The case of the manufacturers of soap & candles in the city of New-York, stated and examined : to which are prefixed, the laws of the state of New-York, concerning infectious diseases ; with an addition, in form of an appendix ; containing, several documents and papers, relative to these subjects / published by the Association of Tallow Chandlers and Soap Makers.

  • Samuel L. Mitchill
Date:
MDCCXCVII [1797]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The case of the manufacturers of soap & candles in the city of New-York, stated and examined : to which are prefixed, the laws of the state of New-York, concerning infectious diseases ; with an addition, in form of an appendix ; containing, several documents and papers, relative to these subjects / published by the Association of Tallow Chandlers and Soap Makers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    r_3* _] concluded, the obfervalions of koufe-kceptrs corroborated the experiments of philqfophers, and both received confirmation from theprocejes of (he falt-pette-makers. The fum of the teftimony from tliclc three fourr.es, was, that pot-ajk and lime, laturatcd or neutralized the putrid ex- halations they attracted ; that being both of them of alka- line nature, they (hewed by their analyfis, the material they had drawn from the air, was of an acid quality ; and that this acid, which, with the faline ground, formed common nitre, and with the earthy bafis, conflituted calcarious ni- tre, was the Acid of Putrefaction * As far as the almoil innumerable mafs of facts on thefe and fimilar fubjects, had been {hipped of foreign and advantitious circumdances, and generalized in a feientihe and logical manner, there exifted the mod cogent evidence, that the production juft named, and fome of its modifica- tions, formed the peflilential poifon ; that under the medi- cal names of Human Effluvia, and Marjh Miafmata, and he fcarcely knew how many other titles, was commonly called in popular phrafc, infection or contagion : the operation of which, occafioned luch mortality and terror among the people, and which the Legiuature had with fuch laudable (olicitudc, been engaged in guarding againft. He had judged it the more neceffary to bring forward to notice, the facts tending to fhew the exact and prccife nature of peftilcntial fumes : becaufc through the whole courfe of his reading and converfation, they appeared to be confidcred as unknown combinations of elementary atoms, equally unknown ; myftcrious and inexplicable things engendered from the chaos of organic dilTolution ; produc- tions fo equivocal, it was hard to know what to call them ; furpaffing, as fome believed, all mortal comprchcnfion, and lying far beyond the limits of human underflanding.
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