Letters from Dr. Withering ... Dr. Ewart ... Dr. Thornton ... and Dr. Biggs ... together with some other papers supplementary to two publications on asthma, consumption, fever, and other diseases ... / By Thomas Beddoes. [Ed. by Beddoes].

Beddoes, Thomas, 1760-1808

Date:: 1794?]

Credit: Letters from Dr. Withering ... Dr. Ewart ... Dr. Thornton ... and Dr. Biggs ... together with some other papers supplementary to two publications on asthma, consumption, fever, and other diseases ... / By Thomas Beddoes. [Ed. by Beddoes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Ob servations on the Alteration produced in the Air of Places where a great Number of Perfons are affemhled. By Mr. Lavoifier. THIS Paper is taken from the Memoirs of the Paris Society of Medicine, a Work that does not fall in the way of ordinary readers. It is valuable in itfelf\ and intimately c mine fled with the fubjefl of Difeafes that may be cured, or relieved by breath¬ ing different airs. I am indebted for the tranflation to the ldndnefs of a Friend. The chemical terms are rendered con¬ formable to the new French nomenclature, which did not exifl in 1785, when this paper was read; and the degrees of Fah¬ renheit sf cole are JubJntuted in the place of thofe of Reaumur, but the weights and meafures are French. T. B. MODERN Chemifts have difeovered that, befides the common refpirable air, there is in nature a Variety of fluids which agree with it in its moft obvious properties. Like the air of the atmofphere, they are colourlefs, and fo perfe&ly elaftic, fluid, and tranfparent, that they would efcape the Sight and Touch, if their refiftance and the poflibility of confining them, did not in many inftances convince us of their exiftence. But though they bear a confiderable refemblance to common atmofpheric air in their external, or what may be called their phyfical qualities, yet they are found to differ eflentially when chemically examined; viewed in this light, fome are difeovered to be nothing more than the ordinary alkalis or acids in a ftate of vapour; others are neutral Jubilances of a very Angular nature, and there are others again whofe properties have not vet been afeertained. Accurate and profound refearches into the nature of aeriform fluids, have fhewn that they are indebted for their elaftic ftate to the matter of heat, which enters into their compofition: that all volatile fubftances whatfoever are fufceptible of Evaporation, and are tranf* formed into a fpecies of air by a certain quantity of heat: that the upper furface of the mercury in the barometer, for example, being at its mean height, (or about 28 Paris inches above that of the mercury in the bafon) water aflumes an aeriform ftate at the temperature of 2120 degrees of Fahren¬ heit’s thermometer ; and Spirit of Wine at that of yff : that thefe fluids, thus rendered elaftic and aeriform, are capable of being confined under glafs bells, or other receivers : that they may be transferred from one veffel to another, and A 2 fubje&ed$