of Prjlilential Fluids. 135 



•ompofition hvfcpilc acid, if it exifled in the intoftines ; and 

 that really, bcfides their cathartic efleft, they poflcfled a 

 power, derived from their alkaline bafes, to neutralize that 

 mifchievous and tormenting liquid. From this principle 

 Dr. Mitchill iuveitigated a theory of the modus operandi 

 of thele numerous and important articles of the Materia 

 Mkdica. 



Frequent inftances afterwards evinced the juflnefs of this 

 interpretation; for in the New-York Hofpital, as well as in 

 private pradice, he found watery folutions of the carbonates 

 of pot-aOi and foda to be moft excellent anti-dyfenteric re- 

 medies, arid valuable prefcriptions in the cholera infantum. 

 The adminiftration of the carbonate of foda in chjlcrs, to 

 allay tenefmus, was fuggcfted to Dr. Mitchill by Dr. Lent, 

 then apothecary of the houfe, and found, on repeated 

 trials, to be a valuable remedy. Dr. Saltonllall has treated 

 of the application of this principle to explain yellow fever, 

 and Dr. Bay to elucidate dyfenter>', in their feveral inau- 

 gural dillertations publillied in Columbia College. 

 " After being called to the Profefibrfliip of Chcmiftry, Na- 

 tural Hiaory,'' and Agriculture, in that feminary, Dr. Mit- 

 chill delivered thefe doclrincs publicly in his annual courfe 

 of Icaures. 'J he dllVertations juft mentioned iliew with 

 what zeal and fuccefs they were difcuflcd and applied by his 

 hearers. And a circumftance worthy of notice rcfpcding 

 bolh the gentlemen laft named, is, that they witnclTcd and 

 lived through the plagues they have defcribed. 



A general inference from all the phenomena was, that 

 thefe miafmata or contagions, in all their forms herein con- 

 templated, were violent stimulants, as Brown had ori- 

 ginally conjecfured. 



But the application of this doarinc to agriculturk 

 was not much lefs interefiing than its relation to Medi- 

 cine. Dr. Mitchill was born i'l the paridi of Mempfiead, in 

 Queen's County, liib Hither was a landholder, und culti- 

 K 4 ^at^^i 



