12 RESPIRATION OF GASEOUS OXIDE OF AZOTK, 



I difcontinued it in one, from fome indications of an aggrava* 

 tion of (he fymptoms. I was by this time alive to fuf. 

 picion, having thought much on the fubject, and reafoned 

 mvfelf into the idea (hat it would ollen do injury upon the 

 above-mentioned principle. It has long been my opinion, 

 and there are ftriking obfervations on record to prove that 

 hidrogen, hidro-carbonate, azotic, or carbonic acid gafes, 

 would be n)ore likely (o anfwer in aclive infanity under what- 

 ever form, Thefe obfervations I lliall take occafion to quote 

 hereafter. 

 Ufe in palfy of The very firft time I witnefled the efFecis of gafeous oxide 

 one kind. ^^ ^ perfon in health, I concluded that it would be a remedy 



in certain cafes of palfy. A patient who had emerged from 

 apoplexy with the lofs of the power of one fide of his body, 

 was accordingly put under a courfe of the gas. The refult 

 completely anfvvered expeftation. The cafe was moil care- 

 fully watched; and on withholding (he gas. the fymptoms 

 repeatedly grew worfe, and vice verja. After the patient's 

 recovery, he was kept under infpeclion for a confiderable 

 lime, and did not relapfe. Tliis has been confirmed by 

 other refults; and in palfy, where the brain is primarily af- 

 ieded, I cxpe<5i that Dr. PlafF will find either a cure or great 

 relief (o iollcvv the ufe of this gas in a refpedable proportion 

 of cafe>K 

 In another kind I have very fairly tried it in palfy apparently from cold, 

 oi paKv. beginning at the extremities and creeping from mufcle to 



-mufcle, without good or bad efTccl. There is a cafe of this 

 kind, related by Dr. Kentifli, with the patient's name, and 

 corroborated by teftimony fuperior to all exception in Confi- 

 derations on fa&ilious Airs (Joitnfon) in which a perfe6t cure 

 Of oxigcn, was obtained from oxigen gas ; and I have fince learned 

 by experiments carefully repeated before various philofophical 

 obfervers, ihal in efential refpeds, oxigen gas and gafeous oxide 

 act in a very different, nay cppojite manner upon the living fibre. 

 Thefe experiments I hope to publifli before midfumraer. 

 From pally, analogy led me to other cafes of debility. I 

 fully tried gafeous oxide in dropfy of the cheft (anafarca of 

 InUropiios; ^'^^ lungs), but without good or bad effect. I was much dif- 

 . appointed, conceiving that in dropfy (at lead in one fpecies) 

 we have a paralytic fiate of the lymphatics. But I have been 

 fince aFuied by a phyfician, that for fome dropfies he has 



Iflund. 



