92 . Procefs for defreying Cohiagion. 
1795) Pri the fumigation was firft reforted to, “ill the 
25th of December, not a perfon on. board was attacked 
with the fever, though, in the three months preceding, more 
than one third of all the people in the fhip had been feized_ 
with the diftemper, and of thefe more than one in four were ie 
éarried of by it; and the probability is, that the ficknefs and 
mortality would have gone on, increafing in proportion to 
the diffufion of the contagion, and to the increafing defpond- 
ency of the people, who confidered themfelves as fo many 
devoted viétims. 
The advantage of the fumigation was not felt by the fhip’s 
_eompany and attendants alone, whom it preferved from the 
baneful effets of the fever: the fick and convalefcents 
derived almoft an equal benefit from it. The fymptoms 
of the difeafe were meliorated, and loft much of their 
_malignant appearance ; and the advantage of a pure air, and 
free.from ftench, to convalefcents, may be readily con- 
ceived. 
Great confidence is always dangerous. It proved fo on 
the prefent occafion. On the 17th of December they ima- 
gined themfelves fo fecure, that they difcontinued the euf- 
tom of fumigating morning and evening, thinking that 
once a day was fufficient; on the 25th, one of the nurfes 
fuffered a flight attack; and on the 26th, a marine, who, 
for a week before, had been in a ftate of intoxication, was 
feized with the fever, of which he dicd. Thefe two acci- 
dents gave immediate alarm: they returned again to the 
practice of fumigating twice a day; and from that time to 
the extermination of the diforder, there was not an inftance 
of a perfon fuffering from contagion on board the fhip. 
‘The fuccefs of the experiment was not confined to the 
Union: the power of the nitrous vapour to deftroy contagion 
was equally difplayed on board the Ruffian fhips in which it 
was employed. The fafety too with which it may be em- 
ployed, in any fituation, without inconvenience or rifk of 
fire, is another great recommendation in its favour. 
From 
