Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. II

by Erasmus Darwin

Miss ——, a young lady about eight years of age, had a swelling about the size of a pigeon's egg on her neck a little below her ear, which long continued in an indolent state. Thirty or forty small electric shocks were passed through it once or twice a day for two or three weeks, and it then suppurated and healed without difficulty. For this operation the coated jar of the electric machine had on its top an electrometer, which measured the shocks by the approach of a brass knob, which communicated with the external coating to another, which communicated with the internal one, and their distance was adjusted by a screw. So that the shocks were so small as not to alarm the child, and the accumulated electricity was frequently discharged, as the wheel continued turning. The tumour was inclosed between two other brass knobs, which were fixed on wires, which passed through glass tubes, the tubes were cemented in two grooves on a board, so that at one end they were nearer each other than at the other, and the knobs were pushed out so far as exactly to include the tumour, as described in the annexed plate, which is about half the size of the original apparatus.

Inflammations of the eyes without fever are frequently cured by taking a stream of very small electric sparks from them, or giving the electric sparks to them, once or twice a day for a week or two; that is, the new vessels, which constitute inflammation in these inirritable constitutions, are absorbed by the activity of the absorbents induced by the stimulus of the electric aura. For this operation the easiest method is to fix a pointed wire to a stick of sealing wax, or to an insulating handle of glass, one end of this wire communicates with the prime conductor, and the point is approached near the inflamed eye in every direction.

[III]. Externally the application of ether, and of essential oils, as of cloves or cinnamon, seem to possess a general stimulating effect. As they instantly relieve tooth-ach, and hiccough, when these pains are not in violent degree; and camphor in large doses is said to produce intoxication; this effect however I have not been witness to, and have reason to doubt.

The manner in which ether and the essential oil operate on the system when applied externally, is a curious question, as pain is so immediately relieved by them, that they must seem to penetrate by the great fluidity or expansive property of a part of them, as of their odoriferous exhalation or vapour, and that they thus stimulate the torpid part, and not by their being taken up by the absorbent vessels, and carried thither by the long course of circulation; nor is it probable, that these pains are relieved by the sympathy of the torpid membrane with the external skin, which is thus stimulated into action; as it does not succeed, unless it is applied over the pained part. Thus there appears to be three different modes by which extraneous bodies may be introduced into the system, besides that of absorption. 1st. By ethereal transition, as heat and electricity; 2d. by chemical attraction, as oxygen; and 3d. by expansive vapour, as ether and essential oils.

[IV]. The perpetual necessity of the mixture of oxygen gas with the blood in the lungs evinces, that it must act as a stimulus to the sanguiferous system, as the motions of the heart and arteries presently cease, when animals are immersed in airs which possess no oxygen. It may also subsequently answer another important purpose, as it probably affords the material for the production of the sensorial power; which is supposed to be secreted in the brain or medullary part of the nerves; and that the perpetual demand of this fluid in respiration is occasioned by the sensorial power, which is supposed to be produced from it, being too subtle to be long confined in any part of the system.

Another proof of the stimulant quality of oxygen appears from the increased acrimony, which the matter of a common abscess possesses, after it has been exposed to the air of the atmosphere, but not before; and probably all other contagious matters owe their fever-producing property to having been converted into acids by their union with oxygen.

As oxygen penetrates the fine moist membranes of the air-vessels of the lungs, and unites with the blood by a chemical attraction, as is seen to happen, when blood is drawn into a bason, the lower surface of the crassamentum is of a very dark red so long as it is covered from the air by the upper surface, but becomes florid in a short time on its being exposed to the atmosphere; the manner of its introduction into the system is not probably by animal absorption but by chemical attraction, in which circumstance it differs from the fluids before mentioned both of heat and electricity, and of ether and essential oils.

As oxygen has the property of passing through moist animal membranes, as first discovered by the great Dr. Priestley, it is probable it might be of use in vibices, and petechiæ in fevers, and in other bruises; if the skin over those parts was kept moist by warm water, and covered with oxygen gas by means of an inverted glass, or even by exposing the parts thus moistened to the atmosphere, as the dark coloured extravasated blood might thus become florid, and by its increase of stimulus facilitate its reabsorption.

Two weak patients, to whom I gave oxygen gas in as pure a state as it can easily be procured from Exeter manganese, and in the quantity of about four gallons a day, seemed to feel refreshed, and stronger, and to look better immediately after respiring it, and gained strength in a short time. Two others, one of whom laboured under confirmed hydrothorax, and the other under a permanent and uniform difficulty of respiration, were not refreshed, or in any way served by the use of oxygen in the above quantity of four gallons a day for a fortnight, which I ascribed to the inirritability of the diseased lungs. For other cases the reader is referred to the publications of Dr. Beddoes; Confederations on the Use of Factitious Airs, sold by Johnson, London.

Its effects would probably have been greater in respect to the quantity breathed, if it had been given in a dilute state, mixed with 10 or 20 times its quantity of atmospheric air, as otherwise much of it returns by expiration without being deprived of its quality, as may be seen by the person breathing on the flame of a candle, which it enlarges. See the Treatise of Dr. Beddoes above mentioned.