292  Obfervations on the internal Ufe of Pho/phorus. 
~ 4. In malignant fevers the ufé of phofphorus internally, 
to check the progrefs of gangrene, has fucceeded beyond 
‘expectation. Theauthor relates feveral inftances. 
5. Pelletier told him, that having left, through negli- 
gence, fome phofphorus in a copper bafon, that metal was 
oxydated, and remained fufpended in the water. Having | 
thoughtlefsly thrown out the water in a {mall court in which 
ducks were kept, thefe animals drank of it, and all died. 
Mais le male, fays the author, couvrit toutes fes femelles 
jufque au dernier inftant de fa vie. An obfervation which 
accords with the effect experienced by the author. 
6. The author relates a fact which proves the aftonifhing 
divifibility of phofphorus. Having adminiftered to a patient 
fome pills, in the compofition of which there was not more 
than a quarter of a grain of phofphorus, and havmg had oc- 
cafion afterwards to open the body, he found all the internal 
parts luminous; and even the hands of the perfon who had 
performed the operation, though wafhed and well dried, re- 
tained a phofphoric fplendor for a long time after. 
4. The phofphoric acid, employed as lemonade, has beers 
ferviceable to the author in the cure of a great number of 
difeafes. 
8. Leroi affures us that he oxydated iron with phofpho- 
rus, and obtained, by the common means, a white oxyd, 
almoft irreducible, which he thinks may be employed with 
advantage in the arts, and particularly in painting with 
oil, and in enamel, inftead of the white oxyd of lead. This 
white oxyd of iron occafioned violent retchings to the au- 
thor, who ventured to place a very {mall particle of it on his 
tongue. He does not hefitate, therefore, to confider this 
oxyd as a terrible poifon. He was not able to reduce it, 
but by fixed alkali and the glafs of phofphorus. 
g. The author afferts that by means of phofphorus he de- . 
compofed and feparated from their bafes the fulphuric, mu- 
riatic and nitric acids; that by help of the phofphoric acid 
he 
