On the economical applications of charcoal to sanitary purposes : a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, on Friday evening, March 2, 1855 / by John Stenhouse.

  • John Stenhouse
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the economical applications of charcoal to sanitary purposes : a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, on Friday evening, March 2, 1855 / by John Stenhouse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    respirators, and if the floors of their tents, and the lower decks of ships, were covered by a thin layer of freshly-burnt wood-charcoal, I think we should have little in future to apprehend from the ravages of cholera, yellow-fever, and similar diseases by which our forces have been, of late, so cruelly deci- mated. If found more convenient, the charcoal powder might be covered with coarse canvas, with- out its disinfectant properties being materially injured. In conclusion, I would confidently hope that the time is now nearly come, when the propagation of disease by infection shall become the exception, and not the rule ; when the most nervous and de- licate persons will be enabled to attend unharmed on their friends, labouring under even the most malignant infectious disorders ; and when we will be enabled to traverse some of the most pestiferous districts of the world, with no greater apprehension than we now would pass through the mews, lanes, and alleys of our densely-peopled and ill-ventilated cities. [At the close of the Lecture the earthenware pans con- taining the bodies of the animals, covered with about two inches of charcoal powder, from which not the slightest odour was perceptible, were exhibited to the audience.]