84 Onthe Use of Fumigations of Oxymuriatic Acid. 
oxide of manganese, which I distributed in two crucibles 
placed at a certain distance from each other, and into eacly 
of which we successively poured six decigrammes of sul- 
phuric acid. 
_ Another place of the hospital, where the infected state of. 
the air required reiterated mineral fumigations, was where. 
the cells were situated for the confinement of certain dan- 
gerous or delirious melancholic patients. Some of these are, 
confined in strait waistcoats, others are left to themselves, 
as experience shows that a superfluous restraint only pro- 
longs the duration of lunacy. Their rooms are commonly 
very s small, their dimensions not being more than two metres 
in length and breadth, and three metres in height: this 
only forms acapacity of twelve cubic metres for each lunatic. 
The air not circulating in these close apartments, rendered 
humid by frequent washings, we may easily conceive how 
fetid emanations are accumulated in them, as well as from 
the description of patients who inhabit them, who from 
negligence or a propensily collect around them every kind 
of nastiness ; it was in these unwholesome apartments that 
the fumigations of the oxymauriatic acid gas were most fre- 
quently practised, by filling them successively with these 
mineral vapours, and shutting the door and window. The 
infectious smell is always destroyed by this method in a 
sure manner; and I did not perceive any inconvenience to 
arise to the lunatics who were lodged in them, having pre- 
viously removed the worst among them into a neighbouring 
cell until the vapours were dispelled. 
In making use of these fumigations, there is a variety 
which ought to be remarked. Some of these apartments 
are ill paved, and the urine then remains more or less be- 
tween the crevices of the pavement; this causes a very 
disagreeable smell of ammoniacal gas. In this case T made 
use of fumigations with plain muriatic gas, by simply pour- 
ing sulphuric acid upon muriate of soda: this produces a 
rapid combination of muriatic acid gas with the ammoniacal 
gas, and forms, without doubt, a new chemical compound 
which does not permit the old smell to continue. We must, 
however, take care to remove the patient for two or three 
hours, 
