VOL. XXXIX.3 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. <)3 



After mentioning 4 other cases of hernia and wounded guts, Mr. Amyand 

 subjoins the following practical inferences. 



Hence it appears, that the parts inflamed and in contact, have been coalesced 

 and knit together, so as to prevent any extravasation from the wounded or 

 bursted gut into the cavity of the abdomen. 



That the cure in some cases has been owing to a free discharge of the faeces 

 through the wound ; and consequently that when, in a gut rupture, the part 

 prolapsed cannot be reduced ; a cure may be hoped for, by making such an 

 opening in the guts, before they are entirely sphacelated, as may procure a free 

 discharge to the faeces pent in, and thus secure the patient's life. 



That if this happens to the colon or caecum, its tube will so far be preserved, 

 as to open a free discharge for the faeces the natural way ; and if that cannot 

 be obtained in a wound of the small gut, yet the discharge may be secured by 

 making the wounds an artificial anus. 



Tl>at the readiest way to obtain a cure of a wounded or bursted gut, is to 

 keep it in contact with the outward wound, and the patient in a very low diet. 



That the deligation of the vessels of the omentum, previous to its amputa- 

 tion, being liable to many exceptions, it is more eligible to forbear it, except- 

 ing when the vessels are large; for when reduced loose and floating, it is less 

 liable to the inflammations and suppurations that attend the separation of the 

 ligature. 



Experiments on Quicksilver. By Herman Boerhaave, M. D. &c. Part II.* 



N° 443, p. 343. 



In this 2d part of his communications on this subject, as well as in the 3d 

 part, which is inserted in another of the Transactions, but of which, for the 

 reader's convenience, the substance will be introduced here; Dr. B. prosecutes 

 his experiments on quicksilver, for the purpose of ascertaining the truth or 

 fallacy of its fixibility by the fire, and other properties ascribed to it by the 

 alchemists. 



Dr. B. subjected pure quicksilver for 15 years and a half (viz. from Nov. 

 17 18, to May 1734) to the continued action of a degree of heat equal to 100 

 and upwards of Fahrenheit's thermometer, in a phial, which admitted the air 

 without admitting any particles of dust. At the expiration of this length of 

 time, he found the quicksilver in the phial still fluid, with the exception of a 

 very small portion of a black powder on its surface, which powder was after- 

 wards revived by trituration in a glass mortar. Being afterwards subjected to 



• For Part I. see Philos. Trans. N" 430j of theie Abridgments, Vol. vii, p. 619. 



