181 9-] Scientific Intelligence. 71 



VIII. Additional Facts respecting Gauze Veils as a Preservative 

 from Contagion. By Mr. Bartlett. 



(To Dr. Thomson.) 

 SIR » Buckingham, May 3, 1819. 



Perceiving that my letter to you respecting gauze veils as pre- 

 ventives of contagion has excited some attention by being copied 

 into the public journals, I beg leave to express a hope that in 

 case any of your scientific readers, or correspondents, should 

 put it to the test of experiment, they will communicate the result 

 to the public through the pages of your Annals. 



I think it right to state, that a child of mine, aged 15 months, 

 has escaped a very prevalent (and, what in this neighbourhood 

 has recently proved, fatal) disorder, the hooping-cough, notwith- 

 standing she has almost daily associated with children labouring 

 under its effects ; and which I can only attribute to the circumstance 

 of her having constantly worn a common green gauze veil. This, 

 I grant, as a solitary instance, is but a very slender foundation to 

 support any thing like an hypothesis upon ; but in contributing, 

 with others, my mite of information, a connected chain of con- 

 curring testimony may at length be formed, and the bar removed 

 which has so often deprived the afflicted sufferer of the last sad 

 consolation of a communion with those who by friendship or 

 affection had, perhaps, rendered existence valuable ; whilst the 

 intercourse betwixt man and man (so often interrupted by pesti- 

 lence) may be renewed in confidence and security. 



It has been doubted whether there be such a thing as infec- 

 tion ; all prevalent diseases being deemed epidemical, arising 

 from animal, or other effluvia ;* but it is immaterial to the present 

 question, whether this opinion acquire credit or not, since the 

 pestilential virus (according to either doctrine) must be intro- 

 duced into the system by means of the respiratory organs, and 

 not by immediate contact. The fact is, the cause of numerous 

 disorders remains undiscovered ; and until experience proves 

 that miasmata may become incorporated with the animal fluids 

 through any other channel than that of respiration, it is fair to 

 reason upon any probable hypothesis. I have the honour to be, 



Your very obedient servant, 



J. M. Bartlett. 



IX. Respiration of Oxygen Gas. 



The following paragraph is copied from the first number of 

 Dr. Silliman's American Journal of Science, p. 95 : 



" It is not extraordinary, when oxygen gas was first disco- 

 vered, and found to be the principle of life to the whole animal 

 creation, that extravagant expectations should have been formed 



* The subject has lately been brought before (lie House of Commons, but the 

 theory is by uo means new. 



