VOL. II.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 23/ 



Extract of a Letter (tvritten in Latin) hy Mr. Michael Beiim, Con- 

 sul at Dantzick, to Mr. John Hefelius, concerning some Chemicaly 

 Medicinal, and Anatomical Subjects. N" 34, p. 650. 



In the beginning of this letter Mr. Behm conveys a well-merited eulogium 

 on Mr. Boyle's Treatises on Colours and on Fluidity and Solidity, of which he 

 had met with a Latin translation. At the same time he expresses a wish that 

 the illustrious author would publish his further experiments on the nature of 

 saline bodies. He then observes that he entertains great hopes of finding out a 

 liquor, which, when injected into the bladder, may dissolve calculi without irri- 

 tating the bladder itself; also of finding out other mixtures which may prevent 

 or attenuate various viscidities that are injurious to the stomach. He afterwards 

 mentions, that during an attack of the gout, in which he was disengaged from 

 political concerns, he made some experiments on blood, the serum of which he 

 found to be coagulable by a gentle heat and by acids, in the same manner as the 

 white of an egg; but that it remained fluid when alkalies were mixed with it. 

 He next enters upon a theory of the gout, which he supposes to be owing to 

 a urinous acrimony, (urinosa putrilago) not eliminated by the kidnies or by 

 perspiration from the mass of blood, but carried along with it and deposited 

 upon the ligaments, joints, &c.* He hopes this subject will be more thoroughly 

 investigated by some ingenious person in England ; so that the gout may cease 

 to be acknowledged even by physicians themselves to be an incurable affection. 

 After noticing the inefficacy of the usual remedies, and the salutary operation 

 of the warm mineral springs (especially of such as are diuretic) he remarks that 

 he had experienced considerable relief from bathing the affected limbs with a 

 liquor of his invention, which exactly resembled in smell, taste, and other proper- 

 ties, those warm mineral waters. Moreover he derived great benefit from some 

 pills which were diuretic without being purgative; but (contrary, he says, to 

 the advice of physicians) he has found in his own person and in the instances of 

 his friends, the application of blisters to the part affected to give the speediest 

 and most effectual relief; though he would not recommend this remedy to 

 those whose skin is liable to ulcerate badly. Then follow some remarks on 

 Highmore's Anatomical Account of the Spleen, and on Sylvius's absurd theory 

 of the effervescence of the pancreatic juice, (which he supposed to be of an 

 acid nature) with the bile in the duodenum, being the cause of numerous dis- 

 eases. Mr. Behm says he never could detect any acidity in the juice of the 



* The composition of gouty depositions has been accurately analysed by modern chemists, as wUl 

 be seen in the subsequent volumes of this work. 



