72 DISEASES CLASS I. 2. z- 14. 



ciency o phofphoric acid ; which is probably produced by ox- 

 ygene in the act of refpiration. 



Mr. Bonhome, in the Chemical Annals, Auguft, 1 793, fup- 

 pofes the rickets to arife from the prevalence of vegetable or 

 acetous acid, which is known to fofien bones out of the body. 

 Mr. Dettaen feems to have efpoufed a fimilar opinion, and both 

 of them in confequence give alkalies and teftacea. If this the- 

 ory was juft, the foft bones of fuch patients mould (hew evident 

 marks of fuch acidity after death ; which I believe has not been 

 obferved. Nor is it analogous to other animal facts, that nu- 

 tritious fluids fecreted by the fined veflels of the body fiiould be 

 fo little animalized, as to retain acetous or vegetable acidity. 



The fuccefs attending the following cafe in fo fhort a time as 

 a fortnight I afcribed principally to the ufe of the warm bath ; 

 in which the patient continued for full half an hour every night, 

 in the degree of heat, which was mofl grateful to her fenfation, 



which might be I fuppofe about 94. Mifs , about ten years 



of age, and very tall and thin, has laboured under palpitation of 

 her heart, and difficult breathing on the leaft exercife, with oc- 

 eafional violent dry cough, for a year or more, with dry lips, 

 little appetite either for food or drink, and dry fkin, with cold 

 extremities. She has at times been occafionaliy worfe, and been 

 relieved in fome degree by the bark. She began to bend for- 

 wards, and to lift up her ftioulders. The former feemed owing 

 to a beginning curvature of the fpine, the latter was probably 

 caufed to facilitate her difficult refpiration. 



M. M. She ufed the warm bath, as above related ; which by 

 its warmth might increafe the irritability of the {mailed feries 

 of veflels, and by fupplying more moifture to the blood might 

 probably tend to carry further the materials, which form calca- 

 reous or bony particles, or to convey them in more dilute folu- 

 tion. She took twice a day twenty grains of extract of bark, 

 twenty grains of foda phofphorata, and ten grains of chalk, and 

 ten of calcined hartmorn mixed into a powder with ten drops 

 of laudanum; with flefti food both to dinner and fupper , and 

 port wine and water inftead of the fmall beer me had been ac- 

 cuftomed to ; (lie lay on a fofa frequently in a day, and occafion- 

 aliy ufed a neck-fwing. 



There is no fituation, where the foftnefs of the bones and 

 consequent deformity of them is fo frequently attended with 

 calamitous confequences, as when it affects the bones of the 

 pelvis, fo as to contract the form of it; whence many unfortu- 

 nate women have loft their infants, or perifhed themfelves. In 

 this miferable fituation of the pregnant uterus, fome have deftroy- 

 ed the child, others have undergone the Cefarean operation, 



and 



