Delaware State Journal, Advertiser And Star

From the New England Farmer.

CHLORIDE OF LIME AND PULMONARY COMPLAINTS.

The following communication and certificate annexed, afford a fair promise of a specific against one of the most formidable and obstinate of all the diseases to which mankind are liable.

To the Editor of the New England Farmer.

SIR, I hope you will not think me guilty of flattery when I speak of the value to myself and the public of your interesting journal. You publish experiments upon the human system of gentlemen of high respectability, as well as essays, &c. on Agriculture. On reading the experiments so very interesting in pulmonary complaints by Dr. Cotteril (N. E. Farmer, Vol. XI, No. 19, page 147,) in Paris, France, on patients afflicted with consumption, I ventured to try the experiment of inhaling the gaseous perfume of chlorate of lime on a young man, a nephew to my wife, whose certificate accompanies this communication, and which I took myself; after his health had so improved as to visit me, (a ride of 5 miles.) He is about 20 years of age, of steady habits, and industrious. I visited him after he had been sick five or six weeks, and thought him not so sick as I expected to find him, although much reduced. I returned home in hopes I should hear he was better, but every day brought tidings of his growing worse.— A second physician was called, a gentleman of eminence of his profession : I saw him, who informed me he feared his case was doubtful. Some of my family visited him, the answer was he grew worse, was wasting very fast, and according to human view was rapidly approaching the close of life. All this time the article above alluded to never entered my mind, till the young man was in the last stages of a consumption. One Sabbath evening, after retiring, not having much inclination to sleep, I was thinking—of this distressed family, Dr. Cotteril's experiment darted into my mind.— The next morning I spoke of it in my family—my oldest son (who had witnessed the surprising effect which chloride of lime had upon the corpse of a young man who had been dead four days and brought almost sixty miles in a wagon over a rough road in a new country, one year ago in June last) was very urgent for the application to his cousin.— It was procured by sending four miles my son went with it, and administered it watching through the night. Neither of us possessing any medical knowledge I advised him to use it with caution, and at first there was no apparatus used. Some was prepared by putting a quarter of a pound into a junk bottle, filling the bottle with soft water, shaking it a little. letting it stand till settled, pouring it into a saucer, and to a gill adding half as much vinegar, when it is then fit for use The saucer was placed near the bed; finding no unpleasant sensations it was put near to his mouth and nose, advising the sick man to shut his mouth and inhale the fumes through the proper orifice to the lungs. A free use was made of it all the night; the liquid in a vessel was rather inconvenient, a rag was wet, he said he received it stronger from the rag than any other way. My son left him in the morning more comfortable than he had been for several days. The use of it was continued, and the sick man's health improved, to the astonishment of all who saw him. The above, together with the certificate, are the facts as they took place; and the young man's health has improved so much in the short space of time that he is able to transact business and do some labor every day at the date of this communication.

I hope that a further trial will be made by those afflicted with disordered lungs and the result published, as the ingredient is so cheap, and the application so simple and easy, that it is obtainable by every person in every situation of life.

I hope that this case may be published in every journal, as there was no other medicine used and the effect was so salutary.

Yours, respectfully,

JAMES WALKER.

Fryeburg, Me., Aug. 3, 1833.