1799] 
the precautions fo efficacioufly employed 
in well ordered families, infectious dif- 
tempers are bred in thofe abodes of filgh. 
and wretchednels. Ships are floating- 
houfes, in which the management is ai- 
moft wholly in the hands of men.’Phrough 
eareleffnefs in applying the knoven pre- 
ventives, infection of the moft malig- 
nant quality is engendered. Czties are 
collections cf haman habitations, and the 
regulations of ilreets, wharfs, and yards, 
are chiefly devited and executed by the men, 
For want of care in employing .thele an- 
tidotes of contagion, tke exifting cauies 
of fevers and plagues are manutactured. 
If the keepers of jails,. the mafters of vef- 
fels, and magiftrates of towns, would 
condefcend to learn a little inftruction 
from their wives and mothers, peftilential 
matier would as certainly be prevented or 
deftroyed, in prifons, fhips, and cities, as 
it is in private houles. 
But men are apt to be proud of their 
own attainments, and feel a repugnance 
to borrow knowledge from the females of 
their families. They contra& an averfion 
for the common mode of houfe cleaning 
in early life, and their prejudice is fo 
itrong, that they never can be reconciled 
to it afterwards. They put me in mind 
of fome perverle boys, who at {chool be- 
came difgufted with. the Bible, and never 
in their lives read it any more. ‘They 
make themfeives merry on the fubject of 
mops and brufhes, and undertake new 
methods of deftroying foulnefs and infec- 
tion. They turn philofophers, and_be- 
ftow vaft pains to find out what is the 
caufe of fo much mifchief. They difpute 
what is the difference between contagion 
and infection? Whether they are general 
or {pecific? Of domeftic origin, or of fo- 
reign introdu€tion? Of animal or vege- 
table nature? Stimulants or fedatives? 
Aéting upon the nervous fyftem or upon 
the blood? Finding themfelves puzzled 
in thefe inquiries, they gravely. conclude 
there is tome deep myftery in the matter, 
which cannot be underftood; and, of 
courfe, whenever, by their neglect, fick- 
nefs enfues from accumulated poifon, the 
terrible evil muft be prevented by cutting 
off intercourfe, ftopping the ftages, mak- 
ing veflels perform quarantine, and a 
number of other inconvenient regulations, 
Whereas, if they would but encounter 
peftilence with the fame weapons that 
women do, it would always be kept 
under, and health and order prevail in 
fociety without interruption, 
As foon as they fet up for philofo- 
phers, they may bs generally defpaired 
Dr. Mitchill on the ufe of Alkalies. 
109 
of. They become fo wonderous knowing 
and fo vain of difplaying their know- 
ledge by new methods in thefe innovating 
and revolutionary times, that the ancient 
maxims of government in .families, .as 
wel} as. in conmmunities, are difregarded 
or rejected. And you fee in this, as in 
other inftances, they have pafled from the 
{yiccm in which they have been educated, 
into the direétoppefite. The ladies had 
proved, by experience as old at Jeaft as 
the eftablifyment of the feudal. laws in 
Europe, that 2nfeciion was umformly pre- 
wvepgted and extinguifbed by alkalis. ‘The 
men of modern days, tor the fake of thew- 
ing their fuperior fcience, declare, thaé 
acids only will counteradi and get the better 
of ir. Look at their proceedings, and 
with me, laugh at them as you look. 
They pretty much agree that their acids 
muft be rendered active and penetrating, 
by being converted into {moke or vapour. 
One fumigates a chamber with the acid 
of burning tar; another fprinkles waye- 
gar about the floors; a third relies moft 
upon the acid fteams of burning brtzmffone; 
a fourth undertakes to clear tie houle by 
gunpowder ; a fitth tries the {uperior vir 
tues of the volatile vapours of the fpirit of 
fult;, others. have relied upon fumigation 
with charcael; and to complete the ridi- 
culouinels of their proceedings, they now 
pretend to have difgovered a certain re- 
medy for an infectious atmofphere, in the 
fteams of the acid of putrefattion itfelf. 
And when we have done laughing by 
ourlelves, we will invite the whole tex to 
join inthe lawgh. I love to laugh at the 
- . - * . o 
philofophers; and in tew inftances have 
‘they more richly deferved to be laughed. 
at than in the prefent. Philofophy has 
very feldom been‘laid open fo completely 
to the attacks of wit, in comedy and fatire. 
She has conflantly been clouded in {moke. 
Ail forts of acid exhalations have encom« 
paffed her thickiy. Like one of Mac- 
beth’s witches, fhe has been made to cir- 
cle round the pot wherein the powertut 
drugs were put :- 
<¢ Double, double, toil and trouble, 
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble,” 
were the words fhe was made to repeat. 
Thus have they, exhibited her, as a 
hag; but the fhall foon efcape from their 
tyranny, beautiful and engaging aster, 
and ieave the philofophers to enjoy them. 
felves in the midft of the fmoke they have 
raifed. The hiftory of thefe fumigations 
would make a curious volume. It would 
fhew philofophy led aftray from the plain 
path ef common -fenfe, and with her 
m ae ; om tces 
rete so at i x a a ™* 
Bee ge eg: 
