The next cafe in which it was employed, though not fo defperate as the former, gave fufficient proofs of its nutritive and ftrengthening qualities. A lady, who had been witness to its uncommon efficacy in the nobleman's cafe above mentioned, was encouraged to try it in her own. It was not convenient for her to go herfelf to Tartary, and therefore fhe had it sent to her, well fecured in cafks, during the

autumn.

་

She had been long fubject to a train of nervous diforders. By thefe, fhe was much extenuated, and reduced to a ftate of extreme weakness and irritability. She ufed it for about a month, at the end of which time, the functions of her nervous system were restored, and, with health and vigour, the acquired a plumpnefs and fresh complexion.

The following year, I refolved to try it at Nischne-Novogorod under my own eye. As mares milk could not be obtained in fufficient quantity in town, it was made at the feat of a nobleman, not far diftant, from which it was occafionally tranfported. The feafon was far advanced, however, before a cafe was prefented, in which its efficacy might be tried. At laft, about the middle of Auguft 1782, I was confulted by the General Governor's nephew. He had all the fymptoms of incipient phthifis; pain of breaft; dry cough, occafional hæmoptyfis, and great emaciation; he was not, however, become hectic. His two elder brothers had died of true pulmonary confumptions. He had taken much medicine, in a different part of the country, and had obferved a very trict antiphlogistic regimen; but

though milk had conftituted the greateft part of his diet, yet here were no figns of recovery. He drank Koumifs for about two months only, and that in rather an unfavourable season; but the confequence was, that all the above fymptoms disappeared, and his flesh and ftrength returned; nor was there any reason to apprehend a relapfe, at the time I left that country.

About the fame time, I advised its ufe to another young nobleman, who had laboured under an abfcefs in the left fide, about the region of the twelfth rib. As he had then refided in a remote part of the country, no attention had been paid to it; on the contrary, by improper applications, the fides of the ulcer were become hard. He had loft his flesh and strength; he had occafional faintings; and there were all the appearances of incipient hectic. By the ufe of Koumifs for about fix weeks, proper chirurgical dreffings being at the fame time applied, his health was perfectly re-established.

There were fome other cafes in which I employed it with equal fuccefs; but of which, as being lefs important, I omit the detail.

All those who drank it agreed in faying, that, during its ufe, they had little appetite for food; that they drank it in very large quantities, not only without disguft, but with pleasure; that it rendered their veins turgid, without producing languor; that, on the contrary, they foon acquired from it an uncominon degree of fprightlinefs and vivacity; that even in cafes of fome excefs, it was not followed by indigeftion, head-ach, or any of the symptoms which usually attend the abufe of other fermented liquors.

To

To this may be added, that the Baschkir Tartars, who, towards the end of winter, are much emaciated, no fooner return in fummer to the ufe of Koumifs, than they become ftrong and fat.

From all these circumstances, I think myself entitled to infer, that this wine of mares milk may be applied to many of the purposes of medicine. From the mild acid which it contains, may it not be confidered as a cooling antifeptic? From its vinous fpirit, may it not become an useful ftimulant, cordial, and tonic? And, from its oily and mucilaginous parts, may it not prove a valuable article of nourifhment? If chronic diseases, as is generally allowed, depend on a debility of the folids; and if they are difficult of cure, because the organs, which ought to fupply the body with nourishment and ftrength, do not only themselves partake of the general weakness, but are too often, by the indigestible nature of the food with which they are overcharged, ftill more debilitated; may not a fubftance of easy digeftion, which at once strengthens the ftomach and nourishes the body, become a powerful remedy in all fuch

cafes ?

And if acute difeafes, especially of the febrile kind, are frequently attended with symptoms of weaknefs and putridity, may it not be found, from its antifeptic and tonic powers, to be an useful corrector of the one, and restorative from the other?

May not the fudden change it produced, in the firft cafe, in the ftate of the patient's feelings, and especially of his fleep, point it out as of use in all cafes of exceffive irritability?

May not the effect it had in reftoring his ftomach to its functions, recommend it in dyfpepfia? And may not the vigour and plumpness which enfued from its ufe, indicate it in cafes even of confirmed atrophy?

Have we not reason to believe, that it may be used to advantage in the cure of nervous diforders in general, from the manner in which it operated in the second cafe? And in the incipient, perhaps even in the advanced stages of phthifis, from the rapid and effectual change it occafioned in the pulmonary fymptoms of the third?

And may not its efficacy in the fourth cafe, encourage us to employ it in all cafes of fuppuration or ulcer, in which the body is threatened with hectic fever ?

Whether all thefe queftions can be answered in the affirmative, must be determined by future experience; and, if they fhould, perhaps the fcarcity of mares milk in this country would greatly circumfcribe its utility.

Hence enquiries will naturally be made, whether other fpecies of milk admit of a fimilar vinous fermentation, and what proportion of spirit they contain. As thefe have never been the object, however, of my attention, I will here give the

P. 118.

fubftance

fubftance of what I have been able to learn from others refpecting that which is the most common, the milk of cows.

Dr. Pallas, in the work above quoted, fays, that cows milk is alfo fufceptible of the vinous fermentation, and that the Tartars prepare a wine from it in winter, when mares milk fails them; that the wine prepared from cows milk, they call Airen; but that they always prefer Koumifs when it can be got, as it is more agreeable, and contains a greater quantity of spirit; that Koumifs on diftillation yields of a weak spirit onethird, but that Airen yields only two ninth parts of its whole quantity; which spirit they call Arika.

This account is confirmed by Oferetskowsky, a Ruffiant, who accompanied Lepechin, and other academicians, in their travels through Siberia and Tartary. He published lately a differtation on the ardent fpirit to be obtained from cows milk.

From his experiments, it appears, that cows milk may be fermented with, or even without, fouring, provided fufficient time and agitation be employed; that no fpirit could be produced from any one of its constituent parts taken feparately, nor from any two of them, unless inasmuch as they were mixed with some part of the third; that the milk, with all its parts in their natural proportion, was the most productive of it; that the clofer it was kept, or, which is the fame thing, the more difficultly the fixed air is allowed to efcape during the

fermentation, (care being taken, however, that we do not endanger the bursting of the veffel), the more fpirit is obtained. He alfo informs us, that it had a fourer smell before than after agitation; that the quantity of spirit was increased, by allowing the fermented liquor to repofe for fome time before diftillation; that from fix pints of milk, fermented in a clofe veffel, and thus fet to repofe, he obtained three ounces of ardent spirit, of which one was confumed in burning; but that from the fame quantity of the fame milk, fermented in an open veffel, he could fcarcely obtain one ounce.

These particulars of the fermentation of mares and cows milk are an interesting addition to the facts concerning fermentation in general; a fubject so very obfcure and imperfectly understood, that I fhall not hazard any remarks on it. My principal intention was, to point out to phyficians what appears to me a powerful means which may be employed by them on many occafions in the cure of diseases."

fteel

dried and pulverized, then ufed as other cements are in making steel or, instead of washing off the feafalt, it is better for fome particular kinds of iron, to neutralize it by adding a fixed alkali.

To two parts of the plant well dried and pulverized, add one part of good wood-afhes; mix together and moisten the whole with water or rather urine to the coufiftence of a very thick paste.

It is well known that in every new art, and in perfecting old ones, many unforeseen difficulties arife, and fometimes confiderable fortunes have been spent before the manufacturer or the public have been much benefited. And, fince honeft, but too credulous minds are often deceived by uncertain proof, and being willing to fatisfy myfelf and others, by a better teftimony than my own, I engaged a * gentleman of ability in the fteel way for many years, whose furnace was complete and large, to make experiments upon my new-discovered substance for a cement; who has written me, that "this steel is preferable to any he "had ever made before." After all, I fuppofe different modes of preparation and further experiments will more fully afcertain its utility.

The matter of the furnace muft be of fuch fubftances as will endure a ftrong fire without fufion. Afbeftos has been ufed to advantage, but a fufficiency of it is not found in many places. Pipe clay with one third part of pond-fand, or, which is better, white ftones free from grit, well burnt, and pulverized, inftead of fand, fome fpecies of flate and tale may be ufed with pipe-clay for furnaces and crucibles.

The cheft or interior part of the

furnace, for depofiting the cement and bars of iron, must be covered fo clofe that the inflammable fubftance within may not be confumed, but changed like wood in a coalkiln. The iron to be chofen of the best quality; its toughness and malleability are marks of choice.

Of the ore of iron.-This is often difcovered by the magnet, but a great part of the beft ore is that which the magnet will not attract, as Linnæus and Macquer juftly obferve. When in that ftate it often resembles the ruft or calx of iron. Many tons of which are brought to the iron-works in this neighbourhood, from which the best of iron is made. In its natural state the bett magnetic bar will not attract the fmalleft particle; but when roasted with charcoal it becomes magnetic. This method of knowing whether any earth or ftones contain the true ore of iron, may be of use to difcover new bodies or beds of ore. The reduction of metals, or reftoring them to their metallic ftate from their calces, by combining them with the inflammable principle in the application of charcoal, may fufficiently fhow the efficacy of the above method for the difcovery of the earth of iron in those substances on which the magnet has no effect."

An Account of Land gained from the

Sea on the Effex Coaft, by the Rev. H. Bate Dudley, in a Letter from him addreffed to the Secretary of the Society. From Tranfactions of the Society, inftituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

Bradwell