Utility of Oxygeiiated Muriatie Add in Scarlet Fever. 1 27 



tion, if to the left, must be sulitracted, if to the right, added : 

 thus 4' 13" in the example just y;iven bein^ to the rio'ht, 

 e added. 

 Many more, and perhaps useful observatioas, might be" 

 given, and a mode of setting both glasses perpendicular to 

 the plane of the instrument by the use of the above appa- 

 riftus ; but I fear I have already exceeded the limits allowed 

 to communications in a monthlv publication, and shall 

 therefore add no more — except to say, it will give me much 

 pleasure to find the present communication considered as 

 useful. 



February, 14, 1804. 



XlX. On the Utility of ike Oxygenated JMnriatic Acid in 

 the Cure of Scarlet Fever ; ivitli an easy Mode of pre- 

 paring it for Medical Purposes. By Mr. John Ayrey 

 Brathwaite, Member of the Royal College of Sur- 

 geons in London, and Surgeon to the Lancaster Di- 

 spensary *. 



XIaving frequently experienced the inefficacy of the com- 

 mon mode of medical practice in the Scarlatina angiuosa, 

 I have been induced to make some inquiries into the nature, 

 cause, and treatment of that disease, which has been pre- 

 valent in this town and neighbourhood for three years last 

 past. The result of my observations has been the disco- 

 very of a remedy in this disease, which is as much entitled 

 to mfallibility, as mercury in the lues, or bark in the ague : 

 it is easily prepared, by any apothecary, of materials with 

 which his shop is, or ought to be, always supplied ; and re- 

 quires no complex pharmaceutical apparatus with which 

 those unAccustomed to practical chemistry arc often liable, 

 even from proper materials, to prejiare chemical prepara- 

 tions totally d;f?'erent in their properties fron^ tliosc in- 

 tended. .J * 



As I have no doubt but the contagion of the scarlet fever 

 produces an extraordinary degree of disoxygenalion of the 

 system, with great debility, and exhaustion of the sensorial 

 power; I was led to suppose that oxygen, exhibited in some 

 easy and pleasant manner, might not only destroy the con- 

 tagious matter adhering to the tonsils, uvula, &c., Ijut, by 

 penetrating the line moist membrane of the lungs, and by 

 chemical atlraelion uniting with the blood, excite the action 



' Communicated by tlic Author. 



of 



