Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixii. (19 17) 3 



'Manchester, published iln the| Transactions of the Society is of 

 interest at the priesent time, in which it says :■ — 



During this war (1796) rnany new-raised regiments coming 

 from Ireland with numerous recruits taken out of jails re- 

 mained in Chester for a few weeks after their voyage, were 

 ill of putrid fever. 



It was decided to put them together in special hospitals. 

 Some authorities doubted the iwisdom of this, thinking it would 

 have the effect of spreading the disease (throughout the town, 

 but the iwisdom propounded at thje time in Manchester pre- 

 vailed, and the value 'of Isolation Hospitals has been established. 

 Tobacco smoking is also advocated as a disinfectant and pre- 

 ventive ( against fever. The purity of the atmosphere was then 

 (1796) much discussed. Dr. Percival regarded with great un- 

 easiness the fact that no- less than 300 'tons, fof coal were burned 

 in Manchester per day- — -90,000 tonsj per annum. One can 

 imagine his astonishment if he had lived to-day to know that 

 somewhere in the region of 5,000,000 tons Of coal are burned 

 in Manchester per annum. 



Dlr. Percival commenced his sanitary work in 177^3, and pub- 

 lished proposals for the establishment of a judicious and 

 accurate register of the births and deaths in every town and 

 parish, fie says in| iS,toke Damerel, in Devonshire, 1 person in 

 54 died annually; in Vienna and Edinburgh, 1 in 20; in London, 

 1 in 21. 



The firs|t President of the Society was (Mr. James Massey, a 

 man iof wealth and a philanthropist, along with Peter Main- 

 waring, M.D., and the first Secretaries were Thomas Henry and 

 George Bew. 



During the second year of the Society James Massey and 

 Thomas Percival, M.D., were Presidents, and they continued 

 together in that capacity from 1782 till j i787. Then James 

 Massey alone was Plr|esildent from 1787 till 1789, followed by 

 Dr. Percival from 1790 till 1804. A marble' tablet is inserted in 

 the wall qf the Society's rootmj behind the President's chair in 

 his memory, and his portrait, presented by Mr. F. Nicholson, 

 hangs on the same wall.) The name Percival survived in the 

 grandson of Dr. Percival as Sir Percival Hey wood (1881), whose 

 grandfather married a daughter of Dr. Percival. 



The firsit volume of the Society's Memoirs was published in 

 1785 and was dedicated " by permission to the King." A short 

 6um|mary of some of the papers appearing in these memoirs 

 may be of interest. Dr. Bell read a paper 16th May, 1 7 8 1 , 

 entitled : " .Some r'emarks (pin the opinion that the animal body 

 possesses the powte|r of generating cold." This referred to the 



