204 Dr. Fobnftone the Propofer of Acid Fumigations. [Oober 1) 
was fent to the countries on the Rhine and 
Neckar, probably to fupply the lofles ful 
tained by the war. For ftate and parade 
the law of Fafhion has long decreed the 
preference to the Mecklenburgh-breed ; 
and above 1500 ftrong coach-horfes were 
bought at very high prices by the agents 
of the nobility of Vienna. It was ob- 
ferved, however, that by an injudicious 
mixture with Englifh ftallions, this breed 
has loft much of its ftrength and ftateli- 
nefs. A Mr. Flothe, from Mecklenburg, 
had received a cargo of horfes from Eng- 
land, and molt of them were fold at from 
80 to soo Louis-d’ors.—Adjoining to 
the horfe-market are the fmall boulevards 
of Leipzig, which was covered with 
booths and various exhibitions, fuch as 
are to be met with at every fair, and 
which it would be a tedious tafk to enu- 
gnerate or deicribe. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIRs 
1, LW individuals are perhaps altoge- 
ther uninfluenced m the purfuits 
throughout life by a defire for pofthumous 
fame: in afierting, therefore, the claim of 
the illuftrious dead to difcoveries made by 
them, whether in the arts or {ciences, we 
not only difcharge a debt due to fuch me- 
ritorious benefaétcrs of mankind, but af- 
ford a frefh flimulus for exertion to thofe 
who would wifh to purfue the fame ho- 
nourable career. 
No difcovery, perhaps, of importance 
was ever promulgated in any department 
of fcience, without attempts naving been 
made to deny to the author of it the merit 
oforiginaliry. Such was the cafe refpecting 
the circulation of the blood, by the cele- 
brated Harvey; fuch alfo, we are con- 
cerned to obferve, at prefent, is the cafe 
with regard to the ref{pective difcoveries of 
vaccine-inoculation, as a preventive of 
the fmall-pox, and the efficacy of acid fu- 
migatiens in deftroying contagion. 
Although it has been repeatedly ftated, 
in different periodical publications, as well 
as in the Preface to the Tranflation of Guy- 
ton Morveau’s Treatife on the Means of 
Purifying Infeéted Air, that the late Dr. 
James Johnftone, of Worcefter, well- 
known by his Phyfiological Inquiry into 
the Utes of the Ganglions of the Nerves, 
was the firft to employ the vapour of the 
muriatic-acid as a corrective of febrile 
contagion; yet, as the French Govern- 
ment feems (till to claim the merit of that 
difcovery for a diftinguifhed chemift of 
their own country, in oppofition to that 
of ‘Dr. Carmichael Smyth, without the» 
moft diftant allufion whatever to the name 
of Dr. Johnftone, f beg leave, through the 
medium of your ufeful Mifcellany, in juf- 
tice to the memory of this mot ingenious 
phyfician, to ftate the foundation on 
which he is regarded by myfelf, in com- 
mon with many others, as having been 
the firft to difcover and record the ufe of 
acid fumigations for the deftruction and 
neutralization of contagious virus. . 
In the report made to the Confuls of 
the French Republic by the Minifter of 
the Interior, Chaptal, on this fubjecét, and 
in the work of Morveau, above-mention- 
ed, we find, that the firft experiment of 
the French chemift to afcertain the efficacy 
of acid fumigations was not inftituted 
until 1773, feventeen years after the fame 
procefs had been fuccefsfully employed by 
Dr. Johnftone for correéting the conta- 
gion of a very malignant fever, which ap- 
eared at Kidderminfter in 1756. Dr. 
Johnftone publithed fo early as 1758 an 
Account of this Fever and the Mode of 
Fumigation employed by him, which is 
exactly the fame as that afterwards re- 
commended by Morveau. 
In this Treatile, page 50, he obferves, 
that ** the ncceffity ot changing the air in 
a fick-room by fucceffive ventilat onarifes 
from the deftruction of a certain property 
in that fluid, by breathing, which renders 
it afterwards noxious. Likewile from the 
atmofphere being filied with the excre- 
mentitious fteams which fly off from the 
patient’s body continually, and which 
putrify in a ftagnant unrenewed air, and 
render it truly poifonous, a pabulum morbt, 
rather than of life.” 
And again, at page 51, ‘* The fteams 
of vinegar will preferve the air free from 
putrefaction, &c. Thefe are the moft 
commodious, if not the moft ufeful, me- 
thods of medicating the air; thole, how- 
ever, who prefer the mineral acids may 
order brimftone to be burnt, or may raile 
the marine acid very ealily, by putting a 
certain quantity of common falt into a 
veflel kept heated; if to this a fmall 
quantity of oil of vitriol is added from 
time to time, the air will be filled with a 
thick, white, acid fteam,”” &c. 
While, however, we think it juft to 
reftore to the firft difcoverer that portion 
of merit fo juftly due to him, we would 
not wifh to be underftood as endeavour- 
ing to deprive the French chemift of all 
claim whatever to originality. Many 
important difcoveries have, it is well 
known, been made, both in the arts and 
{ciences, by the exertions of individuals 
in 
