Dr. Mitchill’s Obfervations én Pot-Afb. 147 
The feptite of pot-ath has been denominated a falt of many 
excellent qualities, a fal polychrefius; and a great phyficiant 
once wiflied, for the good of his profeffion, there could be 
found ove other temedy fo certain and fteady in curing dif- 
| eafes as nitre. It has likewife been termed an antiphlogi/lic 
| femedy, good for all manner of inflammatory difeafes with 
 phlogiftic denfity of the blood; poffefling fine attenuating 
| powers, being in nowife acrimonious; and happily calcu- 
’ lated to withftand a putrefcent flate of the body. It has fur- 
| ther been calied a refrigerant, a diuretic, and a carminatives 
Such are fome of the fuperlative effects afcribed to this 
ni compound of the acid of peftilence and pot-afh: and for 4 
| tonfiderable time after I became acquainted with the mif- 
 thievous effects, wrought occafionally by the naked feptic 
' therefore did not appear to me improbable that the charac- 
| ter of the compound of the two might, as in a multitude of 
other cafes, be exceedingly different from that of either the 
» conftrtuent acid or alkali. 
But latterly I have been inclined to the opinion, that pot- 
, afh is capable of combination with oxygenated feptom in dif- 
_ ferent degrees ; that is to fay, fepton, before combining with 
the alkali, may have been united to more or /e/s of oxygen 3 
[fe and alfo fepton, im any of its degrees of oxygenation, may 
| be united with pot-afh in different proportions: in other 
words, the acid may vary in its /trengtb, ‘and likewife, ort 
pe every degree of firength, may be united to the alkali zn va- 
| rious proportion: The nitrum nitratum, defcribed by the older 
a chemifts, ig arr example of pot-ath _/uper-faturated with nitric 
acid, and, ftrange to tell! has beem extolled for its adyan- 
fageous operation in ardent fevers, accompanied with thirft 
and with a dry and foul tongue. I have ftrong reafon to 
~ think that there is a difproportion between the acid and al- 
f li in other forms of nitre; as I have known litmyus-paper 
_ to be turned repeatedly reddith by a watery folution of falt- 
os petre, the refidue of a quantity which was fwallowed by 
os, U2 miftake, 
7 
¢ 
