#6 Procefs for deftroying Contagion. 
added, and the mixture flirred with a glafs fpatula till the 
vapour arofe from it in confiderable quantity*. The pip- 
kins were then carried through the wards by the nurfes and 
convalefcents, who kept walking about with them in their 
hands, occafionally putting them under the cradles of the 
fick, and in every corner where any foul air was fufpected 
to lodge. In this manner they continued fumigating, until 
the whole {pace between decks was fore and aft filled with 
the vapour, which appeared like a thick haze. 
The vapour at firft excited a good deal of coughing among: 
the patients, which gradually ceafed as it became more ge- 
nerally diffufed through the wards : part of this effeét, how- 
ever, was to he attributed to the inattention of thofe wha 
carried the pipkins, in putting them too near the faces of © 
the fick ; which caufed them to inhale the {trong vapour, as - 
it immediately iffued from the cups. sds 
The body-clothes and bed-clothes of the fick were, as 
much as poflible, expofed.to the nitrous vapour during the 
* That the fumes of the mineral acids poffeffed the property of ftopping 
contagion was proved by Guyton as far back as the year 1773, who, by 
means of the fumes of muriatic acid extricated from the muriat of foda 
(fea falt) by the fulphuric acid, purified the air of the cathedral of Dijon, 
which had been fo much infected by exhumations that they were obliged 
to abandon the building. The procefs was afterwards publifhed under 
the form of ‘ Inftractions for purifying the air in the military hofpitals 
of the French republic;” a copy of which appeared in the Journal de Phy- 
fique, Ventofe, an 2. ere Frang. The procefs confifted in removing the 
patients, heating fome common falt, previoufly moiftened with water, 
upon a ftove, and then pouring fulphutic acid uppn the hot falte In an 
inftant the fulphuric acid begins to aét upon the falt, combines with its 
foda, and difengages its acid, which rifes in the ftate of vapour. The 
operator then leaves the room, and fhuts the door; and, after twelve hours, 
returns, and opens the windews, to admit frefh air. 
Dr. Smith deferves great praife for his meritorious perfeverance till he 
got the ufe of acid fumes introduced into the Englifh hofpital fhips; and 
his fubfticuting nitre for common falt was a happy improvement; for, 
though acid fumes were known to prevent infeétion, there was no proof of 
sheir having contributed, at the fame time, to the recovery of the fick, 
fill thefe experiments were made according to inftruétions drawn up by 
him. Epir, : 
fumi- 
