Foreign Literature and Science. 383 



hospital wards of Paris. Guyton De Morveau, after some 

 further experiments, contrived a small disinfecting apparatus, 

 which had considerable success ; and about 1809, M. Mas- 

 suyer was the first who employed liquid chloride of lime, in 

 purifying the military hospital of Strasburg. 



Nothing further was done until the society of encourage- 

 ment, at the request of the Prefect of the Seine, proposed 

 in 1820, a premium for the invention of a method, either 

 chemical or mechanical, of fabricating catgut from animal 

 intestines, without injury from the putrid fermentations which 

 render the workshops of this manufactory so unhealthy. M. 

 Labarraque, an apothecary at Paris, first solved this prob- 

 lem, and obtained the prize. He proposed the use of chlo- 

 ride of lime, and has ever since been engaged in the per- 

 fection of his first process, in propagating the value of the 

 chlorides and extending their applications. Instructed by 

 his first trials, and guided by a just and acute spirit of ob- 

 servation, he has pointed out their uses in exhumations, and 

 in all cases in which putrid exhalations may vitiate the at- 

 mosphere. He has rendered an invaluable service to hu- 

 manity and the arts, not only in applying the fumigations of 

 chlorine to operations which it frees from all danger, but in 

 turning the attention of men to an agent, the employment 

 of which, may have an immense influence upon life and 

 health. Since the labors of Labarraque, M. Wallace has 

 recommended gaseous chlorine, mixed with aqueous vapour, 

 as an external application, against chronic affections of the 

 abdominal viscera, and especially those of the liver. M. 

 Roche has announced to the society of medicine, that in 

 less than three months, he had cured by means of the chlo- 

 ride of soda, a scaldhead, which for eleven years had resis- 

 ted all other kinds of treatment. M. M. Cullerier and 

 Gorse have successfully employed chloride of soda, in the 

 cure of syphilitic ulcers, which spread an infectious odour, 

 and in general against wounds and ulcers of a putrid and 

 gangrenous character. M. Labarraque and others have 

 shewn its efficacy in cases of asphixia from privies and other 

 foul places ; the agricultural society of la Charente has re- 

 commended it as very salutary in stables, and cases of dis- 

 eased cattle, and learned physicians have announced, that 

 they were upon the track of a discovery of the highest inter- 

 est to humanity, by the employment of chlorides in diseases 

 of the lungs. May this hope not be disappointed. — Rev. 

 Ency. Nov. 1827. 



