Mefn'oirs of Erasmus Darwin, M.D. 3 63 



abundant springs near Bowbridge ; the water from which 

 might be conveyed to the town in hollow bucks, or clay- 

 pipes, at no very great expense, and might be received into 

 frequent reservoirs with pumps to them ; or laid into the 

 houses, i 



M. M. Twenty grains of burnt sponge with ten of nitre 

 made with mucilage into lozenges, and permitted to dissolve 

 slowly under the tongue twice a day, is asserted to cure in a 

 few months j perhaps other animal charcoal, as candle- 

 snuffs, might do the same; 



I have directed in the early state of this disease a mixture 

 of common salt and water to be held in the mouth, parti- 

 cularly under the tongue, for a few minutes, four or six 

 times a day for many weeks, which has sometimes suc- 

 ceeded : the salt and water is then Spit out again, or in part 

 Swallowed. Externally vinegar of squills has been applied, 

 or a mercurial plaster, or fomentations of acetated ammo- 

 niac, or ether. Some empirics have applied caustics on the 

 bronchocele; and sometimes, I have been told, with suc- 

 cess ; which should certainly be used where there is danger 

 of suffocation from the bulk of it. One ease I saw, and 

 one I was well informed of, where the bronchocele was 

 cured by burnt sponge, and a hectic fever supervened with 

 colliquative sweats; but I do not know the final event of 

 either of them. 



De Haen affirms the cure of bronchocele to be effected by 

 flowers of zinc, calcined egg-shells, and scarlet cloth burnt 

 together in a close crucible; which was tried with success, 

 as he assured me, by a late lamented physician, my friend, 

 Dr. Small of Birmingham. 



Scrophula. — King's evil is known by tumours of the lym- 

 phatic glands, particularly of the neck. The upper lip, and 

 division of the nostrils, is swelled, with a florid countenance, 

 a smooth skin, and a tumid abdomen. Cullen. — The absorbed 

 fluids in their course to the veins in the scrophula are ar- 

 rested in the lymphatic or conglobate glands; which swell, 

 and after a great length of time inflame and suppurate. 

 Materials of a peculiar kind, as the variolous and venereal 

 matter, when absorbed in a wound, produce this torpor, 



L 3 and 



