DISEASES CLASS II. 1. 6. 7; 



of metallic ealxes, and the medicines of the article Sorbentia^ 

 such as cerussa and the bark in fine powder, see Class I. 2. 3. 21. 

 and are generally healed in a short time by these means. Induced 

 by these observations, I wished to try the external application of 

 such powders to ulcers in the lungs, and constructed a box with 

 a circulating brush in it. Into this box two ounces of fine powder 

 of Peruvian bark were put, and two drachms of cerussa in fine 

 powder; on whirling the central brush, part of this was raised in- 

 to a cloud of powder, and the patient, applying his mouth to one 

 of the tin pipes rising out of the box, inhaled this powder twice a 

 day into his lungs. I observed it did not produce any cough or 

 uneasiness. This patient was in the last stage of consumption, 

 and was soon tired of the experiment, nor have I had such patients 

 as I wished for the repetition of it. Perhaps a fine powder of 

 manganese, or of the flowers of zinc, or of lapis calaminaris, 

 might be thus applied to ulcers of the lungs with greater advan- 

 tage? Perhaps air impregnated with flowers of zinc in their most 

 comminuted state, might be a better way of applying this powder 

 to the lungs, as discovered by Mr. Watt. See Dr. Beddoes on 

 Pneumatic Medicine. Johnson. 



Thirdly, as the healing of an ulcer consists in producing a 

 tendency to absorption on its surface greater than the deposition 

 on it; see Sect. XXXIII. 3. 2.; other modes of increasing pul- 

 monary absorption, which are perhaps more manageable than 

 the preceding ones, may be had recourse to; such as by pro- 

 ducing frequent nausea or sickness. See Sect. XXIX. 5. 1. and 

 Art. IV. 2. The great and sudden absorption of fluid from the 

 lungs in the anasarca pulmonum by the sickness induced by the 

 exhibition of digitalis, astonishes those who have not before at- 

 tended to it, by emptying the swelled limbs, and removing the 

 difficulty of breathing in a few hours. 



The most manageable method of using digitalis is by making 

 a saturated tincture of it, by infusing two ounces of the powder 

 of the leaves in a mixture of four ounces of rectified spirit of 

 wine, and four ounces of water. Of this from 30 to 60 drops, or 

 upwards, from a two-ounce phial, are to be taken twice in the 

 morning part of the day, and to be so managed as not to induce 

 violent sickness. If sickness nevertheless comes on, the patient 

 must for a day or two omit the medicine; and then begin it again 

 in reduced doses. 



Mr. , a young man about twenty, with dark eyes and 



large pupils, who had every symptom of pulmonary ulcers, I 

 believed to have been cured by digitalis, and published the case 

 in the Transactions of the College, Vol. III. But I heard 

 that about two years afterwards he relapsed and died. Mr, 



