1030 Transactions of the American Institute. 



prised at the perfect identity of the action of carbolic acid and 

 arsenious, acid used on organic substances. They are both powerful 

 poisons, as they necessarily must be from their antiseptic properties. 

 Any thing that will arrest change in the tissues or blood of an ani- 

 mal, necessarily destroys its life, if in sufficient quantities. We have 

 no doubt that every condition in which carbolic acid can be used 

 benelicially, arsenic would supply its place. But the name would 

 condemn its use. Creosote, which is only another name for carbolic 

 acid (or perhaps the reverse would be better), could never have 

 assumed the place that carbolic acid now occupies. The name would 

 kill it. Perhaps creosote is the better of the two, as it contains more 

 cresylic acid, of which all carbolic acid ordinarily obtained, contains 

 some. It is, by no means, certain that cresylic acid may not possess 

 the most valuable properties. 



Dr. Neuman, of Vienna, Austria, who has experimented largel}'' 

 with carbolic acid, says, carbolic acid is an energetic poison, which 

 acts directly on the nervous system ; its external or internal use may 

 cause death. A Mr. Bergen, an accomplished chemist, died from 

 applying carbolic acid to an aching tooth. In the Glasgow Royal 

 Inlirmary, the records show that when the dressings in amputations 

 .and compound fractures contained no carbolic acid, two in nine died ; 

 with carbolic acid, three in nine died. We have no prejudice against 

 carbolic acid. We only wish to place it in its true character, by giv- 

 ing its true properties. 



It is a common notion that dry sandy regions are free from malaria. 

 So far is this from being the fact, that such places, especially if near 

 the ocean, are often the very foci of miasmatic vapors. The British 

 army, consisting of 43,000 men, encamped on the island of Walcheren, 

 on the coast of Holland, which consisted of fine white sand, and in 

 less than five months was nearlj'- exterminated. Crooked island in 

 the gulf of Mexico, is a bed of sand, and yet is considered by fisher- 

 men to be exceedingly unhealthy in the summer. 



The following circumstance revealed to us the explanation. Scattered 

 • in the island we found the amaranthus hispidus, growing to immense 

 size, although not a "particle of other vegetation around them. 

 Gardeners know that this plant has very long roots running perpen- 

 dicularly into the soil. On the neighboring main land this plant was 

 growing, and the seeds were borne to the island. Germinating, their 

 roots came within the influence of the subjacent decaying mass, and 

 were thus able to grow and extend their roots to the rich deposit, and 



