406 PREVENTION OF MARSH FEVER. 
or if this be not possible, boiled before it is given to the 
animal. 
Should the internal administration of the acid fail to 
effect any alteration in the character of the urine, a very 
dilute solution — one part of the acid to sixteen or twenty 
parts of water — may be injected into the bladder, or diluted 
vinegar may be used. 
The quantity of the acid may be increased to four or even 
six drachms a day, but it is better then to divide it in 
two doses. 
The acid will act in a two-fold way : 
1st — It will convert the carbonate of lime into a soluble 
salt. 
2d — It will operate as a general tonic, and thus induce a 
healthy state of the digestive functions.] 
PREVENTION OF MARSH FEVER. 
A very curious paper was read before the French 
Academy of Sciences, on the 13th of November last, by 
M. H. Martinet, on the destruction of febrile emanations 
from marshes, and consequently the prevention of marsh 
fever. The remedy is no other than arsenical vapours ! 
M. Martinet w 7 as led to make trial of this remedy by having 
read the following anecdote in a book by Dr. Stokes : “ In 
certain parts of Cornwall, fever decimated the population : 
a foundry was established, and the fevers disappeared. The 
process of ore-roasting liberated fumes of arsenic, and the 
latter neutralized or destroyed the febrile poison.” The 
above anecdote having struck the attention of M. Martinet, 
he did not lose sight of the matter involved, and soon 
came another fact to strengthen the theory of his adop- 
tion. The fact was this. M. Bury noticed that smelters 
of copper ore enjoyed protection from cholera; and that, 
generally, habitations situate near foundries were exempted 
from this terrible scourge. Now copper usually contains 
arsenic, as every chemist knows ; and arsenic, being a vola-. 
tile metal, flies off in the process of smelting. In support 
of M. Martinet’s theory, we may advert to the fact, that 
arsenic has for some time been employed medicinally for 
the treatment of marsh fevers. We fear, nevertheless, that 
the theory claims too much, and we doubt the propriety of 
including marsh fever and cholera under one generalization. 
The reader who wishes to know more about the suggestion 
