C^44 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ^ [aNNO I765. 



a few moments, fell down motionless, and were taken out dead. And though 

 the last of the three was taken out of the receiver as soon as possible after it 

 ceased to move, yet it never after showed the least sign of life. The same ex- 

 periment was, some days after, tried in air fresh extracted from the Pouhon 

 water, on 1 of the small birds mentioned in the foregoing experiment; in which 

 air they, in like manner, also soon expired. 



[Then follows an extract from the Essay, the title of which is immediately sub- 

 joined, which extract, it was not thought necessary to reprint in this Abridgment, 

 the nature of subterraneous exhalations and the gaseous principlesof mineral waters, 

 being now so well understood and so fully explained in various treatises on chemistry.] 



Extract from an Essay, intituled. On the Uses of a Knoiuledge of Mineral 

 Exhalations when applied to Discover the Principles and Properties of Mineral 

 Waters, the Nature of Burning Fountains, and of those Poisonous Lakes, 

 tvhich the Ancients called Averni ; which was read before the Royal Society in 

 April \7A\. p. 236. 



XXVII. Extract of a Letter from Benj. Gale, a Physician in New England, 

 concerning the Successful Application of Salt to Wounds made by the Biting of 

 Rattle Snakes; dated at Killingworth in Connecticut, August 20, 1764. 

 p. 244. 



I have been disappointed in procuring a rattle snake, to make experiments in 

 expelling the poison, particularly the efficacy of sea salt ; but have now the 

 satisfaction to acquaint you, that having desired Mr. Porter, an eminent sur- 

 treon, to make inquiry, whether the efficacy of sea salt could be properly at- 

 tested, he this day informs me, that a person was wounded by that serpent, 

 about the beginning of this month, just above his shoe. The teeth of the 

 snake, on examination by the probe, he found to have entered near half an 

 inch. The person bitten immediately made a strong ligature above the wound, 

 and in less than 2 hours came to Mr. Porter's. The leg and foot below the 

 ligature were much swelled, and the patient grievously affected with a nausea. 

 Mr. Porter made immediately a deep scarification, rubbed it well with salt, ap- 

 plied a dossil of lint moistened over the salt and scarification, and dismissed his 

 patient, who the next morning returned. The ligature was continued, yet the 

 tumeiaction was greatly abated; the dressing before applied was' renewed, and 

 the person recovered without any further application. This perhaps, together 

 with the former mstance,* may serve to establish the truth of its efficacy." 



• This was a person, under the care of Mr. Strong, a surgeon in New England, who in the year 

 1761, was bitten by a rattJe-snake in the left foot, between the great toe and the next. He imme- 

 ately perceived a sickness at the stomach, which continued sorae time. Scarifications were directly 

 made, by cutting the skin, pulled up by an awl, formed into a hook for that purpose. The first ap- 



