Considerations on the medicinal use of factitious airs and on the manner of obtaining them / [Thomas Beddoes].

  • Thomas Beddoes
Date:
[1794?]-1796
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Considerations on the medicinal use of factitious airs and on the manner of obtaining them / [Thomas Beddoes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (iso: ) fell upon the floor infenfible, and wondered where he — was when he awaked. None of us experienced any dif- agreeable effeéts in confequence of the vertigo, &c. only in going to bed 6 hours afterwards, I felt fome {mall re- mains of the vertigo. Several other perfons have inhaled it fince ; and all were affeéted in the fame manner. I have no doubt, from what I have obferved, that if in- haled in a pure flate, this air would {fpeedily bring on fainting and death ; when given as a medicine, it ought therefore to be much diluted with common air, I fhould think, with 12 timés its own bulk. Its effe&s upon dif- eafed lungs you are better qualified to {peak to, and truft you will give the neceffary cautions for the ufe of {o active a medicine, in a more diftin@ manner than I am qualified to do. About the fame time, I made fome inflammable air by means Of zinc ; it contained a very confiderable quantity of the flowers of that metal ina ftate of fufpenfion, which had the appearance of grey fmoke, as it was difcharged. from the bellows, I breathed this air 3 or 4 times with- out being fenfible of any immediate effeét; nor could I have diftinguifhed it in that manner from common air, though when I blew it out of my lungs againft a lighted paper match, it took fire. Next morning I fpit up fome mucus very folid, and at moft as elaftick as caoutchouc, and the fame in a {maller degree the fecond morning ; this I attributed to the calx of zinc, which I apprehend it contains in a flate of folution, as well as of fulpenfion. Of fixed air, I have little to fay. Ihave occafionally breathed it in larger quantities than were agreeable, and always experienced flying ftitches in the mufcles of my breaft in confequence, but they foon left me without any medicinal help. Confidering that no {pecies of artificial air is obtained except water is obvioufly prefent, or that there is reafon to fufpeét it may be contained as an element, or part of one of the fubftances concerned, and that Dr. Prieftley obtained fixed “air from aerated barytes, by pafling fteam over it when ina red hot flate, though it would yield none by,a mere dry heat, I concluded, that if water of . {team were applied to calcareous earths when redhot, the would readily part with their fixed air, °F} put 13]b. of chalk
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