J 36 On the Use of Fumigations in Army Hospitals. 



obliecd to i^iit them on look the plague ; niul in his Consi- 

 ■deirTiions sur L'Hu^toire de la Ptsle de iVoihivie, in 1796, 

 Dr. Hiitelaod points oui the use of this powder in thedisin- 

 feciiiiii; of cloihes only*. U the. author of these articles 

 really thought that men might he with impunity exposed to 

 sulphurous fumigation?. Why did he not quote tlie authority 

 of Propertius, who tells us that in order to purity him Cyn- 

 thia burned sulpb.ur thrice upon his head f? It is neverthe- 

 less on the bubject of these same sulphurous lumigati(>n8 

 produced wth the mixture of resinous woods, nitre and sul- 

 phur, that he declares, '' The p/n/Hciuvs of li.oscvw niay 

 jnirly dispute tlit Iwnoiir of this discovery uitli Messrs. Guy- 

 toii ^J^rveau. and Smith." Soon afterwards he infurnis 

 ps chai ihe use of funiigations is lost in the remotest anti- 

 quity, tlu' f^ebrew, Arab, and Latin writers riicntion it as 

 veil as the Greeks. 



OF what importance is the name of the inventor, and the 

 dale of his discovery, provided the truth ot it be established, 

 and humanity is benefited ? But when we read in the same 

 pa.e, — ihat I lie alkalis, lime, and the other absorlcut earths 

 liave also something preservative in them — that Hippocrates 

 preserved Greece from a plague brought from Ethiopia, by 

 kindling fires in which various aromatic substances were 

 lurnt — it is certain that not only frankincense and myrrh, 

 lut the otlier resinous gums also, and particularly camphor, 

 the aromatic essences, juniper, and an infinity of odoriferous 

 vegetables employed in perfume, or as vapours, have mani- 

 fested very salubrious effects," — have we not a right to de- 

 mand, What respect is due to the opinion of those who are 

 not capable of distinguishing subsrances which, by their 

 spontaneous expansion, can attack deleterious miasmata in 

 -the air, from siil)stances which do not alter what comess in 

 contact with them : and those which bum by their chemical 

 action, contagious viruses tiom those which cannot disguise 

 their smtll a single mom. nt ? Is there not reason to iear, 

 thatj deterrnined by the facility of procuring; some odorife- 

 rous plants, they prefer pertumes, the inefficacv of which 

 is now ascertained and publicly declared in every book on 

 epidemics | ? In this way opinions thrown out for the sakp 



of 



• Bib. Med. tome xvi. p. 405. 



f Terque nicum tetigit sulphuris ig^ne caput. X>ib. iv. Eleof. viii. v. 86. 



\ On this head we may consult ihe report of the com isbion ot the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences on Prisons in 1780; the opinions of Vicq d'Azyr, Mon- 

 tigny, &c., on epidemics and eplzooties ; the instructions of the Council of 

 Health, 7 Ventose, aiv ii- ; the report of the committee of the Institute, U 

 fructidor an. li. ; that of the committee of the School of Medicine of Mont- 

 celier, sent to Andalusia in ISOO; the Cofle Pltarmaceutique, for the use of hos- 

 ' pital^. 



