Dr. Ure on Disinfection. 

 . 1. 



yard at Woolwich, by order of Sir T. Byam Martin, Comp- 

 troller of the Navy, from a drawing furnished by me, the copy 

 of that laid before the Board of Health on the 22nd of June. 

 The object of this construction is to show how the cargo of a 

 ship may be imbued with dilute chlorine, without injuring its 

 quality or disturbing its position. Such an easy, quick, and 

 safe immersion in this expurgative gaseous medium will, I 

 presume, be deemed by all persons acquainted with the affi- 

 nities of this most energetic element, to be a surer safeguard 

 against the importation of contagion in merchandize, than the 

 mere exposure of the goods to the air, as practised under the 

 actual laws of quarantine. At the present crisis of the Russian 

 cholera, the cargoes of hemp, wool, hides, &c., now in the 

 course of arrival on the British shores from the Baltic, and 

 immediately placed under quarantine, are so immense as to 

 require, it has been said on official authority, the decks of 

 ninety-five line of battle-ships for their adequate exposure. 

 Supposing infectious fomes to exist in the merchandize, and 

 the quarantine laws act solely on that presumption, what a 

 formidable mass of contagion will be let loose in our atmos- 

 phere, and what a cruel duty is imposed on the sailors im- 

 mured in the pestilential focus ! It appears to me that the 

 danger, expense, trouble, and delay of quarantine may be 

 saved by a just application of the antiloimic virtues of chlorine. 



