Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 017.djvu/40



Have promised last Meeting to give my Reasons this day why I conceive Mercury to be an Enemy to the Lungs: I shall only give an account of an Experiment I made on a Dog at Mr. Boyle's last Autumn, which I take to make out what I then promis'd. I injected into the jugular Vein about an ounce and half of crude Mercury, and observ'd the Dog soon after to have a dry short Cough, which by pretty intervals seiz'd him. I sew'd up the Wound, and sent away the Dog to be look'd after, observing no other effect of the Quicksilver at that time. But about two days after I saw him, and found him troubled with a great difficulty of breathing, making a noise like that of a broken-winded Horse; there was no Tumor about the root of his Tongue, neither was there any Swelling found in the Maxillary or Parotide Glandules, though I diligently sought for it: neither was he observ'd to drivle, tho' I order'd him warm Broth in expectation of a Salivation. The fourth day after the injection of the Mercury he died, being for the two days before so troubled with an Orthopnœa, that he could slep only when he leaned his Head against something. I open'd him, and found about him a pint of bloody Serum evtravasated in the Thorax. I found also the outside of the Lungs in most places blister'd, for what I at first took to he some preternatural dilatations of the Vesiculæ of the Bronchiæ, were only Blisters or a separation of the common Integuments of the Lungs from their substance. Some of these were larger than a Rouncival-Pea, others were smaller, but most of them contain'd mercurial globules to be seen even without opening in several of them,