[127] Medical Commentaries, Vol. III., and a Thesis printed at Edinburgh, 1784.
[128] See experiments on a heated room. Philosophical Transactions, 1775, Vol. LXV.
[129] That species of locked jaw, called by authors the Trismus Infantium, to which children are liable the first week after birth, is probably owing to the contact of the external air upon the skin, which is accustomed in the womb to a moist and warm medium.
[130] Aretæus Cappadox says, that tetanus in general is even more apt to occur in winter than in summer. De Cauf. & Sign. Morb. Acut. lib. i. cap. vi.
[131] There are several valuable practical remarks on this complaint in some of the ancient authors, especially Aretæus. Their principal means of cure consisted in the application of warm oil to the whole surface of the body, particularly of the part affected. This author also recommends clysters of warm oil, occasionally combined with a medicine called hiera, which consisted of certain spices and gums, with some purgative, such as aloes or colocynth. Aretæus Cappad. de Curat. Morb. Acut. cap. vi. Celsus, lib. iv. cap. iii. Goræaus in vocabulum,ἱερα.
[132] This is a fact which does not admit of doubt; but the manner in which the effect is here produced is a matter of conjecture. It is most probably owing to the compression and tremor of the air in consequence of its resistance to the motion of the ball. We can also conceive, that, with regard to an yielding part, such as the stomach or abdomen, a body flying with great velocity may even, for a moment, displace a portion of it by passing through the same space, without any other mechanical injury than contusion, in a manner similar to what happens to two balls in the act of collision in philosophical experiments made to illustrate the nature of elasticity; or the compressed air may even, in this case, act, as it were, like a cushion, preventing the sudden impulse and contact of the ball. This explanation furnishes a reason why the parts of the body above mentioned should be more liable to be affected by accidents of this kind than the head. Perhaps this difference may also, in part, arise from the principle laid down by Mr. Hunter, that the stomach is more essential to life, and more immediately the seat of it, than the head or any other member or organ of the body, and that an injury to this part is more immediately destructive of life than any other.
[133] The honourable Captain Fitzroy.
[134] Colonel Markham.
[135] Animals are affected by these accidents as well as men. A cow in one of the ships was killed in one of the actions in April, by a double-headed shot passing close to the small of her back.
[136] Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ excerpta est.