114. The Chemical Laboratory at Cambridge has produced some valuable discoveries. Ex pede Herculem, let me remind the chemist of the formation of Nitrous Acid, by passing a current of ammoniacal gas through the heated Oxyd of Manganese, for which we are indebted to Dr. Milner. I mention it merely as a whimsical circumstance, that the greatest degree of cold ever produced, was effected at Oxford, and the highest temperature, lately, at Cambridge. The researches of Dr. Clark are highly interesting and important, a succinct account of which has been published in a small work, entitled, “The Gas Blowpipe, or the Art of Fusion, by burning the Gaseous constituents of Water.”

115. These views have prevailed upon the Committee of the College, and they have accordingly restored the Soap to the formula, in the present edition of the Pharmacopœia; so that the above objection no longer exists.

116. The only chemical phenomenon which in any manner resembles this, appears to be that of the rapid acetification of milk, and other fluids, by the agency of a thunder storm.

117. This practice was introduced into France by Seguin, into Italy by Couticini, and into Germany by Bischoff.

118. A very ingenious Dissertation has been lately published by M. Virey, on the ‘Degeneration of Plants in foreign soils,’ which he says may depend upon 1, Climate and Station; 2, Nutriment; 3, Culture; 4, Factitious Mutilation; 5, Hybrid Generation.

119. Women during the period of gestation frequently experience such an increased irritability as to be affected even in England by various odours, which at other times would produce no extraordinary impression.

120. This plant was first described by Gmelin in his Flora Siberica, iv. 121. It has obtained a place in the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia. Besides the effects stated by Dr. Halliday, it is said by different authors to excite a peculiar creeping sensation in the pained part.

121. Journal Complementaire du Dict. des Sciences Medicales, tom. II.

122. Dr. Murett in his “Short view of Frauds and Abuses,” (A. D. 1669) charges the Apothecary with “falsifying Medicines;” “They shewed the Censors,” says he, “Myrtles leaves for Senna; a Binder for a Purger; Mushrooms rubbed over with chalk for Agaric; Hemlock for Pæony; Sheep’s lungs for Fox’s lungs; and the bone of an Ox’s heart, for that of a Stag’s heart.”

123. The editors of the American Medical Recorder (vol. 1, p. 471), in descanting upon the efficacy of Prussic Acid, very gravely remark, that they are acquainted with a lady, subject to hysteric affections, who always derives relief from a dose of Cherry Brandy, in which Peach kernels have been digested; the stimulus of the brandy then goes for nothing with these blockheads! Zimmerman not unaptly compares a man who is intoxicated with a favourite opinion, to a passionate lover, who sees and hears nothing but his mistress.

124. Bezoar, (from Pa-zahar, Persian, a destroyer of poison.) A morbid concretion formed in the bodies of land animals. Several of them were formerly highly celebrated for their medicinal virtues; they were considered as powerful Alexipharmics, in so much so, that other medicines, possessed of alexipharmic powers, were called Bezoardics: so efficacious were these substances formerly considered that they were bought for ten times their weight of gold. Avenzoar, an Arabian physician, who practised at Seville in Spain about the year One Thousand, first recommended it in medicine. A composition of Bezoar with absorbent powers, has been extensively used under the name of Gascoigne powder, and Gascoigne’s Ball; but the real bezoar was rarely used on this occasion; Gypsum, or pipe-clay tinged with ox-gall, proved a less expensive ingredient.

125. Oribasius, a native of Sardes, lived in the fourth century; he was the friend and favourite of the Emperor Julian, under whom he had great authority, and acquired considerable wealth. It would be well for the profession of Physic, and for the public, if crowned heads generally evinced as much discrimination in the appointment and patronage of physicians.

126. Three-fourths at least of the Quack Medicines of the present day are remedies of this description, and are compounded according to such receipts.

127. Medical Logic. Edit. 2nd, p. 92.

128. The term sympathy has often been objected to, as being too figurative; it is certainly a metaphor taken from an affection of the mind, but, as Sir Gilbert Blane very justly remarks, the import of words ought either to be assumed conventionally according to a definition, or to be adhered to in the sense affixed to it by established usage; “by animal sympathy,” says he, “is not meant the intelligible principle of Stahl’s hypothesis, but that mutual influence of distant parts, so subtle and rapid as in some instances to be compared to thought or lightning; while in other instances it is an action more tardy and habitual.” Medical Logic, Edit. 2nd, p. 123. In the present work, I wish the reader to understand the term sympathy, wherever it may occur, in conformity with the above definition.

129. Colchicum, Squill, and many other vegetable diuretics, are of this nature.

130. The Indian Fig, (Cactus Opuntia,) when eaten, renders the urine of a bloody colour.

Rhubarb has likewise an effect upon the colour of this secretion.

131. This is probably the reason of many bodies producing but little effect upon the inferior animals. The vegetable eaters are certainly less affected by vegetable poisons than those animals who exclusively live upon animal substances: it is thus, that a rabbit can take a very large dose of opium without any ill effects, while half the same quantity would poison a dog. It is a curious fact, that a sound horse can take a very considerable portion of opium with impunity, but if he be weakened by previous disease, by strong purgatives, or by excessive bleeding, he is speedily destroyed by a much less dose; (See Bracy Clarke’s Reformed Pharmacopœia for Horses.) In this latter case, does it not appear that the fatal result depends upon the fact of the digestive organs having been disabled, by debility, from effecting that decomposition by which under ordinary circumstances, the drug is disarmed of its potency? What important lights might not be obtained by the institution of a series of well devised experiments upon the comparative effects of medicinal bodies upon man and other animals? The Physiologist has thus availed himself of the resources of the comparative anatomist, and I feel persuaded, that results equally beneficial to science would follow a similar inquiry in relation to the operation of medicines.

In the course of the present work, I hope to shew the truth of this position by some appropriate illustrations.

132. That the Vena Portarum constitutes one of the avenues through which certain extraneous bodies enter the circulating current, there cannot exist a doubt; but a series of well-devised experiments are greatly wanted for the elucidation of the subject. The Professors of Veterinary Medicine might on this occasion render us an important service by some comparative researches.

133. See Unguent. Hydrarg.

134. Treatise on the Materia Medica, vol. I. p. 191.

135. Medical Literature, Edit. 2. (Pharmacology,) p. 454.

136. System of Mat. Med. vol. I. p. 132.

137. A system of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, vol. 1. p. 131.

138. Narcotics, from νάρκη Torpedo; an animal which has the power of stupefying any thing that it touches.

139. During the severe campaigns of the late war, the Surgeons of the French army were in the practice of administering Opium and Cayenne Pepper to the soldiers who were exhausted by fatigue.

140. Treatise on Nervous Diseases, vol. 1. p. 221.

141. Bitterness in vegetables has been supposed to reside in a peculiar proximate principle, which has been accordingly named the Bitter Principle. Such an opinion, however, does not appear to rest on sufficient evidence; on the contrary, experiment has shewn that it is very generally connected with the extractive matter of the plant, as it is obtained equally by the action of water and alcohol; it is not volatile, nor are its energies impaired by decoction.

142. Thus Sir H. Davy, in comparing the composition of the soluble products afforded by different crops from the same grass, found in every trial, the largest quantity of truly nutritive matter in the crop cut when the seed was ripe and the least bitter extractive, and saline matter; while in the autumnal crops these relations were found inverted. Elem. of Agricult. Chem.

143. Molina, in his history of Chili, speaking of the Potatoe, says, “It is indeed found in all the fields of this country, but the plants that grow wild, called by the Indians Maglia, produce only very small roots of a bitter taste.” Dr. Baldwin also found the wild parent of the potatoe plant at Monte Video, and Mr. Lambert informs us that this statement has been confirmed by Captain Bowles, who has not long since returned from the South American station; he says, “it is a common weed in the gardens, bearing small tubers, but too bitter for use.” Royal Institution Journal, No. XIX.

144. Discourses on the Elements of Therapeutics and Materia Medica, by N. Chapman, M. D. Philadelphia, 1819.

145. Thus it has been found by experiments, that the Menyanthes Trifoliata, (the Water Trefoil,) which on account of its bitterness has been used as a substitute for Hops, is a cure for the rot in sheep, when given in doses of a drachm of the powdered leaves; and Dr. William Bulleyn, the cotemporary of Turner, the father of English Botany, observes in his work, entitled “The Bulwark of Defence,” that Tormentil, in pastures, prevents the rot in sheep.

146. αρωμα, which is compounded of αρι, very, and οδμη, or οσμη, smell.

147. The origin of this term is derived from the superstitious custom of curing such complaints by incantations in verse (Carmina), or perhaps it may be understood metaphorically as expressive of the instantaneous relief which these medicines are capable of affording; operating, as it were, like a charm.

148. When tannin is present in grasses, as Sir H. Davy found in that of aftermath crops, it is voided in the excrement by animals who feed upon it, together with the bitter extractive, saline matter, and woody fibre. (Elem. of Agricult. Chem. Appendix, p. lxi.) We may therefore infer by analogy that it does not enter into the circulation.

149. Various combinations, into which different metallic salts have generally entered as ingredients, have at different periods been extolled for their efficacy as Styptics: Helvetius published an account of a preparation composed of the filings of iron and tartar, mixed to a proper consistence with French brandy, and it was long used in France, Germany, and Holland, under the name of Helvetius’s Styptic.

Eaton’s Styptic. After the styptic of Helvetius had been discarded from the Continent, it was brought into this country, and for a long time continued to be employed with confidence, under the new title of Eaton’s Styptic. It is now made in several different modes, and consists chiefly of an alcoholic solution of sulphate of iron, with some unimportant additions.

150. This theory, however, did not originate with Dr. Majendie, for Chiarac, a French Physician of the 17th century, drew the same conclusion from an experimental enquiry (Histoire de l’Academie Royale des Sciences, p. 12. An. 1700.)

151. Upon the very same principle, a person may die from suffocation, in consequence of an injury in the brain; the respiratory muscles being unable to sustain the function of breathing, for want of a due supply of nervous influence. This happens in cases of Apoplexy, and in poisoning by Narcotics.

Those who wish for farther information upon this subject may consult the chapter on “The Physiological Causes and Phœnomena of Sudden Death,” in my work on “Medical Jurisprudence,” Vol. 2. p. 16.

152. Hippocrat. de Diœta. lib. iii. et alibi passim.

This predilection of the ancients for Emetics is the more extraordinary, as they were acquainted with those only which were of the most violent and unmanageable description; the Veratrum or White Hellebore, was sometimes fatal.

153. Few discoveries in physiology have thrown greater light upon this important subject than that of M. Majendie, published in his Journal De Physiologie Experimentale, (1^er numero—Janvier, 1821) in a paper entitled, “Memoir sur le Méchanisme de L’Absorption.” The results contained in this essay are the more interesting to me, as they were read at the Academy of Sciences at Paris, some time after the publication of the Third Edition of my Pharmacologia, and it will be observed, in what a satisfactory manner they confirm the views which I offered at that time, respecting the influence of venesection in accelerating the absorption of Mercury. In the Fourth Edition (published in October, 1820, p. 115,) these views were farther extended, and as I could not have been influenced by the experiments of M. Majendie, which were not published until some time afterwards, it is very fair to conclude, that when two persons arrive at the same result by different trains of investigation, such a result must be correct. The conclusions established by the experimental inquiries of M. Majendie, with regard to absorption, appear to me to be so important, in reference to the object of the present work, that I shall pause, in this place, for the purpose of furnishing the reader with a short account of them. M. Majendie states, that while performing the experiment of injecting warm water into the veins of a living animal, he first conceived the idea of observing what effects would be produced upon the function of absorption by the artificial plethora, thus occasioned; having accordingly injected a quantity of water into the venous system of a middle-sized dog, he introduced a small portion of an active substance, whose effects were well known, into his side, when he was surprised to find that its usual operation was not manifested until after an interval much longer than usual; the same experiment was afterwards repeated upon another animal, and with similar results. In a third experiment, as much water (about two pounds) was injected, as the animal could sustain without destruction, in which case the poisonous substance produced no effect whatever, the powers of absorption appearing to be entirely suspended: and having waited during half an hour for the occurrence of those symptoms which, under ordinary circumstances, would have manifested themselves in two minutes, M. Majendie concluded that if vascular congestion be the cause of the suspension of absorption, the function ought to be restored by the removal of this artificial condition, an opinion which he proceeded to verify by experiment; the jugular vein of the animal, under trial, was accordingly opened, and the ingenious operator had the satisfaction to observe the effects of the poison gradually developing themselves in proportion as the blood flowed. M. Majendie next proceeded to confirm the truth of his position, by an experiment, the converse of those above related; an animal was bled, to the amount of about half a pound, and the poisonous substance applied to the pleura of the animal, as in the foregoing experiments, when it appeared that those effects which, under ordinary circumstances, were not evident until after a period of twelve minutes, manifested themselves after an interval of only thirty seconds. In order to shew that these results actually arose from vascular distention, and not from the artificial state of dilution in which the blood was placed, M. Majendie instituted the following experiment: a considerable quantity of blood was drawn from the vein of a dog, and replaced by a similar quantity of warm water, after which a measured quantity of Nux Vomica in solution was introduced into the side, when the poisonous effects were found to take place with the same rapidity as if the blood had not been mixed with water.

154. The practical application of this fact may be useful, and digestion, in certain cases, may be thus promoted by the simple expedient of changing the quality of our bread.

155. Since the publication of this opinion, in the 5th edition of the Pharmacologia, Dr. Hamilton has honoured me by a letter on the subject, but I am still bound to confess that my sentiments remain unaltered.

156. The Melampodium, or Black Hellebore, was recommended as an agent of this description in the strongest terms, by Mead; Savin (Juniperus Sabina) is another vegetable which has been generally considered as a specific Emmenagogue; with some authors, the Rubia Tinctorum, Madder; with others, the Sinapis alba have been regarded as remedies of this nature; and lately Polygala Senega has been extolled by the American practitioners; in modern times, however, few substances have been more confidently recommended as uterine stimulants than the Secale Cornutum, or Ergot, but of which I have no practical knowledge.

157. Saline bodies would appear to be the peculiar stimuli of these organs, the principal use of which is to separate such saline matter from the blood, as would otherwise accumulate in the system. That these saline diuretics actually pass off by the kidneys, may be satisfactorily shewn by an examination of the urine, in which the bodies in question may be chemically detected. Let any person swallow several doses of Nitre, taking care that the bowels are not disturbed by the medicine, and he will find by dipping some paper into his urine, and afterwards drying it, that it will deflagrate, and indicate the presence of nitre.

158. The Secondary Diuresis which sometimes takes place under such circumstances, and succeeds Catharsis, may offer an apparent exception to this law; but this must not be confounded with that which is the result of a Primary action upon the urinary organs by the absorption, and consequent contact, of a specific Stimulant.

159. Certain mineral waters, containing cathartic salts in a state of extreme dilution, if insufficient to excite the bowels, sometimes pass off by the kidneys; an effect which can always be prevented by accompanying their exhibition with some laxative.

160. See Sir Gilbert Blane’s Medical Logic, Edit. 2, page 190.

161. The cutaneous discharge is very materially modified by the state of the atmosphere, in its relations to moisture and dryness: when the air contains much moisture it is a bad conductor of the perspirable matter, which therefore, instead of being carried off in an insensible form, is condensed upon the surface; hence we appear to perspire greatly upon the slightest exercise, whereas the cuticular discharge is at such times absolutely less. We have all experienced the sensation of heat, and disposition to sweating, during the moist weather which so frequently occurs in this country in April and May, the wind being at the time stationary at south-west or south. On the contrary, during the prevalence of an east wind, the most violent exercise will scarcely prove diaphoretic, and yet the quantity of cutaneous exhalation is far greater than during that state of atmosphere when the slightest exercise deluges us with perspirable matter.

162. Lommius de Febribus.

163. De Medicina. Lib. iii. c. 7.

164. This practice is still cherished by the vulgar, especially in some of the more remote districts of the kingdom. It is with this view that the Cornish nurse continues to keep down the excess of population, by administering Gin and Treacle, in her smoky chimney corner, to children labouring under measles, in order to throw out the eruption.

165. M. Du Hamel has recorded the cases of two countrymen, considerably advanced in life, who were cured of Dropsy by remaining for some time in a baker’s oven, soon after the bread had been drawn. Varikbillan, ninth Caliph of the race of the Abassides, is said to have been cured by a nearly similar method. His physician caused him to enter a lime-kiln soon after the lime had been removed, when in the course of a few days he was totally cured of his dropsy. The ancients excited sweating in this disease, by burying the patient up to the neck in heated sand or ashes (Celsus, Lib. iii. c. 30.), and Lysons cured cases by placing his patients in rooms heated to a very high temperature.

In the history of the Royal Academy of Sciences, for 1703, a case is related of a woman, who, tired out by the protracted Dropsy under which her husband laboured, charitably administered to him a very large dose of opium, with the intention of despatching him, but the medicine immediately produced such a copious sweat that it restored him to health!

166. σιαλος, saliva; et αγω, excito.

167. I of course except its application in the form of vapour, in which state it proves extremely active. See Hydrargyrum.

168. Medical Logic, Edit. 2. p. 75.

169. Transactions of a Society for the Improvement of Medical and Chirurgical knowledge, Vol. iii. p. 119. London, 1822.

170. Medical and Physical Journal for October, 1811.

171. De Sed. et Caus. Morb. Epist. xiv. art. 27.

172. Comment. ad Aph. 271.

173. This is one of the most ancient superstitions which have descended to us. It was customary in Greece, when any one sneezed, to exclaim Ζῆθὶ, ‘May you live;’ or Ζευ σῶσον, ‘God bless you.’ Aristotle, in his problems, has attempted to account for the origin of the custom, but unsatisfactorily; Pliny, (Nat. Hist. lib. 28. c. 2) asks—“Cur Sternutantes salutentur?”

174. Eberle’s Treatise on the Materia Medica.

175. It is said that whenever Dunning, the celebrated barrister, was called upon to make the finest display of his eloquence, whether forensic or parliamentary, he constantly applied a blister to his chest, which he found to have the effect of imparting an unusual tone and vigour to his body, and elevation to his mind.

176. From Setum a Horse hair, a substance which was formerly used for the accomplishment of this object.

177. It sometimes happens that the stomach and digestive organs are so weakened by disease as to lose their control, or what Dr. Fordyce called their ‘governing power,’ in which case they would appear to be unable to prevent the matters which they contain from acting chemically upon each other, and occasioning decompositions and new combinations: in such cases substances are sometimes developed in the internal organs by the action of disease, which are capable of producing a chemical effect upon the fluids; for instance,—an acid is not unfrequently generated in the bowels of children which decomposes the bile and produces a green precipitate, and green stools are the consequence; in other cases the acid combines with the Soda of the bile, and the precipitate thus occasioned is thick, viscid, very bitter, and inflammable, and we have stools looking like pitch. In Yellow Fever, and in several other diseases, the bile which is brought up by vomiting is frequently of a vivid green colour, and some writers have attributed the phenomenon to a morbid condition, or action of the liver or gall bladder; the fact however is, that the bile itself undergoes a chemical change in the Duodenum and Stomach. That bile does undergo such a change from decomposition, is proved by a variety of facts observed to take place out of the body; it is well known, for instance, that the fæces of infants, although yellow when voided, frequently become green after some time, and Dr. Heberden observes, in his Commentaries, that the urine of a certain jaundiced patient, which was of a deep yellow, became after a few hours green: in such cases it is probable that an acid is generated by the reaction of the elements of which the bile consists.

178. System of Materia Medica, vol. 1. p. 453.

179. The same fact has been long known by the Divers in the Indian Pearl-fisheries; see my Work on Medical Jurisprudence, Introduction, Vol. 1. p. v.

180. See a paper upon this subject by Mr. Brodie, Phil. Trans. 1811.

181. Medical Logic, Edit. 2. p. 50.

182. From αντὶ against, and λὶθος a stone.

183. From λὶθος, and θρυπτω to break.

184. The kidneys have a more obtuse sensibility, and not such energetic activity as other glands possess; vital action is less concerned in the secretion they carry on, and their functions more easily fall under chemical and hydraulic explanations.—(Richerand.)

185. An Inquiry into the Nature and Treatment of Gravel, Calculus, and other diseases connected with a deranged operation of the Urinary Organs; by W. Prout, M. D. F. R. S.

186. On the Chemical History and Medical Treatment of Calculous Disorders, by A. Marcet, M. D. F. R. S.

187. Journal of the Royal Institution, Vol. VI.

188. Medical Transactions of the College of Physicians, Vol. VI.

189. The ancients considered the urine as a kind of extract of animal substances, a true lixivium, by which every thing impure in the animal economy was washed away, and hence they gave it the name of Lotium.

190. Mr. Brande first stated the existence of this acid in urine; but Berzelius expressed his doubts respecting the fact. The experiments of Dr. Marcet, however, are certainty favourable to the conclusion of the former chemist, and Dr. Prout informs us that he has himself seen small calculi discharged from the bladder composed principally of the carbonate of lime.

191. The reader will find some interesting observations upon this subject in Dr. Prout’s Treatise, p. 22.

192. The name of Uric Acid was suggested by Dr. Pearson: it is, however, as Dr. Marcet very justly remarks, objectionable, on account of the close resemblance which the term bears to that of Urea, a substance totally distinct from Lithic Acid.

193. Recherches physiologiques et médicales sur les causes, les symptomes, et le traitement de la gravelle, 8vo. Paris. 1818.

194.

Ultimate Principles of Lithic Acid.
According to M. Berard, and adopted by M. Majendie.		According to Dr. Prout.
Azote	39·16	31·12
Carbon	33·61	40·00
Oxygen	18·89	26·26
Hydrogen	8·34	2·22
	100·00	100·00

195. This fact derives its pathological interest from the probability that, in certain states of disease, the Lithic acid assumes this peculiar modification, giving to the sediments of urine those beautiful hues which were formerly considered by Proust, as the effect of an acid, which he named the Rosacic; now as the Purpuric acid, or rather the Purpurate of Ammonia, says Dr. Prout, is nothing more than Lithic acid modified by the action of Nitric acid, and as I have already shewn that the Pink and Lateritious sediments occasionally contain nitric acid in some peculiar state of combination, the nature and origin of the colouring matter cease to be problematical.

196. Whence is derived the large quantity of Phosphoric acid which is daily evacuated from the system?—The researches of modern chemistry have furnished a very satisfactory solution of this problem, by demonstrating its presence in those animal and vegetable substances which are used by us as food. Mr. Barry, in prosecuting his interesting and important experiments on the preparation of Pharmaceutical Extracts in vacuo, discovered the curious fact, that Phosphoric acid is to be found in all the extracts in a soluble state; and on extending the investigation, says he, it was ascertained that this acid, besides that portion of it which exists as phosphate of lime, is contained in a vast variety of vegetables, and more especially in those which are cultivated. Medico-Chirug. Trans. Vol. 10, p. 240.

197. The urine of infants and nurses contains very little phosphate of lime and phosphoric acid; it is not until after ossification is finished, that these elements are found in abundance in the urinary fluid. That of old men, on the contrary, contains a great quantity of them; the bony system, already overcharged with phosphate of lime, refuses to admit more of it. This saline substance would ossify every part, as it does sometimes in the arteries, ligaments, cartilages, and membranes, if the urine were not to remove the greater part of this superabundant portion. In Rachitis it is by the urine that the phosphate of lime passes off, the absence of which causes the softness of bones. (Richerand). If we might be allowed to theorise, I should say, that this disease depends upon a deficient action in the powers of assimilation, in consequence of which the phosphoric acid is incapable of entering into its assigned combinations, and is therefore eliminated as excrementitious. Dr. Glisson considered the disease to depend upon some fault in the spinal marrow, whence he termed it Rachitis, from ῥακὶς Spina Dorsi.

198. Transactions of Stockholm.

199. Cystic Oxide, discovered by Dr. Wollaston in 1815: it does not affect vegetable colours, and has all the chemical habitudes of an oxide.

200. Dr. Marcet discovered two calculi, which were not referable to any of the known species; but they are not introduced into the following table, as they may never again occur; at all events, from their extreme rarity, they cannot be considered as objects of practical interest. To one of these he has given the name of Xanthic Oxide, because it forms a lemon coloured compound when acted upon by Nitric acid. To the other nondescript calculus he has bestowed the appellation of Fibrinous, from its resemblance to Fibrine.

201. I am by no means disposed to reject altogether, as a popular fallacy, the general opinion in favour of the anti-lithic virtues of malt liquor; the observations which have been already offered (page 79) will explain how such agents may occasionally operate in assisting digestion. In the observations made upon the Bills of Mortality in the year 1662, by an ingenious citizen, concerning the increase of some diseases, and the decrease of others, it is observed “The Stone and Strangury decreaseth, from the drinking of Ale.”

202. In consultation with Dr. Baillie, some few months before his death, he said to me “although I have never published the opinion, I am satisfied that after a patient has long laboured under diseased liver, the blood becomes surcharged with alkaline matter.”

203. See an explanation of this term in the note, at page 112.

204. It is, says Dr. Prout, a very old observation, that injuries of the back produce alkaline urine; “it also appears,” continues this author, “to hold in other animals as well as in man; thus I have frequently observed jaded and worn-out horses pass great quantities of lime in their urine; I have known the same also to take place in dogs, and particularly of the sporting kinds; and in both these instances have thought it probable, that the circumstance was connected with some strain or injury of the back produced by over-exertion, or other causes.”