TemperaUire as a Substitute for Qiiaranthie. 369 



If a favourable result should however issue from these sug- 

 gestions, nothing can be more easy or less expensive in construc- 

 tion, or more manageable in use, than an apparatus for subject- 

 ing articles imported from unclean places, in any quantity, how- 

 ever large, to the disinfecting agency of a dry heat, without even 

 the slightest injury to the quality of those substances. A dou- 

 ble vessel, made of copper, or of tinned or cast ii'on, of any 

 convenient shape, with a sufficient space between the two ves- 

 sels for containing steam, and an interior cavity of due size 

 for a receptacle of the articles to be disinfected, is the essen- 

 tial part of the arrangement. To avoid all risk of the escape 

 of any portion of the virus in an undecomposed, and there- 

 fore active, state, a pipe, open at each extremity, may be car- 

 ried from the receptacle into the flue of the chimney, or, better 

 still, into the fire-place under the boiler, which will ensure 

 the destruction of the contagious effluvia. The articles should 

 be introduced into the receptacle, not closely packed, but so 

 opened out, that every part of them may be exposed to the 

 necessary temperature. If injury should be apprehended from 

 over-drying any substance, a small quantity of steam may be 

 suffered to pass through a pipe from the boiler into the re- 

 ceptacle. At every sea- port to which ships are bound with 

 unclean bills of health, an apparatus of this kind should be 

 provided, on a scale sufficient for the emergency. And on 

 the Continent, similar provision should be made, at every bar- 

 rier which is destined to prevent the introduction of conta- 

 gious diseases. 



It must be obvious that these precautions offi;r no secu- 

 rity against the danger of a contagious disease breaking out 

 in a person who has already been exposed to infection, but 

 in whom symptoms of the disease have not yet manifested 

 themselves. Risks from this source constitute, however, a 

 very small proportion, compared with those arising from 

 foviites ; and they may be easily and effectually guarded 

 against, by insulating the person supposed to be infected, 

 for a period of time exceeding that, during which the seeds 

 of the disease have been ascertained to lie dormant in the 

 animal system. Nor is tliis proposal meant to supersede the 

 employment of chemical disinfectants, especially of prepara- 

 tions of chlorine, in the apartments of the sick ; or their 

 apphcation to articles and fabrics which sustain no injury 

 by exposure to those agents. 



I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, 



William Henry. 

 N.S. Vol. 10. No. 59. Nov. 1831. 3 B XLVII. No- 



