464 



sound conclusion as to that which is best entitled to our con- 

 fidence for specific purposes. I have likewise tested the 

 action of most of them when mixed with human excrement 

 as manures to grass-plots ; and should I abstain from tedious 

 details of experiment, it must be ascribed to an unwillingness 

 to trespass on your time and patience. Of Labarrhaque and 

 Beaufoy's chloride of lime I have already spoken in its 

 capacity of removing stench ; and we will now shortly pursue 

 the subject in respect to this quality in some of the others, 

 and finally view their respective powers as antiseptics. 



Taking them in the order of priority of application, Sir 

 Wm. Burnett's fluid, I believe, claims our first notice, and 

 will be found to be supported by a vast mass of evidence as 

 collected in the pamphlet before you, printed by direction of 

 the Board of Admiralty. It has been extensively employed 

 in hospital wards and in ships, apparently with the best 

 eff'ects, as well as in the preservation from rot of timber and 

 tackle, for which it was at first more especially proposed. In 

 the letter addressed to me which I hold in my hand, the 

 Hon. Gentleman gives further examples of the efficacy of 

 the chloride of zinc in curing erysipelas, and arresting the 

 spread of that disease, as it epidemically prevailed in Septem- 

 ber last at the Hoyal Marine Infirmary, and wdth equally 

 successful results in cases of typhus in the Naval Hospital 

 at Chatham. He then proceeds to extend its use to several 

 afi'ections of the skin, and suggests it as a remedial agent 

 internally as a gargle in sore throat, in pulmonary hoemor- 

 rhage, chronic dysentery, and ulceration of the intestines. 



To some of these objects the zinc, as an astringent, is 

 doubtless applicable, and as such the sulphate of this metal 

 is a pharmaceutical preparation in common use. As already 

 stated, all the metallic solutions are disinfectors of putrescent 

 effluvium, and of the power of this over the foul air and 

 bilge water in crow^ded vessels we have ample proof afforded 



