MISCELLANY. 
Observations on the Employment of Carbonic Acid Gas as a Therapeutic 
Agent, by Wm. R. Fisher, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy 
in the University of Maryland. — In the twenty-third number of the first 
volume of the "American Medical Intelligencer," (pp. 415 to 417,) 
occurs an abstract from the memoir of Dr. Furnari, relative to the employ- 
ment of carbonic acid gas in medicine. In this abstract the use of fumi- 
gations of this gas to various diseased tissues is spoken of, and the intra- 
vaginal employment of it in amenorrhcea and other uterine diseases warmly 
recommended. It is not my purpose to comment either upon the patho- 
logical considerations which have induced this practice, or to offer any 
views as to its efficacy; but an apprehension lest some injury may result 
from the application of the gas to tissues of such delicacy and sensbility, 
unless the administration be attended with proper precautions, induces me 
to ask the attention of the profession of this country to the following 
considerations. The danger, which I apprehend, may arise from the 
following paragraph: — " These fumigations are prepared, in cases of 
uterine pains, by receiving into the vagina the free extremity of a 
gum elastic canula, surmounted with a nipple-like end, through which is 
passed carbonic acid gas, which is disengaged from carbonate of lime by 
means of dilute sulphuric or hydrochloric acid." " Nothing 
is more simple, less expensive, and more easy to practise than this opera- 
tion." 
It is true enough that there is no simpler operation in chemistry than 
the disengagement of carbonic acid gas, and the subsequent distribution 
of it in any direction by means of an elastic tube; but did the author bear 
in mind that nascent gases, especially those resulting from the action of 
an acid, always carry over with them large quantities of the acid in the 
form of vapor, intimately associated with every bubble that rises? Is 
there not room for apprehension, that the gas fresh from the materials, to 
the reaction of which its escape is due, will carry over a sufficient quan- 
tity of the mineral acid to act, if not as an escharotic, at least as a power- 
ful rubefacient or stimulant to the delicate tissues for whose advantage it 
is directed to be employed 1 
So great have been my apprehensions upon this subject that I have 
felt it my duty to caution the profession against this effect immediately 
vol. iv. — no. ii, 23 
