AOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. JS 



Of all the resinous substances, camphire resisted most ; 2 grs. dissolved in 1 

 drop of sp. of wine, 5 grs. of sugar, and 2 oz of water, exceeded the standard; 

 though during the infusion most of the camphire flew off', swam at top, or stuck, 

 to the phial. Suppose only the half lost, the remainder is at least 6o times 

 stronger than salt ; but if, as he imagined, the water suspended not above a 10th 

 part, then ciimphire will be 300 times more antiseptic than sea-salt. That 

 nothing might be ascribed to the minute portion of the spirit, used in this ex- 

 periment, he made another solution of camphire in a drop or 2 of oil, and found 

 this mixture less perfect, but still beyond the standard. 



4. He made strong infusions of camomile-flowers, and of Virginian snake- 

 root ; and finding them both greatly beyond the standard, he gradually lessened 

 the quantity of these materials, till he found 5 grs. of either impart a virtue to 

 water superior to 6o grs. of salt. Now as we cannot suppose these weak infusions 

 contained \ gr. of the embalming part of these vegetables, it follows, that this 

 must be at least 1 20 times more antiseptic than common salt. 



He also made a strong decoction of the bark, and infused a piece of flesh in 

 2 oz. of it strained; which flesh never corrupted, though it remained 2 or 3 

 days in the furnace, after the standard was putrid. In this time the decoction 

 became gradually limpid, while the grosser parts subsided : by which it appears, 

 that a most minute portion of the bark intimately mixed with water (perhaps less 

 than of the snake-root, or camomile-flowers) is possessed of a very extraordinary 

 antiseptic force. 



Besides these, pepper, ginger, saffi-on, contrayerva-root, and galls, in the 

 quantity of 5 grs. each, as also 1 grs. of dried sage, of rhubarb, and the root 

 of wild valerian,* separately infused, exceeded 6o grs. of salt. Mint, angelica, 

 groundivy, senna, green tea, red roses, common wormwood, mustard, and 

 horse-radish, were likewise infiised, but in larger quantities, and proved more 

 antiseptic than the standard. And as none of these can be supposed to yield in 

 the water above 1 gr. or 2 of the embalming principle, we may consider them all 

 as very powerful resisters of putrefaction. Further, he made a trial with a de- 

 coction of white poppy-heads, and another with the expressed juice of lettuce, 

 and found them both above the standard. 



By these specimens we may now see how extensive antiseptics are ; since, be- 

 sides salts, fermented spirits, spices, and acids, commonly known to have this 

 property, many resins, astringents, and refrigerants, are of the number ; and 

 even those plants called anti-acids, and supposed hasteners of putrefaction ; of 

 which class horse-radish is particularly antiseptic. And indeed after these trials, 



• Though the experiment was only made with 10 grs. of the powder of this root, yet con- 

 sidering how long that quantity resisted putrefaction, we may reckon the valerian among the strongest 

 antiseptics.^-Orig. 



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