VOL. XLIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. Ql 



the medicine would be of especial service in malignant putrid fevers and convul- 

 sions; and having, in the year 1739, contracted with the government for the 

 transportation of convicts, he communicated his opinion to Mr. David Ross, an 

 ingenious and sensible surgeon, whom he had employed to take care of their 

 healths; and prevailed on him to make the experiment in a very desperate case; 

 for he did not care to venture on any other. Please, in the mean time to ob- 

 serve, that, as Tonquin vermillion was not to be had, he substituted an equal 

 quantity of factitious cinnabar in its stead, and sometimes gave rum or brandy 

 instead of arrack; in other things he generally adhered to the original pre- 

 scription. 



Case i. — In December 17 3Q, 1 convicts in Newgate were at the same time 

 very ill of the putrid, infectious, malignant fever, commonly called the gaol dis- 

 temper. All the usual methods of practice having been tried in vain, their con- 

 dition appeared to be quite desperate. One of them died in the evening, and 

 the other was not expected to survive till morning, being covered with flat pete- . 

 chial spots, and delirious. Mr. Ross therefore administered to him the above 

 described medicine about Q or 10 o'clock at night; and next morning, to his 

 great surprise, found him quite free from the fever, eating water gruel, and 

 crying out for meat, after having slept well, and perspired plentifully. The spots' 

 on his skin rose, and the next day scaled off. 



Case ii. — Soon after this, a convict, who had lived in good credit, laid his 

 condition so much to heart, and drank so freely of spirituous liquors to drown 

 his care, that he fell into a violent fever. He was on the master s side, where 

 his relations looked after him ; so that he heard nothing of his case till it was 

 very desperate. He was delirious to a high degree, and had catchings in his 

 hands and face. He took the above medicine at night, slept and perspired well, 

 and next morning waked entirely free from his distemper; excepting that he had 

 such a tremor left in his hand, that he could not carry a glass to his head; on 

 which account he ordered him a second dose, and he was perfectly cured. 



Encouraged by these successes, they administered the medicine to a great 

 many other transports, who had the gaol distemper, and generally found it to 

 have the same salutary effects ; more especially when the patients were delirious 

 or convulsed; as can be attested by Mr. Louttil, apothecary, who made up the 

 medicines for the surgeons ; and was himself a witness of several surprising cures 

 performed by it, nor did Mr. R. ever hear of any bad effects from it. 



Case in. — Mr. Ross, the surgeon abovementioned, having caught the gaol , 

 distemper, by attending those who were sick of it on board, came ashore at 

 Gravesend, and desired Mr. Reid to provide another surgeon, for that he was so 

 ill he could not go the voyage. He was blooded, and took l6 grs. of musk in a 

 glass of rum, without the cinnabars, which were not to be hacL ashore, nor 



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