.VATER OF THE 3EA, ' 38^ 



XI. 



Observations on the Soda, Magnesia, and Lime, contained in 

 thf Watei' of the Ocean ; shewing that they operate adz an- 

 tagcoiisty there bij neutralizing Acids, and among others the 

 Septic Acid, and that Sea-Water may be rendered Jit fvt 

 •washing Clothes without the Aid of Soap. By SaMuel L. 

 Mn:cHi-Li.,of NevjYork* 



.ANY attempts have been made to render the water of theiObiervatlons 

 occiin fit for the purposes of drinking and cooking, and some of ^" f 'Vvf ° 

 these have been attended with. flattering prospects of utility/component 

 By a cheap and easy process, water tolerably fresh may bei^fJe'a'',''^,^Jgi°*^ 

 distilled from common salt v.ater, jo as to help materially in and the useftil 

 a cas^ of scarcity or want, on board a ship of good equipment, tbft fluisu"*^ 

 The names of Hales, Lind and Irvine, are remembered to their 

 honour, for their exertions in this work. . . 



, To furnish needy men with the means of ecfin^ and drinking,; 

 is certainly a noble discovery. But there is another operation 

 scarcely less necessary to the preservation of health than eating 

 and drinking, and that is washing as applied to the human 

 body, and more particularly to the clothing which it befouls:: 

 In a communication to professor Duncan, which has been 

 published in the Edinburgh Annals of Medicine for 1799? and 

 in the third volume of the New York Medical Repository, I 

 have endeavoured to state the facts iir detail concerning th& 

 matters secreted from the skin and wiped off by the clothes 

 and to shew how some of these became unwholesome,, or in- 

 fectious and pestilential, as they gr^^w nasty. It was there^ 

 fitated that soaps and alkalies wonld render foul clothing clean, 

 and both prevent and destroy animal poison if it was engender^ 

 ing there. And in a letter I wrote to Timothy Pickering, late 



Secretary of State to the American Government, in November" 



* American Transactions, vol. v. The Doctor wseithe term 

 septic for azotic or nitric. . : 



1799, 



