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AND LETTERS.

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A bottle of the acid was broken in the laboratories of Dr. Ittner, in Germany, and of Professor Silliman, in America; both of these gentlemen experienced oppression at the chest and painful respiration, giddiness or vertigo, and burning heat. Dr. Hiller (London Med. and Physical Journal, vol. liii, p. 63) details the case of a chemist in Paris, who applied a bottle of Schule's acid to his nose. He was seized with extreme tightness across the chest and rigidity of the whole body; his legs, in particular, were moveless. The vapour of ether and ammonia were applied to his nostrils; but the circulation remained extremely slow, the pulse not rising above forty in the minute. He did not wholly recover until the following day.

"From the consideration of the powerful influence of this acid, even when topically applied in these and other instances, it is possible that the application of it to her face, and its consequent inhalation, would more powerfully affect her in the weak state of her frame, from her previous attendance on Mr. Maclean, than would otherwise have been the case; and finding its effects, she had rushed to the door to call for assistance, when she fell and became insensible. Such, at least, are circumstances which are within the limits of possibility as explanatory of the death of this ill-fated lady. Still we are forced to acknowledge that over this melancholy event hung a veil of mystery which may, perhaps, never be removed."




With such facts as these only before them, the friends of L. E. L. in England felt most deeply a sense of the necessity of further investigation; and with assiduity equal to their interest in her fame,

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