405 
ing digression, considering the advantage that may be derived 
from it, in many domestic cases, and especially in one, which 
happens hut too often : I mean with regard to bruises. 
The reader will easily form an idea of it, from the facts I am 
going to state, and from the circumstances by which they were 
occasioned. 
One of my servants having had a horse-kick in the forehead, 
it produced a swelling of an alarming size, and though it was 
free from excoriation, it caused him a very sharp pain, and an 
excessive heat. As I had no room to think that the cranium 
had suffered, it came into my mind, that he might derive some 
relief from evaporation. For this purpose I got a glass of gin, 
the only spirituous liquor I had then in the house, a feather 
with its vanes, and a pair of bellows. I dipped the feather in 
the liquor, and bathed the affected part with it, while another 
person kept blowing upon it, and I had the pleasure to see, 
that in about a quarter of an hour the swelling was diminished, 
and that it had totally disappeared along with the pain, at the 
end of thirty-five or forty minutes. This experiment hasbeen re¬ 
peated on several occasions, nearly similar j and has invariably 
been attended with tlie same success. 
I have also met with an occurrence, which enabled me to 
make a trial of this remedy with respect to bruises, when 
there was a wound. 
One of my labourers had his upper lip cleft with the blow 
of a mallet, so that lie could pass his tongue through theaper- 
ture made by the wound. A quarter of an hour after the ac¬ 
cident, I sponged the part with spirit of turpentine, the ifrsjt 
drug I found at hand, and then with spirit of wine ; at the same 
time that I had the wound blown upon with bellows. In 
twenty or thirty minutes, the swelling had vanished, and in less 
than half an hour more, I judged it was time to terminate the 
operation. The re-union of the parts was effected almost im¬ 
mediately without the help of a plaster or ligature; and there 
has only remained a scar hardly perceptible. 'I he patient was 
eased astonishingly by the wind, which to have its full effect, 
should be kept up strong and even. 
This manner of cure is evidently preferable to all the ordi¬ 
nary ones. It is so simple that every body may pierform it j 
is perfectly clean, presents no alarming apparatus, is not expen¬ 
sive, and is attended with no danger. In short, the things ne¬ 
cessary for its application are such, as are to be found in al- 
moll every family. 
The concentration of cold, by bracing the relaxed fibres, 
cools the fevers or local heat, lessens the sw elling, dissipates 
the pain, and an immediate cure is the consequence. The eva¬ 
poration which takes place by the rectification of spirits, com¬ 
bined with the agitation of the air, can be excited to such a 
degree .iS'to for mice, even during the heats of summer. 
Though gin may be used, yet strong brandy, spirit of wine, 
and ether especially, will produce a quicker and more complete 
effect. This is also what I have often been able to ascertain 
from my own observation. 
In 
