in Army Hospitals. 13S 



I consider low and remittent fevers produced by the mi- 

 asmata of an lnvspilal as obstinate epidemics, which with 

 slight attention may be avoided. They originate from 

 negligence or from the hospital being over-crowded, evils 

 which a becoming firmness on the part of the medical otficers 

 will of course prevent. 



Diirinc eight months that I performed the duties of the 

 great hospital at Posen, containing 400 l)eds, and subject # 

 great variations and changes with respect to the nnmber of 

 the patients, no infection made its appearance in any per- 

 ceptible manner : no person attached to the service con- 

 tracted it ; and several young niedical attendants, wlio had 

 been attacked with the contagion of other establishments, 

 were brought to the above hc^spiial for the benefit of our su- 

 perior saliiijritv, and were restored to health. 



M. Desgcnettes, the physician general to the army, gave 

 me the following instructions r " I request that when the 

 hospitals are crowded, or when low fevers prevail, you may 

 use the iumigations with thehyper-oxygenaied muriatic acid 

 gas, accordiifg to M. Morveau's process. This valuable pro- 

 phylactic has-been very improperly rejected, and has been 

 thnuiiht useful only when contagious diseases were com- 

 pletefy developed. ' 1 request you^to inform me if this pu- 

 rifying remedy is put in practice." 



In consequence of this letter I constantlv recommended 

 these fumigations in the wards of the hospitals to which I 

 was attached. The instructions for health, inserted in the last 

 Pharmaceutical Formula, for the use of military hospitals,^ 

 seem to n)akc this measure subordinate to the removal of 

 the patients irom the infected place, and successively chari- 

 ging their beds from room to room. Circumstances, how- 

 ever, may occur to prevent these measures from being 

 adopted, and it is important to simplify the operation as 

 niueh as possible. Without occasioning, therefore, any re- 

 moval of ihe patients, the hyper-oxygenated muriatic acid 

 gas may be used morning and evening without inconve- 

 nience. An attendant n.ay carry backward and forward ai\ 

 earthen vessel containing some muriate of soda and manga- 

 nese and cold sulphuric acid, taking care to stir it frequently 

 with a spatula. 



Neither the attendants nor patients have ever suffered any 

 bail tfl'tcls, in my presence, from the pungency of the fumi- 

 gation. Some vvindows, however, may l)e opened to give 

 vent to the fumitration, but if the weather l>e cold this may 

 be dispensed with; and the inHueu'-c of the fumigation 



I 3 parily 



