[ 294 ] 

 CHAP. IV. 



OF TINNING COPPER TIN PEWTER. 



UNHAPPILY for mankind, the fatal accidents attending the use 

 of copper vessels, in the preparation of food and physic, are too 

 common, and too well attested, to require a particular enumeration 

 or proof: scarce a year passes, but we hear of some of them, espe. 

 cially in foreign countries; and many slighter maladies, originating 

 from the same source, daily escape observation, or are referred to 

 othor causes, in our own. 



In consequence of some representations from the College of 

 Health, the use of copper vessels in the fleets anil armies of Swe- 

 den was aboli-hed in the year 1754; and tinned iron was ordered 

 to be substituted in their stead*. The Swedish government de. 

 serves the greater commendation for this proceeding, as they have 

 great plenty of excellent copper in the mines of that country, but 

 no tin. An intelligent surgeon suggested, in 1757, the probability 

 of the use of copper vessels in the navy, being one of the causes of 

 the sea scurvy, and recommended the having them changed for ves. 

 sels of iron ; he remarked, that of the 200 sail of ships which went 

 to sea from Scarborough, most of them used iron pots for boiling 

 their victuals, and (hat the symptoms called highly scorbutic, were 

 never seen, except in some few of the larger ships in which copper 

 vessels were used t. Notwithstanding this hint, and the example 

 of Sweden, I do not know that any other European state has pro- 

 hibited the use of copper vessels for the dressing of food on board 

 their ships ; hut many of them have shewn a laudable attention to 

 pr.-v ut its malignity, by inquiring into the best manner of covering 

 its surfiire with some metallic substance, less noxious, or less liable 

 to be dissolved than itself. This operation is usually called tinning, 

 because tin is the principal ingredient in the metallic mixture, which 

 is made use of for that purpose ; and, indeed, since the year 1765, 



* Mem. de 1'Acad. de Prussr, par M. Paul, vol. IV. Dis.PrH. p. 63. 

 f Medical Observ. by a Society of Phyi. in Load. vol. II. p. 1. 



