An inaugural dissertation on the chemical and medical history of septon, azote, or nitrogene : and its combination with the matter of heat and the principle of acidity ; submitted to the public examination of the faculty of physic, under the authority of the trustees of Columbia College in the state of New-York ; William Samuel Johnson, LL.D president : for the degree of Doctor of Physic ; on the third day of May, 1796 / by Winthrop Saltonstall, citizen of the state of Connecticut.

  • Saltonstall, Winthrop, 1775-1802.
Date:
1796
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on the chemical and medical history of septon, azote, or nitrogene : and its combination with the matter of heat and the principle of acidity ; submitted to the public examination of the faculty of physic, under the authority of the trustees of Columbia College in the state of New-York ; William Samuel Johnson, LL.D president : for the degree of Doctor of Physic ; on the third day of May, 1796 / by Winthrop Saltonstall, citizen of the state of Connecticut. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    gas left behind by itself. It is afforded by the decomposition of the animal muscular fibre, both by an artificial and natural pro- cess: in the former case by subjecting the muscular fibre to the** action of the septic fn&ric) tic id : during the process, tue scptous gas is evolved; while the carbone and nydrogene of the muscle run together, forming the oily pellicle floating on the surface. That this process takes place in the natural and spontaneous de- composition of the muscular parts of animals, under certain favour- able circumstance?, is evinced by the testimony of Mr. Sneyd,* who gives an account of the conversion of a bird into a hard fatty substance. It should seem 'o have undergone this change by long submersion in the mud and sediment of a fish-pond. An analo- gous instance, of the escape of this gas from its muscular union, is inferred from the relation of a disorganizing process by Mr. Gibbs, of Oxfoid,f in his paper on the conversion of anim; into a substance much resembling spermacasti; and as also appears from Fourcroi's report on the removing the Cimiterie dci Innocens at Paris. In all these cases the original structure of . ap- peared to be the same, though their nature and properties were very much changed by the process they had undergone. This gas, in a pure form, is incapable, like oxygeneair, of sus- taining animal respiration % and combustion: at the same time that it and its compounds appear to serve as a pabulum vit<£ of ve- getables, whose ceconomy is such as probably to decompound it, and attach septon to themselves, as a nutritive ingrec: Septous ga£, combined with hydrogent gas, forms ammoniac (volatile alkali); and it seems to be the opinion of the ablest che- mists, that the other alkalies are like combinations.§ Sect. II.—Gaseous Oxyd of Septoti, SEPTON is capable of combining with the principle of acidity, and the compounds, according to the degree of the oxygenating process, are the following: i. Gaseous oxyd of septon. 2. Septic gas. 3. Septous acid. 4. Septic acid. All which are of a na- ture so interesting as to merit a particular enumeration and dis- cussion. This combination of the principle of acidity, with septon and caloric, in the first or lowest degrees, (for an acquaintance with which we are indebted to the indefatigable labours of Priectley, by whom * Philofophicii Traiifaftions, for 1797., part ii. \ Repertory of Arts and Manuudurcs, No. viii. p. 101:. f< X Frieftiey's Experiment! and Observations on different kinds *f Air, >ol. ii. p. 205. k Chaptal, vol. i. p. 108.