1803.] 
ferences were owing to the different modes 
of preparation ; the one being fimply dried, 
the other mixed with alcohol. Albumen 
and other animal products: have before 
this been found in fmall quantities among 
the component parts of certain vegetables ; 
but none, except the fubjeéct of this analy- 
_ fis, has been found entirely made up of 
what ufed to be fuppofed exclufively the 
produéts of digeftion and animalization. 
Thus we fee in this, as in many other 
cafes, that nature is able to accomplifh 
the fame defigns by various means, and 
that the gradual tranfition of her works 
into. éach other baffles the feeble defini- 
tions of human philofophy. 
M. EKeBERG, an- eminent Swedifh 
chemift and mineralogift, has difcovered a 
metallic fubftance, which he confiders as 
poffcffed of peculiar properties, and there- 
fore new. He calls it Fantale. There 
are two forms under which it occurs in 
nature: the one is the native oxyd of 
tantale, formerly taken for an oxyd of 
tin, and, therefore, called by the Ger- 
mans xinn graupen, but which is now de- 
nominated by M. Ekeberg, tantale. The 
Lif of Difeapes, 67 
fecond is the metallic oxyd, in mixture or 
combinatien with the earth Yttria; hence 
itis called Yttrotantale: this {pecies is 
found at Ytterby in Finland, in granite, 
difperfed in {mall nodules about the fize.of 
a nut. The circumftances that diftin- 
guifh the Tantale from other metals are, 
1. It is abfolutely infoluble in acids. 2. 
It is attacked and taken up by alkalies in 
confiderable quantities, and without much 
ditheulty; and is precipitated from its 
alkaline folutions by the addition of an 
acid. 3. Ihe cclour of the oxyd is 
white, and does not alter by expofure to 
fire. 4. Its fp. gr. after having been 
made red-hot, is = 6.5. 5. It melts 
with phofphat of foda and borax into a 
colourlefs glafs. 6. When ftrongly 
heated with charcoal powder, it aggluti- 
nates, and afflumes a metallic afpest. The 
two ores of this mineral being by no 
means unfrequent in Sweden, it is to be 
hoped that M. Ekeberg will repeat. and 
renew his experiments on this fubfance, 
that its properties and relations may be 
more fully known. aye 
ACCOUNT or tHe DISEASES tn LONDON, 
From the 20th of December ta the 20th of January. 
Admitted under the Care of the Phyficians of the Finfoury Difpenfary. 
RS 
CARLATINA - 4% todeviate, in a confiderable degree, from 
Sf ENS J 29 , the ordinary routine. 
Catarrh t “s at ih. aa With the exception of the aftringent 
Typhus , ‘ - 7 and antifeptic gargles, the frequent ule of 
Dyfpnea - - - 17. which, the local affeétion, in fcarlet fever, 
Atthenia = - 23 invariably demands, he hag adopted, al- _ 
Dyfenteria - - 9 moft ftrictiy, that method of cure, the . 
Amenorrhea - " r 21 propriety, and nearly certain efhgacy, of 
Men»rrhagia - ‘ ki 3 which, in typhus has been eltablifhed by - 
Ot > f, : E the mot ample and fatisfactory expé- 
ie e fi ; ; I rience. Cool ablutioz he has, in every in- 
pat een a 3 " 13 ftance, particularly miifted upon; and out of 
Metiniakenine: bs ne rp Upwargs of 2opatients in this diforder,that, 
Mista Tofentiios . - 928 within the fpace of little more than three 
Scarlatina, one of the moft contagious 
and formidable in the lift of febrile dif- 
eafes, has been, of late, more than ufually 
prevalent, ag leait amongft the humble 
clafles of the community. Ofa diforder 
fo well-known, little new or interefting 
can be remarked, either concerning its 
fymptoms, or the medica] treatment which 
they require. The Reporter has, how- 
ever, in his recent praétice, with regard to 
patients afflicted with Scarlatina, ventured 
‘months, have been fubmitted to his care, 
the folitary inftance of fatality that ec- 
curred was that in which the wafhing, 
though earneftly recommended, was, by 
either the indolence or obftinate timidity _ 
of the attendants, unfortunately omitted. 
One cafe was rather fingular, from the pa- 
tient being 2 woman nearly thirty years 
of age, and from her child, who bung at 
her breatt during the a€tual continuance 
of the difeafe, elcaping entircly uninfected 
by it. r 
| 4% Of 
ee ee 
