64 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [July, 



brity from the perfection to which he carried that species of 

 workmanship, left two years ago a sum of money to the Aca- . 

 demy, to be given to the person who should discover the means 

 of preserving gilders on bronze from the deleterious effect of the 

 vapours of quicksilver, which causes nearly all of them to die 

 very soon after dreadful sufferings. 



This prize has been gained by M. Darcet, who has not only 

 given a complete solution of M. Ravrio's problem, but also 

 inserted in his essay, so many useful schemes for rendering the 

 different operations occurring in the art of gilding, easier, more 

 efficacious, and less unwholesome, that his work is become a 

 complete treatise on that art, which is at present so important 

 to France. 



The method invented by M. Darcet consists in an auxiliary 

 furnace, from whence a tube passes into the gilder's chimney, 

 and thus produces such an ascending current of air that no por- 

 tion of the quicksilver can fail of being drawn up by it ; and 

 also in adapting to the chimney another pipe, which is bent into 

 a vessel filled with water, where the greatest part of the quick- 

 silver that was evaporated is collected for future use. 



Another important change made by M. Darcet is the substi- 

 tution of nitrate of quicksilver instead of nitric acid, in the ope- 

 ration of cleansing the work, which operation is very injurious 

 to the lungs of the workmen, when it. is made with pure acid. 



The processes that M. Darcet introduced a long time ago into 

 the mint have been adopted in several water-gilders' workshops, 

 and the Prefect of Police no longer allows any water-gilder 

 to set up in business, or to remove his workshop, unless he 

 arranges his shop so as to employ these processes. 



Cupping glasses are instruments in the form of a bell, which 

 are fastened to the skin by a vacuum being made in them either 

 by heat, or by a piston ; the weight of the atmosphere acts on 

 all the surface of the body, except at the place where the cupping 

 glass is applied, which of course produces an elevation of the 

 skin, and a swelling of the blood-vessels and lymphatics at those 

 places, rendering them red and purple, and exciting there a 

 strong sensation of heat. Scarifications made either before or 

 after the application of the cupping glasses draw out part of the 

 blood and lymph which are thus accumulated on the spot. The 

 adjacent parts, and those below them, are thus freed from the 

 fluids that cause the sweUing, and retract afterwards, in conse- , 

 quence of the external dilatation. 



This mode of cure, much used by the antients, and still 

 frequently employed in Germany and some other countries, is 

 rather neglected in France. 



M. Gondret, whose remarkable observations on the use of 

 fire in medical practice has been already noticed by us, has 

 also occupied himself with cupping glasses. He has found 

 that the effect they produce is frequently far superior to what 



