JVatural History, 217 



" For the second object, it was necessary to meet with the plague ; 

 we expected it in Egypt, but it was in Syria. We left for that 

 country, and after many delays arrived at Tripoli on the 30th of 

 May; on the 31st we took up our abode in the house of the French 

 consul. When there, we requested six sets of dresses, (six shirts 

 and six pair of drawers,) in which persons had recently died of the 

 plague ; these, some of silk and some of cotton, were bought on 

 the 2nd, and put into the garden of the consul's house on the 3rd 

 of June. On the 4th, the state of the clothes was examined 3 they 

 were foul with diseased matter, and of a detestable odour. A 

 woman (infected with the plague) steeped them in mere water 

 to remove the excess of dirt, after which they were passed into a 

 vessel containing a solution made by M. D'Arcet of 3 pounds of 

 the chlorides in 50 lb. of water, and there they remained 16 hours. 



"On the 5th, in the morning, MM. D'Arcet and Guilhau with- 

 drew them from the solution, wrung them out and exposed them 

 to the sun. The stains were weakened, but still very evident. 

 At mid- day they were dry, each of us (MM. Dumont, Guilhau, 

 Lagasque, D'Arcet, Rose, and myself) took two pieces of the 

 clothing and put them on in contact with the skin. We put oflf 

 this clothing on the 6th, after having worn it for 18 hours. No 

 one suffered -, since then, 22 days have passed, and our health is 

 the same. 



'* The consequence of all this is, that we possess a means of, i. 

 disinfecting quickly and cheaply goods and clothing, without the 

 least injury to them. ii. Of reducing the disease to its own case, 

 and preventing it from producing a second or third case, as here, 

 or a fourth or fifth case, as seen elsewhere ; and that by destroying 

 the venom left in the first case, which otherwise would perpetuate 

 the evil : and not only can this be done with the plague, but 

 with variola, rubeola, typhus, and even yellow fever : for I shall 

 die with the conviction that these fevers are contagious in Europe 

 and every where. 



" If this simple means be associated with better police regula- 

 tions respecting interments in Egypt, and other parts of the 

 Turkish empire, (for the sepulchres are here in a deplorable 

 state,) it is as clear as day that plague may be eradicated from the 

 world. 



"Since the 11th June, we have seen and touched many patients, 

 but no degree of plague has been contracted by us, the chloride 

 having preserved us. 



" Abdalla Pacha, who governs western Syria, writes to us, that 

 the plague is at Acre, and begs for chloride. Many great Turkish 

 personages at Tripoli have also requested them. Patience — good 

 is done, but slowly, yet it is done : evil only is done quickly. 



" Oh, that I could distinctly understand the judgment of the 

 Gibraltar junta on the character of the yellow fever!" — Bull. Univ, 

 C. xix. 233. 



To these details a letter by M. D'Arcet adds other circumstances : 



