1816.) Royal Society. 459 
In a former paper Sir Everard endeavoured to prove, first, that 
this medicine can be received into the circulation without perma- 
nent injury; and, secondly, that its beneficial effects on gout are 
produced through that medium. He judges of the influence of the 
medicine from its effect on the pulse, which is diminished 10 or 20 
beats per minute in about 12 hours after it is taken. As this effect 
is produced when the same medicine is injected into a vein, he 
draws as a consequence that in the former case the diminution of 
celerity is owing to its arrival into the circulation, and not upon the 
state of the stomach. He was afterwards induced to try whether 
the effects of a larger quantity injected into the veins would also 
correspond with those of an over dose taken into the stomach. 160 
drops of the infusion of colchicum were injected into the vein of a 
dog. He lost all power of motion, the breathing became slow, and 
the pulse hardly felt. At first it became slower, afterwards was 
accelerated. ‘The animal was purged and vomited, and in five hours 
died. ‘The stomach and intestines were found inflamed. 
On Thursday, May 2, there was read a case of complete aphonia, 
cured by the medical application of the electric fluid by Augustus 
Sayer, M.D. The subject of this case was a young man who from 
his infancy had some difficulty of articulation, arising apparently 
from the size of his tongue. Being an officer in the French service, 
and exposed to the fire from a Prussian battery, a cannot shot, 
which killed two men near him, stunned him also, so that he fell at 
the same time with them. He remained for some time in convul- 
sions, with a very laborious respiration ; but, when examined, had 
no wound. Next morning he began to be sensible, but had no re- 
collection of what had passed. Vision remained unimpaired. The 
sense of smell was preternaturally acute; but his hearing was 
nearly, and his taste entirely, destroyed. The motion of the tongue 
was so very imperfect that he had lost all power of articulation, and 
was scarcely able even to swallow. The sense of feeling was also 
affected throughout the whole of the left side. Spirituous liquors 
and coffee (especially) put his body in the most violent agitation, 
and even the smell of coffee had a very great effect on him. 
Various nervous medicines and the warm bath were tried to no 
purpose; so that, after being carried from town to town, during 
the five following months of the campaign, he was invalided, and 
returned to his friends at Brussels. Here electricity was recom- 
mended, and tried first as an aura, then in sparks, and at last in 
shocks. The effect of the third shock was so severe that he was 
with difficulty prevailed upon to endure any more. On the seventh, 
his tongue was suddenly set free, as if a cord had snapped asunder, 
and he recovered his speech, and was as well as before the accident. 
At the same meeting a paper by Dr. Wollaston on the cutting 
diamond was read. Having never met with any satisfactory ac- 
count of this property of the diamond, Dr. Wollaston endea- 
youred ta determine how it acts by experiment. The diamonds 
ehoyen for this purpose are naturally crystallized with curved sur- 
2a2 
