Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/374

Rh thesis be all metallic; some of them being as yet known only in combination, as those of sulphur, of phosphorus, and some others.

Buta phlogistic hypothesis might also be framed, so as to nocount for all the phenomena with equal facility; the principal argument in favour of it being derived from the easy reduction of metals in presence of hydrogen. The ultimate predominance of one or the other hypothesis must, in the author’ 3 estimation, depend upon the nature of ammonia, of which the supposed elements do not present phenomena analogous to those of other simple bodies. Sulphur, for instance, whether combined with hydrogen or with oxygen, has acid properties; but nitrogen combined with one of those bodies is an alkali, and with the other an acid; so that in nitrate of ammonia, nitrogen is neutralized by nitrogen.

Mr. Davy ﬁnally adduces some new facts which accord with Mr. Dalton’s hypothesis respecting the apparent union of ultimate atoms in a given relation by weight,- and he also mentions some new instances in conformity to the observation of M. Gay-Lussac, that the different compounds of gaseous bodies are related in simple tuithmetical proportions by measure.

Thomas Soper, 26 years of age, was bitten by a rattlesnake on the 17th of October. The snake had refused to bite a ruler with which it had been teased, but as soon as the man introduced his hand into the cage for the purpose of taking out the ruler which had dropped in by accident, the snake seized his hand, and made two bites in succession, one on the thumb, and another on the fore-ﬁnger. The ﬁrst person who saw him immediately after the bite supposed him to be intoxicated, and treated him accordingly; but though it is known that he had been drinking, Mr. Home is inclined to ascribe the incoherence of his language and behaviour to the effect of the poison.

In the course of half an hour a swelling had taken place on his hand, and half way up the fore-arm, withagreat deal of pain. In an hour and half it reached the elbow; in two hours it extended half way up toward the shoulder, with much pain in the axilla. The man's answers were incoherent, his skin cold, his pulse 100 in a minute, and he complained of sickness at the stomach.

In the course of eight or nine hours the pain became extremely violent, the swelling very tense, so that the arteries could not be perceived with accuracy, and no pulse could be felt in any part of it. He was seized with ﬁts of faintness every quarter of an hour.

The following morning his pulse was extremely feeble, and 132 in a minute. The swelling had not extended beyond the shoulder to the neck, but there was a fullness of that side down to the loins, with a mottled appearance from extravasation of blood. The arm conti-