Volume 1

Observations on the nature and cure of hospital and jayl-fevers. In a letter to Doctor Mead / [Sir John Pringle].

  • John Pringle
Date:
1750
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the nature and cure of hospital and jayl-fevers. In a letter to Doctor Mead / [Sir John Pringle]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It may be objected to the volatile falts, that being a ftrong alcali, they muft there¬ fore difpofe the humours to putrefa&ion. But we are to confider, that alcalis and pu¬ trid fubftances, are very different; infomuch that I find from experiments, out of the body, that fait of hartfhorn is even antifep- tic, fince it preferves animal fubftance from putrefadtion. And as for the bark, I fhall take this op¬ portunity of communicating the refult of lbmc experiments I have made on it, to the fame purpofe. For, having had frequent oc- cafions of feeing its virtues, not only in mor¬ tifications, but alfo in cafes where I conceiv¬ ed the humours might be in a putrefcent ftate ; I fufpedted its virtues might de¬ pend on fome real aptifeptic quality, which would appear by experiments out of the body. For trying of which, having made a tindture of the bark in plain water, and obferved how long it preferved animal iub- ftances from putrefaction, I found that this preparation not only prevented it, in¬ comparably better, than water did alone, but even when nitre or fea fait was added, and that in a larger proportion than the bark that
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