penetrating, as to be intimately diffused through the air, and to insinuate itself into the pores of all other bodies. Its existence, however, has been denied by many, who assert that the air, by its tenuity and expansion, is fully sufficient for the above-mentioned purposes.
Whatever conjectures may be formed concerning the nature and properties of this subtle fluid, there is every reason to believe in the existence of a matter finer than the air itself. Sir Isaac Newton has observed, that heat is readily communicated through a vacuum, which cannot take place without the intervention of some other medium. This, being subtle enough to penetrate even through the pores of glass, may readily be conceived to be capable of pervading all other bodies, and diffusing itself through every part of space: and thus it conveys a complete idea of an æthereal fluid.
Æther is now principally considered as a chemical composition. It is a combination of vitriolic acid and spirits of wine, and is used for a variety of medical purposes. The head-ach is said to have been often cured by rubbing it on the temples; and Dr. Conyers declares, that a tea-spoon full applied to the affected jaw, and repeated till the pain ceases, is a never-failing remedy for the tooh-ach. It has also been used in cases of rheumatism, gout, and hooping-cough, with great success. In a paroxysm of suffocative asthma, and all those diseases where the organs of respiration are affected, half a tea-spoon full of vitriolic æther in a table-spoon full of water, quickly swallowed and occasionally repeated, has often produced instant relief. Even the simple evaporation of this volatile fluid, a spoonful of which may be placed at a time in a shallow vessel contiguous to the part, has frequently been found of great service, and alleviated the most distressing shortness of breath.
A combination of spirit of sea-salt with the flowers of zinc, produces the marine æther.
Æthusa Cynapium, L. See Fool's Parsley.
AFFLICTION, as opposed to a state of joy and prosperity, cannot be called a disease, though when indulged to excess, it may be productive of many mental and bodily affections. For whatever tends to excite anger, hatred, envy, &c. cannot fail to bring on disorders arising from tense or rigid fibres; as, on the contrary, fear, grief, and excessive joy, engender those maladies which are the consequence of relaxation.
Hence we cannot be too much on our guard against the invasion of passions, which may be truly styled the greatest enemies of mankind. Lord Bolingbroke, in his letters "on the study and use of history," gives the following pertinent advice: "Let us set all our past and our present afflictions at once before our eyes. Let us resolve to overcome them, instead of shrinking from the contest, or of wearing out the sense of them, by long and ignominious patience. Instead of palliating remedies, let us use the incision-knife and the caustic; probe the wound to the bottom, and work an immediate and radical cure." Uninterrupted misery, continues this stoic philosopher, has this good effect, that, as it continually torments, it finally hardens the sufferer.
After-Birth. See Midwifery.
AGARIC of the oak, or the Agaricus Quercinus, L. is well known as a styptic, when applied to external wounds. M. Adouillet, an
