[ .333 ] 
able and ufeful part of mankind,th‘ofe,who occupy their 
bufmefs in great waters; whofe welfare I have long 
had at heart, and endeavoured to promote by various 
ways ; efpecially by finding means to procure them 
frefli falutary air, inhead of the noxious, putrid, 
clofe confined peftilential air, which has dehroyed 
millions of mankind in fliips. And it is to be hoped 
that, by diligent refearches, farther and farther ufe- 
ful difcoveries will hereafter be made for the benefit 
of navio-ation. 
O 
44,. The following, as they are hrong proofs of 
the great benefit and ufefulnefs of ventilators in fhips, 
fo they alfo fully prove, that they can moh commo- 
dioufly be fixed and worked in them, in contradidion 
to the vulgar, falfe, and groundlefs notion, that they 
take up too much room, and are incommodious, and 
in a manner impradicable to be worked, whereas the 
men are eager to work them ; and many more per- 
fons can be with fafety to their health and lives in a 
ventilated, than in an unventilated fliip ; which fully 
obviates the objedion as to the room they take up. 
In new and important refearches, the likeliefi: way 
to fucceed, is to purfue a thought, not only by imper- 
fed and fallacious reafonings, but, when the nature 
of the thing requires it, with a proper feries of trials 
and experiments. Thus, in the prefent cafe, the 
principal caufe of the ficknefs in fliips is the noxious 
putrid air; the obvious remedy is the exchanging 
that foul air for frefh, by effcdual means, which are 
feldom difeovered by dwelling only on objed'ons, 
but are ufually the reward of repeated, diligent, ex- 
perimental refearclies. Neither are we to be dif- 
jouraged in tliefe our purfuits by fome difappoint- 
ments. 
