Alexandria Gazette, Commercial And Political

M. Gage has lately stated in a memoir read to the National Institute at Paris, the efficacy of fluid Volatile alkali in cases of severe Apoplexy. For at least forty years, says he, I have had opportunities of witnessing the efficacy of Volatile alkali taken internally as an immediate remedy for the Apoplexy, if employed in the first appearance of the disease. One of the keepers of my cabinet, aged 72 years, robust, though thin, and very sedate, was seized with an Apoplexy, he fell down deprived of sense. When raised up he had the rattles in his throat, his eyes were closed, his face pallid and his teeth fixed together. I drew out his lips so as to answer the purpose of a spout, into which was poured a spoonful of water containing twenty five or thirty drops of fluid Volatile alkali. At the same time two slips of paper, the edges of which were wet with the Volatile alkali and introduced into his nostrils. The teeth were speedily separated and the eyes opened. A second dose of the alkali was instantly poured down his throat. The rattles ceased, speech and recollection returned, and in the course of an hour the patient recovered sufficiently to proceed without assistance three hundred paces to his own chamber. In another hour he got up and asked for something to eat; and has since experienced no return of the disorder. He reports another case in the person of one of his friends who was a great eater and was struck with the Apoplexy while at table. The Volatile alkali excited a vomiting and after that had abated, the patient took twenty drops of Volatile alkali in half a glass of wine. His senses returned, and in two hours he was walking in his garden.