Jenks's Portland Gazette

ALKALIES,
The great Antidotes against Poisons.

Mr. Williams, a writer in the Asiatic Transactions, affirms, that the bites of the worst serpents of India, can be cured by eau de luce, which is a preparation of the spirit of sal ammoniac or volatile alkali. Of this he produces a number of cases.

Mr. Ferrier of Manchester reports, that of a large number of cases of persons bitten by mad dogs, and treated with caustic alkali, not one was seized with that horrid symptom, hydrophobia or dread of water.

The experiments of Mr. Heberden have shewn, that one of the worst forms of elephantiasis, or infectious leprosy, can be happily cured by alkaline remedies.

Of late, some German physicians have cured the tetanus traumaticus, or spasmodic disease, ending in locked jaw, consequent upon wounds, by alkalies administered both internally in mixture, and applied externally for a bath or lotion.

Mr. Barker and Mr. Harris bear witness to the efficacy of alkalies, in getting the better of that venomous fluid in the stomach and bowels, which causes the terrible symptoms of ardent fevers and dysenteries. And Dr. Charlton and Dr. Bard have attested the efficacy of lime-water in mitigating the black vomit itself.

Some communications read last summer before the corporation of New-York and directed by that liberal body to be published, contain the clearest evidence of the superior wholesomeness of lime-stone and marble for materials of houses and the pavements of the streets in cities; and of the efficacy of the fixed mineral alkali or barilla, in guarding against the notorious effluvia of dead bodies.

Thus it appears by a variety of concurrent testimonies that the anti-septic, anti-pestilential and anti-venomous effects of alkalies, which have been so fully explained, and so warmly recommended in America, promise to do more good to society, than all the rest of modern improvements. And in these researches, to the honor of our country, and time, Dr. Mitchell, a native American, has taken the lead.