Observations on poisons; and on the use of mercury in the cure of obstinate dysenteries / by Thomas Houlston.

Date:
1784
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on poisons; and on the use of mercury in the cure of obstinate dysenteries / by Thomas Houlston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    noxious, and injurious to animal life ; as for indance from the Grotto del Cane in Italy*, in which an animal expofed to them a very fhort time is inevitably deftroyed, but, if withdrawn % - • . ' * It has been doubted, whether this vapour is really deleterious in its nature, or only, by its denfity, unfit for refpiration, and therefore oecafions the death of animals imtnerfed in it. In this idea, in the winter of 1768, Richard Paul Jodrell, Efcj; (a gentleman well known in the literary world, as a man of genius and erudition) and I, tried the effort of it upon a viper, which we had procured for that purpofe. It was no {boner plunged into this 'vapour in the grotto, (w,6/cZ>arifes apparently about a foot in height,) thau it tnanifefted evident figns of its being greatly in- commoded. It endeavoured to get to the walls, and being prevented, raifed its head up as much as it was able, opened its jaws wide, feeming to gafp for breath, and after nine minutes, became motionlefs, but being then thrown out into the open air, foon recovered. Dogs, who generally are fubjedted to this experiment, are nearly dead in lefs than half that time ; but this reptile was made choice of, as it is known to be, if I may ufe the expreflion, peculiarly tenacious of life. That it will live long without any fupply of air, or food, is very certain, and the one I am now fpeaking of accidentally furnilhed a fufficient proof of it. When recovered, it was replaced in the box in which we had brought it, and was fhut up dole, and carried back with us to Naples, where it was laid by and forgotten, ’till on Mr. Jodrell’s preparing to leave that city three weeks after- wards, the box was again found, and the viper in it, alive and vigorous.