Corp's, and in the morning left his house to come 

 to town to obtain a fresh supply of air, and see my other 

 patients. Upon my return back, towards evening, the 

 same srood from the oxvgenated air resulted as before, and 

 I pronounced " that mv patient would now in all human 

 probability recover." These visits being daily renewed, I 

 had the felicity to restore to her most tender parents, to her 

 friends, and the community, to which, by uncommon 

 virtues and accomplishments, she had rendered herself 

 eminently dear, a young lady whoni J do not hesitate to 



pronounce 



