CLASS I. 2. 3. 21, OF IRRITATION. 97 



it is, that they chiefly drink the water of the Derwent, which 

 arises in a mountainous country, and is very frequently blacken- 

 ed as it passes through the morasses near its source; and is gen- 

 erally of a darker colour, and attended with a whiter foam, than 

 the Trent, into which it falls; the greater quantity and white- 

 ness of its froth I suppose may be owing to the viscidity com- 

 municated to it by the colouring matter. The lower parts of 

 the town of Derby might be easily supplied with spring water 

 from St. Alkmond's well; or the whole of it from the abun- 

 dant springs near Bowbridge; the water from which might be 

 conveyed to town in hollow bricks, or clay-pipes, at no very 

 great expcnce, and might be received into frequent reservoirs 

 with pumps to them; or laid into the houses. 



M. M. Twenty grains of burnt sponge with ten of nitre made 

 with mucilage into lozenges, and permitted to dissolve slowly un- 

 der the tongue twice a day, is asserle*! to cure in a few months; 

 perhaps other animal charcoal, as candle-snuffs, might do the 

 same. 



I have directed in the early state of this disease a mixture of 

 common salt and water to be held in the mouth, particularly 

 under the tongue, for a few minutes, four or six times a day for 

 many w r eeks, which has sometimes succeeded; the salt and water 

 is then spit out again, or in part swallowed. Externally vinegar 

 of squills has been applied, or a mercurial plaster, or fomentations 

 of acetated ammoniac; or other. Some empyrics have applied 

 caustics on the bronchocele, and sometimes, I have been told, 

 with success; which should certainly be used where there is 

 danger of suffocation from the bulk of it. One case I saw, and 

 one I was well informed of, where the bronchocele was cured by 

 burnt sponge, and a hectic fever supervened with colliquative 

 sweats; but I do not know the final event of either of them. 



De Haen affirms the cure of bronchocele to be effected by 

 flowers of zinc, calcined egg-shells, and scarlet-cloth burnt to- 

 gether in a close crucible, which was tried with success, as he 

 assured me, by a late lamented physician, my friend, Dr. Small 

 of Birmingham; who to the cultivation of modern sciences add- 

 ed the integrity of ancient manners; who in clearness of head, 

 and benevolence of heart, had few equals, perhaps no superiors. 



21. Scrofulus. King's evil is known by tumours of the lym- 

 phatic glands, particularly of the neck. The upper lip, and di- 

 vision of the nostrils are swelled, with a florid countenance, a 

 smooth skin, and a tumid abdomen. Cullen. The absorbed 

 fluids in their course to the veins in the scrofula are arrested in the 

 lymphatic or conglobate glands; which swell, and after a great 

 length of time, inflame and suppurate. Materials of a peculiar 



VOL, ii. Q 



