268 Mr: R.Phillips onthe.) \\. (Ocr. 
_ Feb. 23.—No effect; ordered gr. xc immediately. In the 
evening; an hour after taking the 90 grains, he. vomited. three’ 
times a large quantity of green bile. 
He has not vomited: nor felt sick since. ’ 
. The. bowels have been relieved once in the course of the day. 
As the stomach had been excited, Dr. Elliotson was desirous of 
learning whether a smaller dose would now produce nausea or 
vorhiting, and he accordingly ordered the man gr. lx at bed time. 
Feb. 24.—No effect whatever. 
I. must. add that, the medicine! was procured for different 
patients from different shops, and that which was employed at 
St. Thomas’s Hospital was supplied by Mr. Battley, of Fore- 
street; and.some indeed was manufactured by him very care- 
fully on purpose. 
The facts which [ have now mentioned’ are completely at 
variance with the opinions entertained by physicians of the 
highest character; I need only mention Dr. Duncan, who ob- 
serves, “ the oxide of antimony with phosphate of lime, howso- 
ever prepared, is one of the best antimonials we possess. It is 
given as a diaphoretic in febrile diseases in doses of from three 
to eight grains repeated every third or fourth hour. In larger 
quantities, it operates as a purgative or emetic.” 
With this contradictory evidence in the subject, it appeared 
to me to be extremely desirable to examine more particularly into 
the nature of the oxide which enters into the composition of the 
antimonial powder.. For after the well established fact that 
peroxide of antimony is nearly or totally imert, it appears to me 
that if proof could be obtained that the oxide of antimony 
is in this state, the deficiency of power in the pulvis antimo- 
nialis would be accounted for, at least in the cases mentioned 
by Dr. Elliotson, and although particular instances might occur 
of its proving extremely active, that circumstance would, I con- 
ceive, show that the preparation is worse than useless, be- 
cause uncertain. 
The Philosophical Transactions for 1801 contain a paper by 
Mr. Chenevix on this substance; and he has judiciously ob- 
served, that “every oxide of antimony with which we are 
acquainted is volatile at a high degree of heat: it would, there- 
fore, be hazardous to,assert, that it is. possible to preserve always 
the same proportion of antimony, whatever care may be em- 
ployed in directing the operation ;, and a dissimilarity in the che- 
mical result must necessarily be attended with uncertainty in the 
medical application.” 
Dr. Pearson, who first analyzed James’s. Powder, of which the 
pulvis antimonialis is a professed imitation, appears to have con- 
sidered these compounds as a triple salt, or a.real ternary com- 
bination of phosphoric acid, lime, and oxide of antimony); 
whereas Mr, Chenevix considers the pulvis antimonialis as a 
mere mixture of the metallic oxide with the bone earth; for 
