160 Scientific Intelligence.— Medical Chemistry. 



chloride of soda, dried in the sun and worn during nineteen consecu- 

 tive hours by the six members of the commission in presence of the 

 French consul, without any unfavorable result whatever. We were 

 able to employ solutions of the chloride so weak, (half a degree by 

 the chlorometre of Gay-Lussac,) that they had no sensible discolor- 

 ing effect upon the garments subjected to their action. The chloride 

 of lime was compared in effect with the chloride of soda. The 

 Turks, seeing the commission visiting the sick, feeling their pulse and 

 putting on their clothes without fear and without danger, did not hesi- 

 tate to solicit chloride of lime for their own use. ' At the departure 

 of the last letter, there were dying fifteen or twenty men of the plague 

 daily at Tripoli. M. Pariset exceedingly well satisfied with the re- 

 sults he had obtained, addressed a report to the minister, and repair- 

 ed to the Lazaretto at the foot of Libanus, there to study the leprosy. 

 ■ — Ann. D'' Hygiene, pub. Oct. 1829. 



5. Deleterious effects of sulphuretted hydrogen. — It would appear, 

 from various experiments, that the deleterious tendency of this gas 

 has been overrated. Dupuytren states that —-^ part of this air killed 

 a bird, and that it was necessary to reduce the proportion to ^oV o to 

 prevent death, and that even that quantity embarrassed respiration. 



Dogs were killed by one part in 299 of atmospheric air ; and accord- 

 ing to Chaussier, ^| ^ will kill the strongest horse. At this rate, -^\^ 

 ought to be sufficient to take the life of a man ; but in cleansing the 

 sewers in Paris, it has been found by accurate observation, that the 

 men could work without inconvenience in an atmosphere containing 

 one part of sulphuretted hydrogen in 100 of common air, and that 

 they constantly breathed from 25 to 90 thousandths of this gas. 



A dog, of middle size, was thrown into the Amelot sewer, where he 

 remained more than a week, accompanying the men when at work 

 in cleaning it, and frequently scratching the mud ; and it was proved 

 that the air of the sewer, at this time, must have contained at least 

 one per cent, of sulphuretted hydrogen. The analysis of able chem- 

 ists has shewn that the quantity of this gas which is constantly found in 

 sewers, exceeds the proportion which, in the experiments of Dupuy- 

 tren, produced asphyxia in animals of a medium size. A case is 

 cited in confirmation of this conclusion. A cat having been shut up 

 in a laboratory several days without food, became so furious that it was 

 found necessary to destroy her. For this purpose a vial containing 

 sulphuret of antimony and muriatic acid was fastened to a stick, and 



