336 Materials for a History of the PrussidfSs.' , ; 



other bandages, with which they are generally tortured irf 

 their early years by the active folly of' their friends, which, 

 by displacing many of the viscera, impedes their actions, 

 and by compressing them together produces adhesions of, 

 one part to another, and affects even the form and apetlure 

 of the bones of the pelvis, through which the nascent child 

 must be protruded. 



As parturition is a natural, not a morbid process, no me- 

 dicine should be given, where there is no appearance of dis- 

 ease. The absurd custom of giving a powerful opiate with- 

 out indication to all women, as soon as they are delivered r 

 is, I make no doubt, frequently attended with injurious, 

 and sometimes with fatal consequences. 



Another thing very injurious to the child, is the tying and 

 cutting the navel-string too soon ; which should always be 

 left till the child has not only repeatedly breaihed, but till 

 all pulsation in the cord cease?. As otherwise the child i> 

 much weaker than it oujiht to be; a part of the blood being 

 left in the placenta, which ought to have been in the child ; 

 and at the same time the placenta does not so naturally col- 

 lapse, and withdraw itself from the sides of the uterus, and 

 is not therefore removed with so much safety and certainty. 



[To be continued.] 



XLIX. Materials for a History of the Prussiates. 

 By M. Pkoust *. 



JL he Prussian blue used in commerce is rarely pure. Scheele 

 has already noticed this fact. We often find in it, besides 

 alumine, which forms part of it, silex, carbonate, and cal- 

 careous sulphate, sulphate of potash, phosphate of iron, the 

 red oxide of this metal, sulphur, oleaginous ammonia, &c. 

 In order to comprehend the nature of this combination, 

 it is indispensable to use a prussiate without alum, suf- 

 ficiently washed in the acids and in boiling water. Ic 

 even appears from a remark of Berthollet, that the prussiate 



* Annalc^de Chimie, tome lx. p. 185. 



Of 



