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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    % \ . I 46 ] up to Chatham on the twenty-fourth, and found (he had been juft hauled into dock, and her crew put on board the Prince Ed¬ ward receiving fhip, where they were very much croudsd. On the following day I be¬ gan the fumigation, but as many of the ports and hatchways of the fhip could not be fhut clofe enough to retain the vapour for a fufficient length of time, a quick and ftrong fumigation became more effentially neceffary j which however I could not get them to execute, not be¬ ing able to make them underftand my meaning, for want of a fufficient know- t v * ledge of their language. The fumigation was, notwithftanding, continued regularly on board this fhip for the four following days, although it was not in my power to prevail on them to do it fufficiently ftrong, to do juftice to the trial,—and to infure that fuccefs we had already experienced on board the Union > their excufe generally was, that