Volume 2

An account of the experiment made at the desire of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on board the Union hospital ship, to determine the effect of the nitrous acid in destroying contagion, and the safety with which it may be employed. In a letter addressed to the Right Hon. Earl Spencer / [James Carmichael Smyth].

  • James Carmichael Smyth
Date:
1796
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the experiment made at the desire of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on board the Union hospital ship, to determine the effect of the nitrous acid in destroying contagion, and the safety with which it may be employed. In a letter addressed to the Right Hon. Earl Spencer / [James Carmichael Smyth]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 22 ] from his letters, fome of which you have already feen, and which are now arranged according to the order of time in which they were written. Mr. Baflan’s condu£t, my Lord, through 1 the whole of this bufinefs, does him the higheft honor, and cannot fail to recom¬ mend him to your Lordfliip’s notice. When the contagion at firfl: began to fpread among the fhip’s company of the Union, he was importuned, by the warrant officers and others, to fend them on fhore to fick quarters, which he peremptorily refufed, laying, with the true fpirit of a Britilh failor : “ It is better we fhould all perifh, than have fuch a contagious fever as this diffeminated in our fleet.” He ac¬ cordingly made application to the Com¬ mander in Chief, and not a man was lent out of the fhip. His humanity and care of the fick, Mr. Menzies mentions in the » warmeft terms of praife, and his fuccefs- ful treatment of them, is the bell teftimony