128 RINDEIIPEST. 



But further to establish this deduction by facts, the Pro- 

 fessor next selected two dogs of equal size and weight, and 

 in perfect health; fed and treated them alike for four or 

 five days, except that to one was administered a certain 

 quantity of the bi-sulphite of soda. Some very foetid pus 

 obtained from an ill-conditioned ulcer was then injected into 

 the femoral veins of each dog (about a drachm to each), the 

 experiment being repeated on the next day. After the first 

 operation, both laid down, refused food, and remained pros- 

 trated for twenty-four hours. The effect of the second injec- 

 tion was more marked. They were seized with stupor, their 

 pulses were rapid and feeble, and their respiration greatly 

 accelerated ; when made to rise they tottered and reeled 

 across the room. The one to whom the bi-sulphite had 

 not been given grew worse, his wound in the thigh became 

 gangrenous, and in ten days he died with all the symptoms 

 of typhus ; while by that time the other, receiving his daily 

 dose, and having regained in four days his appetite, was 

 entirely well. 



Like experiments have been conducted in a vast number 

 of cases by the Professor and his compeer, Dr. De Eicci ; 

 sanious matter from ill-conditioned and phagedenic sores, — 

 defibrinated blood exposed to the air until it has become 

 putrid — the discharge from the nostrils of glandered horses — 

 have been employed, and in all cases proved fatal without — 

 and wholly innocuous with — the concomitant use of the sul- 

 phites. Conversely De Ricci has exhibited the bi-sulphite in 

 an alarming case of septicaemia, produced by a lady's kissing 

 the lips and face of a dear friend who had died very suddenly ; 

 giving nearly twenty grains of the bi-sulphite in infusion of 

 quassia, &c., every half hour at first, and then every hour ; 

 and with the most perfect success. Since that time the use of 

 the sulphites has been extended to cases of scarlatina ; mea- 

 sles ; phlebitis, originating from the stinging of the back of 

 the hand by the spines of a cactus ; the malignant epidemics 

 of the Northern Coast of Africa ; puerperal fevers, &c.* 



 Dublin Quart. Journal, August, 1864; Glaogow Medical Journal, October, 1886. 



