Notice of Sketches of Naval Life. 325 



well as into other parts of the ship, they are an excellent con- 

 triVtince ; but are not adequate to the evil.* 



" Chloride of lime has been found a most useful agent in such 

 cases, and 1 have little doubt, would succeed m ships. I wonder 

 the experiment has never been made. It is not an expensive ar- 

 ticle ; it is portable as lime itself; it may be procure;' at the 

 manufactories at home, or be easily made abroad, and for all 

 purposes of convenience, is equal to the simple lime, the article 

 now universally employed. Allow me to r-^fer to an article, by 

 Professor Silliman, on the properties of this agent."t — J^ol. II. 

 pp. 120—2. 



We would add by way of confirmation, of what Mr. Jones 

 has stated, that in our opinion the chloride of lime, in large 

 quantities, ought to be a regular part of the outfit of every 

 ship, and especially of every man of war. It stands unri- 

 valled among those agents that counteract morbid tenden- 

 cies, and that correct the smell and destroy the power of 

 noxious eflfluvia. It is now manufactured abundantly in our 

 large cities ; it is obtained for about eight or nine dollars a 

 cwt. ; it is attended with no inconvenience ; nothing can be 

 more simple than the mode of applying it ; if kept in tight 

 casks, it is liable to very little change, and can, with the 

 greatest convenience, be carried on the longest voyages. 

 Dissolved in the proportion of four ounces to one pint of 

 water, and this solution being diluted with forty times as 

 much water, that is, a vv^ine glass full of the first solution to 

 three quarts of water, it will remove every foul odor and ar- 

 rest contagious influence, if occasionally sprinkled about the 

 apartment and even on the patient, and it is found to be very 

 effectual in curing many diseases. The navy board, we pre- 

 sume, will not permit so important an article to be any longer 

 omitted in the fitting out of our ships of war, and our mer- 

 chantmen ought to be not less attentive to their own safety, 

 and to the comfort and cleanliness of their ships. 



It is evident, that the superior officers of a ship of war, are 

 very responsible men, and of course, ought to possess high 

 qualifications : the following portraits are from our author, 

 Vol. I. p. 40. 



* Capt. Elliott, on Ins late return from the Brazil station, I am informed, 

 passed a leathern hose to the bottom of the hold : a pump was attached to the 

 upper part of this, and the foul air pumped out. It is said to have had an ex- 

 rellent effect. 



i See the Journal of Science, for October, 1S26, and for April, 1829. 



