138 On Dr. MitcbiU's Theory, ^c. 



hand, wherever men, efpecially thofe who fet up for phi- 

 losophers, took the lead; as in prifons, workhoufce, 

 hofpitals, and fhips ; there were for ever complaints made of 

 the rife and progrefs of malignant diftempcrs : the reafon 

 was, they incrcafcd the evil by acid fumigations *. 



Numberlefs inflances had happened in New- York, of pcr- 

 fons htmg pcifoned, and many of them to death, or, in other 

 words, catching the yellow fe;er, from the feptic vapour of 

 corrupting beef and Jijh cured with too fmall a quantity of 

 fait. Thefe are moftly lean animal fubftances. On tlu-ir 

 corruption they afford the moft deadly effluvia. The fre- 

 quency of (linking provifions of thefe kinds, and of the poi- 

 fonous vapours they emitted, led Dr. Mitchill to invefti^ate 

 a theor)^ of the muriate of foda in preferving animal flefli 

 from putrefaction. The rofult was this : when feptic acid is 

 formed in a barrel of beef, the common fait is dccompofed; 

 and while the feptic acid combines with the foda, the muri- 

 atic acid is fet loofe to impregnate and preferve the meat. 

 When there is too little muriate of foda, the feptic acid, be- 

 coming volatile, often fickens, and even kills the perfons 

 who are expofed to it. 



This interpretation ltd naturally to an inquiry into the 

 ufe of the bile of anlmah; which, iniiead of being a vile, 

 irouhlefomcy excrementuious, ar.d corrupt'ihle liquor, as it has 

 been fafliionable to term it, turns out to be a grand pre- 

 ferver of health, by virtue of the foda ivhicl} it contains ; 

 being always ready to pour itTelf into the duodenum, and 

 even regurgitate into the ftomach, to neutralize any portion of 

 feptic venom which may have been fwallov.ed or engendered 

 there. Of all the fluids the animal body contains, the gall 

 is the leaft liable to porruption^ or alteration unfriendly tq 

 health. 



* The author of the im^fcnt p'per was not perh^^ps aware of the ftrong 

 evidence in favour oF the inlliiy of acitl fumigatirns th^t has been brought 

 foftward by Dr. Seiyth, Mr. Cruickfliank, and others. Edit. 



There 



