1820.] Use of Gauze Veils as Preservatives fro77i Contagion. 15 



riment which I lately tried myself also confirms this. Over a 

 given surface of boiling water I suspended two pieces of sea- 

 weed, each weighingybwy grains, and measuring an inch square; 

 one piece was enclosed in a single envelope of gauze ; the other 

 merely attached to a thread at the same elevation. After the 

 lapse of 15 minutes, the latter was found to have gained a grain 

 in weight, while the other scarcely exhibited a sensible differ- 

 ence ! I also submitted two tliermometers (the one surrounded 

 by gauze, and the other not) to different degrees of atmospheric 

 temperature ; as weU as over cold water, in a warm room, when 

 a considerable evaporation must have been going on ; but I 

 always found a variation to exist between the two. Hence, as it 

 is well known that heat and moisture are the parents of putrefac- 

 tion, it is more than probable that they are the generators of those 

 epidemics which exist with greater or less virulence, in every 

 quarter of the globe. But to recur to the remarks of the Edin- 

 burgh Medical and Physical Journal. " Mr. B." says the writer 

 (alluding to the inference which I had deduced from data, he 

 conceives, " exceedingly loose and inconclusive ; not to apply 

 a harsher term") "is so fond of remote analogies, that we wonder 

 he did not hit upon the fact of gauze thrown over fruit-trees 

 being a protection to the tender blossoms from the hoar-frost of 

 the mornings and evenings." I beg to assure the learned gentle- 

 man who has so kindly furnished me with the argument, that it 

 had not escaped my observation ; and currants are to be seen at 

 the present mioment in a gentleman's garden in this place as 

 fresh beneath a common net (which was the only thing made use 

 of to preserve them from " the winds of heaven," which might 

 otherwise have " visited them too roughly ") as they were when 

 in season ; while those exposed to the s.mie atmosphere, with- 

 out that protection, were withered up months ago. Want of 

 faith in the efficacy of any measure must be respected from the 

 regard due to opinion ; but what can be said for the consistency 

 of those who can condemn a measure as " hypothetical," as 

 founded on analogies " loose and inconclusive," and yet recom- 

 mend it ! Yet such is the case, for " notwithstanding," says the 

 work alluded to, " our declared want of faith in its efficacy, we 

 are desirous that Mr. Bartlett's suggestion -should be tried." 

 The case of my little girl, which I noticed in a subsequent letter, 

 and which appeared in yjDur number for July, is considered even 

 by this fastidious critic as worthy of remark. To that instance 

 I have to add a second, wherein I subjected the same child 

 (having taken a similar precaution) to actual contact with 

 another child which had a full eruption of the measles on it at 

 the time without any ill effects resulting from it. 



I cannot close this article without referring to another profes-, 

 sional work, the London Medical Repository for July, wherein 

 the learned editors (Drs Uwins, Palmer, and Gray,) thus speak 



