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LXXII. Experiments and Observations upon the State of the 
Air in the Fever Hospitals of Cork, ata Time when they were 
crowded wiih Patients labouring under Febrile Contagion.— 
By Epmunp Davy, Esq. Professor of Chemistry, and Secre- 
tary to the Cork Institution. 
From numerous experiments made on air collected in different 
countries by the most enlightened inquirers, it seems to he ge- 
nerally admitted that the chemical constitution of the atmo- 
sphere is nearly the same at all seasons of the year and in all 
parts of the globe. Nitrogen and oxygen gases form its princi- 
pal component parts; and it also contains a minute portion of 
earbonic acid gas and a variable quantity of aqueous vapour. As 
oxygen gas is essential to animal and vegetable life, and to the 
processes of combustion, fermentation, &c.; and as it is con- 
stantly entering into new forms, by which its peculiar properties 
are modified or destroyed, it is considered the most important 
and most active part of the atmosphere. The most general and 
important change that the oxygenous portion of the air under- 
goes, is its conversion into carbonic acid gas, a substance which, 
though obnoxious to animals, is yet made subservient to vege- 
table life; and this change is invariably connected with the ex- . 
ertion of the vital functions of organic beifgs, and with the 
burning of coals, wood, candles, &c. 
The salubrity and healthy state of the air depend in a great 
medsnre upon the quantity of oxygen gas it contains, and this 
quautity (about twenty-one per cent.) appears to exist in all 
places exposed to the free atmosphere and the influence of 
winds. But the same uniformity of composition does not pre- 
vail in the air of confined dwelling-houses, crowded theatres, 
and hospitals that are badly ventilated. At a time when typhus 
wis very prevalent in Cork, and there were in the two Fever 
Hospitals about two hundred and eighty patients labouring for 
the most part under febrile infection, it occurred to my friend 
Doctor Daly, whose active exertions in the cause of humanity are 
well known, and likewise to myself, that it would be a desirable 
object to ascertain the state of the air in the fever wards ; and I 
immediately undertook a series of experiments on the subject. ’ 
To give in detail all the minutie of my experiments would 
far exceed the limits of this paper ; I shall therefore briefly no- 
tice my methods and results, and close the communication with 
a few observations connected with the subject. 
I procured air from five large and small wards in the House of 
Recovery, and from the two wards in Peacock Lane Hospital. I 
collected it from different parts of the rooms ; as in che middle, 
Vol. $0, No, 236, Dec, 1817. Ee at 
