Elizabeth-Town gazette. [volume] (Elizabeth-Town, N.J.) 1818-1821, 1819-04-13
Sunday, Feb. I, 1919.

From the Monthly Magazine for Feb. 1918.
CURE FOR A CONSUMPTION OF THE
LUNGS.
The medical world has been very agree
ably surprised by ian account Of some
experiments made with vapour Of boiling
tar in the cure of pulmonary consumption,
by DIR. Crichton." This tract must of ne
cessity excite the attention of the public
in no common degree. From the many
failures and disappointmeuts which have
heretofore attended the inhalation Of diff
ferent gases, or modified airs, and par
ticulaIly from, it should seem, the total
failure of the plans adopted by the late
DR.. Beddoes, at Bristol, the faculty have
for some time past been torpid, or slum-
bering over their hopeless patients 10
phthisis pulmonalis, content with merely
smoothing their descent to that bourn
whence no traveller returns but the facts
detailed 10 this publication, cannot fail TO
arouse their energies and awaken their at
tention DIR. Crichton's first patients were
exposed to the vapour Of tar in cable
mandatory, which he one day went to
see, without any other motive than that
of taking walk. In that place where
the tar was boiled in large quantities. he
found to bis great surprise, that although
the vapour affected the eye painfully, yet
he breathed with perfect ease. In kind
of magazine adjoining this, where the va
pour and odour of boiling tar were weak
er, yet strong, the eyes were not affected !;
and it Immediately struck him that this
artificial atmosphere might be OF use to
consumptiye patient, whom he despair
ed of curing. The proprietor of the ca
BILE mandatory Immediately consented to
trial being made, and many patients we're
materially benefited thereby. Expert
meuts were afterwards made by the ply
sicians of the hospital, Messrs. -Bluhm &
Roos, who say they found I" the easiest
and best way of making the tar fumiga-
ton, (pix liquida,) is to put the tar in any
earthen vessel over lamp or heated iron,
to cause a slow volatiization, until the
air of the ward be sufficiently impregnat-
ed with it. This process is repeated
three or four times a day" The result
of their observations is" That the tar
fumigatiou produces very quick and sal.
utary effect on the cough, expectoration
and respiration; that the sleep becomes
more tranquil, continued, and restorative
and that the patients regain strength.
They also remark, +" in the beginning O.
this treatment, the sweats are generally
more profuse; but that these sensibly de
crease 10 the course Of few days. Pa.
tients, whe, before entering the tar vapou
kept their beds constantly, soon regainee
sufficient strength to rise from them, ane
walk about the ward the whole day. AL
who submitted to the tar fumigation have
become convalescent but II is too early We
to affirm that any are completely cured.
DIR. Crichton observes. " that it is evi
dent, from the preceding cases, that ia
fumigation, though completely successfu
in some Of them, did not produce tn
same good effect in all but, on the cthel
hand, the very great relief which every
patient experienced at first from it parti
cularly in the diminution Of cough, ex
pectoration, and hectick fever, is a fac