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.

    51/78 page 49
    / V [ 49 ] Having now, my Lord, flnlfhed with the account of the experiment given by the two gentlemen who have been employed in con- duffing it, permit me, before concluding the fubjeft, to call for a moment your Lord- fhips attention to fome of the principal cir- cumftances, and to the conclufions which they afford. ' In the firft place, my Lord, it muff be allowed that the prefent experiment fully juftifies all I have faid refpefling the fafety with which the nitrous acid (procured in the manner defcribed) may be employed as a fumigation. No one furely can fay that I affume too much, when I confider the fafety of the fumigation as eftablifhed, after a trial of nearly three months, for an hour and a half or two hours, morning and evening, each day, on board an hofpi- tal fhip, containing from two to three hundred perfons of different fexes, and ages, and labouring under different dif- eafes; without a fingle inftance of perma- D nent
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