Miscellanies. 165 



fectly healthy and pure. We have heard the bilge water in our 

 packet ships loudly complained of: a useful hint may be taken by 

 these vessels from the above. 



Use of Chloride of Lime on board a Spanish fleet, in the summer of 1829 ; from the 



National Intelligencer, of June 5th, 1830. 



To the Editors. — We have been favored with the perusal of the 

 reports from the surgeons of the Spanish fleet, directed to the Com- 

 mandant-General of the station at Cuba, respecting the use of chlo- 

 rine, which are highly interesting ; affording additional evidence, if 

 more could be required, of the extraordinary powers of that article 

 in changing an atmosphere rendered highly offensive and pernicious 

 to health, to one devoid of effluvia, and perfectly salubrious. 



On the 1 1th of July last, the fleet destined for the invasion of Mex- 

 ico, conveying, in addition to the usual compliment of mariners, a 

 large number of soldiers, was overtaken in the Gulf of Mexico by a 

 violent tempest, which continued for several days. The severity of 

 the storm rendered it necessary to remove the windsails, and to close, 



not only the ports of the lower gun deck, but likewise those of the 

 main deck, and to place on the hatches. In this condition of the 

 ships, with such a crowd of persons confined together, in the middle 

 of summer, within the tropics, without fresh air, putrid fever and 

 malignant dysentery soon made their appearance. The air is de- 

 scribed as possessing, in addition to a highly offensive effluvium, an 

 acrid heat, burning to the skin, writh a degree of density that arrested 

 respiration and produced giddiness. 



At this moment of distress and anxiety for the safety of all on 

 board, the chlorine was used with the most decided and happy ef- 

 fects. Twelve vessels, containing one ounce each of the chloride of 

 lime, in solution with water, were suspended on the birth deck, four 

 were placed on the orlop deck, and two in the gun room. In the 

 space of two hours, the atmosphere lost all its deleterious qualities, 

 and became perfectly agreeable, leaving nothing perceptible but the 

 smell of tar, which always exists more or less in ships. The solu- 

 tions were renewed every twenty four hours ; but the chloride un- 

 dissolved at the bottom of the vessels was then sprinkled on the decks, 

 and thrown into such vessels as it became necessary to cleanse. Dur- 

 ing the whole of the campaign, which lasted three months and a half, 

 the atmosphere was preserved in this pure state by the chlorine, to 

 which all the surgeons unite in attributing the very few instances of 



