ON OXYGENNESIS. 
439 
cesses.” Tlie Report goes on to suggest many other applications where success 
may be expected, and adds :—“Nothing, it has been well said, seems so diffi¬ 
cult as the invention of to-morrow, nor so easy as the invention of yesterday.” 
Dr. Hofmann concludes his review of these products with the following re¬ 
mark :—“ On the whole, it may with truth be said, that of all the chemicals 
displayed at the International Exhibition of 1862, few have yielded to the re¬ 
searches of the last ten years a larger crop of careful results than barium and 
its compounds ; and the reporter ventures to add, that none hold out a fairer 
prospect of similar advantages to come during (let us hope) the ensuing 
decade.” 
I shall trespass but little further on your time, but wish to make a few re¬ 
marks on one of the various applications of oxygen, which may be of some 
interest to the medical profession and to pharmaceutical chemists,—I mean 
the employment of that body as a therapeutic agent by inhalation : for 
that purpose this ready method for producing the gas promises to be of 
great value. Toward the end of the last and the beginning of the pre¬ 
sent century, vital air, as oxygen was often and not inappropriately called, 
was used largely in this country and on the Continent; in this country we 
find the names of Drs. Beddoes, Hill, Thornton, and other physicians. Dr. 
Hill used it for more than twenty-five years, and Dr. Thornton was quite 
eminent for his successful application of it. At the present time the desire 
by medical men for the administration of oxygen has revived both here and 
abroad ; two papers have recently been read, to be followed by others on the 
same subject, before the Academy of Sciences at Paris, by Messrs. Demarquay 
and Leconte. The experiments and observations of those gentlemen appear 
to have been very numerous and carefully made, both on animals and on 
man in disease and in health, and the conclusion they arrive at is, that oxygen 
is a valuable curative agent. If so good, then, as a remedy when its value was 
once known, what caused it to become and continue so long neglected P The 
explanation is, I think, not difficult. In the first place, when this body was dis¬ 
covered, too much was expected from it: the first furore for its employment 
arose from this simple experiment, the power to rekindle an expiring match, 
and as oxygen is the essential element of our existence, they calculated to 
be enabled in a similar way to rekindle the expiring vital spark; the more 
imaginative were elated at what they considered a discovery so long dreamt 
of, and so earnestly sought after by the alchemist. But oxygen is not the 
elixir vitce; it will not restore grey hair to its original colour, nor make an 
old man young. The difficulties and expense attending its administration may 
also be considered other reasons for its non-employment. Of what use was it 
for a medical man to order that which the patient could not get supplied ? A 
physician therefore having faith in the remedy, to adopt it was compelled to 
lay himself out especially for it, become an oxygen doctor, and prepare and 
administer the remedy himself. Those difficulties now no longer exist. 
We have on the table an oxygen inhaler and generater, made according to 
the suggestions of Dr. Richardson. The generation of the gas is by this me¬ 
thod so easy and so simple, that patients can prepare their own dose; or, if 
need be, the nurse after one lesson can as well undertake the operation as of 
any other duty she may be required to perform. 
Physicians who may wish to employ this remedy may now prescribe it 
with no more hesitation than they would prescribe a black draught or a ca¬ 
lomel pill. _ 
Dr. Squire inquired if Mr.Robbins had patented his process, for if he had, 
he was inclined to doubt the validity of the patent, as he found, on looking 
at a paper by Professor Brodie, published as far back as 1851, that it was 
