Ruschenberger.] ^ [May 15, 



A celebrated Dutch physician, Boerhaave, recommended distilled vine- 

 gar as an efficient remedy against putrid diseases. Vinegar was supposed 

 to be antiseptic and therefore protective against all contagions. The hands 

 of those who had to do with contagion were moistened with it, and their 

 clothing and other objects were exposed to its vapors. During the plague 

 of 1720, at Marseilles, it is said that four convicted thieves, who were 

 employed in caring for the sick, protected themselves from the contagion 

 by the use of vinegar, and were granted their lives on condition that they 

 would reveal the means they used to shield themselves in their perilous 

 work. And hence, perhaps, came the preparation called " Thieves' vine- 

 gar." 



But since modern studies of the processes of fermentation and putre- 

 faction have led to the belief that they, as well as all contagions, are due 

 to the presence of microscopic organisms, vegetal or animal, called my- 

 croderms, bacilli, microbes, etc., vinegar has lost iis antiseptic reputa- 

 tion. 



Early on the morning of February 4, the Harbormaster came alongside 

 of the Superior. Learning from the guard that no one on the ship was 

 sick, he came on board; and, after disinfecting the officers and passengers 

 in the cabin and the sailors in the forecastle, by exposing them to the pun- 

 gent fumes of oxymuriatic acid gas (chlorine), he granted pratique, i.e., 

 liberty of the port. Then the ship was moved to the vicinity of the Cus- 

 tom House, and the gentlemen found quarters at the Hotel des Ambassa- 

 deurs. 



After a sojourn of two months at Marseilles the Superior sailed April 5, 

 and on the 15th anchored in Gibraltar bay ; and was detained some time 

 in quarantine, and afterwards many days waiting for a favorable wind. 

 Before daybreak, May 6, 1819, the anchor was weighed and on the 7th the 

 ship was fairly at sea. 



August 1, the ship was anchored at Angier, Java, and on the 3d pro- 

 ceeded on her way. The anchor was let go again, Aug. 20, off Macao, 

 where merchant ships bound to Canton were detained twenty-four hours. 

 In the afternoon of the 21st a passport to proceed up the river was granted 

 and a pilot sent on board. The ship started about half-past three o'clock 

 P.M., and anchored in the Bocca Tigris sometime after midnight. The 

 pilot landed the next morning to exhibit at the fort there the " chop " or 

 permit to go up the river, and brought back two pilots and two Mandarins 

 to remain on board till the ship reached Whampoa, the common anchor- 

 age of foreign ships trading at Canton. It is sixteen miles below the city. 

 The Superior anchored in the evening of the 23d, and on the 26th, Dr. 

 Emerson and fellow -voyagers were lodged in Swedes Factory at 

 Canton. 



In a letter to his mother, dated November 5, 1819, Dr. Emerson says : 

 "After the first impressions of the abundant novelties wore off, the dull 

 uniformity which followed became tedious, and time now appears to fly 

 slowly." 



