A letter to William Wilberforce ... containing remarks on a pamphlet, entitled An account of the discovery of the power of mineral acid vapours to destroy contagion / By John Johnstone. Published in London 1803.

  • James Carmichael Smyth
Date:
1805
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to William Wilberforce ... containing remarks on a pamphlet, entitled An account of the discovery of the power of mineral acid vapours to destroy contagion / By John Johnstone. Published in London 1803. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the son’s assertion, that the method of destroy¬ ing contagion discovered by his father, could be used with perfect convenience in the apart¬ ments of the sick. I am persuaded that such a complete perversion of an author’s meaning, professing to be merely a declaration of it, has never before been presented to the public. “ Aut non credent homines, aut non “ ignoscent.” But besides the passage quoted above, upon which the son founds his father’s claim to discovery, I shall take the liberty of laying before vou two extra6ts from the same work, which prove, so far at least, as a negative proposition is capable of being proved, that Dr. Johnstone, the father, neither knew the superior efficacy of the mineral acids in de¬ stroying contagion, nor ever had the most distant idea of employing them with this intention. In the Historical Dissertation, we find a. -chapter on the means of avoiding infection. £‘ To the description (says the author) of a <c contagious disorder, it is very natural to “ expect some rules how contagion is best <£ to be avoided.”—Page 53. Had he been acquainted with a certain method of destroy¬ ing contagion, we should have expected, that,
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