Miscellaneous Notices. 
41 
*»f this fact, for which we are indebted to Dr. Barry, may justly be regarded as a 
true discovery, notwithstanding some vague ideas previously put forth by others 
on the subject ; and the empirical practice of sucking poisoned wounds, which 
have been so long known to the profession. 
The poisons employed were arsenic, prussic acid, strychnia, the upas tient£, and 
finally, that of the viper, the living animal being made use of. Wounds were made 
upon* the back and thighs of full-grown rabbits, and when the blood had ceased to 
flow, two or three grains of strychnia, or two or three drops of prussic acid, m ere 
introduced into the wounds, and after intervals of three, five, and ten minutes, a 
cupping-glass was applied, which was renewed as often as it fell off. No symp- 
toms of poisoning occurred in these cases, but if the precaution was neglected death 
ensued. 
A cupping-glass applied to a wound into which some strychnia had been put, 
prevented the effects of this substance from manifesting themselves, and also sus- 
pended them when beginning to he apparent. Eight grains of white arsenic were 
introduced into a wound in the thigh of a dog ; three quarters of an hour after, 
a cupping-glass was applied to the wound, and kept on for four hours, and the 
animal suffered no inconvenience. Another dog similarly poisoned, and left un- 
assisted, died at the end of fifteen hours. 
Six drops of prussic acid were poured into a lit’le wound made in the thigh of 
a rabbit ; the cupping-glass was ;?pplied for twelve minutes, and the animal show- 
ed no signs of having been poisoned ; but when it was taken away, convulsions 
came on so suddenly that it was thought to be dead, but a fresh application of the 
cupping-glass restored it to its former state of tranquillity ; the same effects ensued 
upon removing it again, and it was only half an hour after the introduction ot the 
p tison that it could be removed with impunity. Another rabbit, treated with the 
same quantity of a rid, where no cupping-glass was used, died in two minutes— — 
Med. Rep ii. 176. Med. Jour. Iv. 67- 
2 Employment of the Acetals of Ammonia m Drunkenness. By M. Masuyer. 
— This remedy dissipates all the symptoms of intoxication, in the gentlest and 
most fortunate manner, without occasioning the inconveniences of pure ammonia, 
which has been hitherto employed. The manner of using acetate of ammonia in 
drunkenness is extremely simple : it is sufficient to put 25 or 30 drops of it into a 
glass of sugared water, and to give the draught to the person intoxicated. When 
there is indigestion with vomiting, and the draught is thrown up, a second draught 
should be given- When it is not thrown off the stomach, if it should not produce 
a good effect in five or six minutes, the person should take half a dose more. In 
megrims it may be given the same cold, in the dose of 30 or 40 drops ; or warm, 
if not successful cold, in a glass of infusion of lime-tree flowers in the dose of 20 
drops, with a second glass ten or fifteen minutes afterwards In general, the disor- 
der of the head rarely resists the second or third glass of the remedy — Rep , 
Put. Inv. vi. 167- Archives des Decouyertes , 1826, p. 207* 
3 Purple Precipitate of Cassius —Dr. Clarke appears to have determined that 
in the purple precipitate of Cassius, obtained from the muriate of gold by means 
of the muriate of tin, the two metals are thrown down as oxydes, wdiich however 
do not chemically combine in a constant relative proportion to each other. The 
proportion of tin always exceeds, that of the. gold, and the difference observable in 
the hues of the precipitate, made at different times, is to be ascribed to the different 
proportions in which the oxydes of the two metals have combined together, and 
perhaps also, to their different degrees of oxydation — Cam. Ph. Tr. i. 
4. Composition of Apatite — According to M. Rose, the apatite from the following 
localities gave the annexed proportions of chloride and fluoride of calcium, the 
rest being phosphate of lime with occasional traces of iron and magnesia : — 
S. (T. Chlo. Calc. Fluor. Calc. 
3 174 4.280 4 500 
3.235 0 885 7 049 
3 194 0.801 7 010 
3 175 0.150 7.690 
3.166 0 100 7620 
3.197 trace 7.690 
3.211 trace 7 690 
Annaks de C Jamie* 
Apatite from Suarum in Norway 
Cabo de Gota in Spain 
Aren dal 
Grenier in the Tyrol . 
Faldigl, ditto . 
St. Gothard 
Ehrenfriedersdorf „ 
