DISEASES CLASS II. 1. 3. 18. 



sons containing acid, as sublimate of mercury or arsenic; or if 

 it be otherwise inflamed, or very sensible to the stimulus of the 

 gastric acid; or where it abounds with acid of any kind, as in 

 cardialgia; the exhibition of soap is perhaps a preferable manner 

 of giving alkali than any other, as it decomposes in the stomach 

 without effervescence; while the caustic alkali is too acrid to be 

 administered in such cases, and the mild alkali produces carbonic 

 gas. If a drop of acid of vitriol be put on cap-paper, it will be 

 long before it destroys the paper; but if a drop of mild alkali be 

 added, a sudden effervescence arises, and the paper is instantly 

 destroyed by the escape of the fixed air; in the same manner as 

 lumps of solid lime are broken into powder by the escape of the 

 steam produced from the water, which is poured on them. This 

 shews why a succession of acid and of alkaline caustics sooner 

 destroys a part, than either of them applied separately. 



18. Dysenteria. Bloody-flux is attended with sensitive fever, 

 generally with arterial debility; with frequent mucous or bloody 

 stools, which contain contagious matter produced by the mem- 

 branes of the intestines; the alimentary excrement being never- 

 theless retained; with griping pains, and tenesmus. 



Linnaeus observed microscopic animals in the stools of dysen- 

 teric patients, and concluded from thence that they were the 

 cause of the disease; in the same manner the animalcula, seen 

 by microscopes, in the pustules of the itch, have been supposed 

 to be the cause of those eruptions. See Article IV. 2. 1. 3. 

 These animalcula are nevertheless seen in almost all animal 

 fluids which have for a time stagnated; as in the semen, and in 

 all liquid evacuations from the intestines, as asserted by Buffon; 

 who esteems them to be organized beings, though not perfect 

 animals, in his ingenious treatise on generation. Histoire Na- 

 turelle. 



M. M. Emetics. Antimdnials. Peruvian bark. Opium and 

 calomel, of each a grain every night. Bolus armeniae. Earth of 

 alum. Chalk. Calcined hartshorn. Mucilage. Bees' wax 

 mixed with yolk of egg. Cerated glass of antimony. Warm 

 bath. Flannel clothing next to the skin. Large clysters with 

 opium. With ipecacuanha, with smoke of tobacco? Two dy- 

 senteric patients in the same ward, of the infirmary at Edinburgh, 

 quarrelled, and whipped each other with horsewhips a long time, 

 and were both much better after it, owing perhaps to the exertion 

 of so much of the sensorial power of volition; which, like real 

 insanity, added excitement to the whole system. 



The prevention of this contagion must consist principally in 

 ventilation and cleanliness; hence the patients should be re- 

 moved into cottages distant from each other, or into tents; and 



