First report of the Board of Health. 30th April 1805. An outline of a plan to prevent the spreading of the plague, or other contagious diseases / Presented by the Board of Health, agreeably to the instructions of His Majesties most honourable Privy Council.

  • Great Britain. General Board of Health
Date:
[1805?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report of the Board of Health. 30th April 1805. An outline of a plan to prevent the spreading of the plague, or other contagious diseases / Presented by the Board of Health, agreeably to the instructions of His Majesties most honourable Privy Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ( *4 ) nerated in animal Bodies, that we are totally ignorant upon what their Properties and Powers depend, and can¬ not, upon general Principles, apply to one of those poisons what we have learned of another. We are led to make these observations, because the Language com¬ monly used on this Subject may lead to serious error. Contagion and Infection are i erms, which express the Mode in which the Poisons are supposed to be applied to sound Persons ; but by a common Figure in Language, they are often used to express the Poison itself, and such Poisons go by the Name of contagious and infectious, and what destroys Contagion in one Case, it has been inferred would destroy it in another j but there is no foundation for this broad Conclusion. For Examples Sake we will suppose it proved that the Acid of Nitre or of common Salt would destroy the poison of the Jail Fe¬ ver ; we cannot from thence infer that it would destroy that of Measles, Small Pox, or the Plague. Having premised the above Reflections, we have no Hesitation in recommending Trial to be made of the \ apour of the Nitrous or Muriatic Acid in the Apartments of the Sick, provided none of the Precautions respecting Ventilation, Change of Apparel, &c. recommended above, be ne» HeCted. o The Nitrous Acid Vapour is disengaged from Nitre by adding to it Vitriolic Acid § and in like Manner the Muriatic' Acid Vapour, by adding Vitriolic Acid to Sea Salt. Nitre reduced to Powder, and Vitriolic Acid in equal 'Quantities, mixed in small Pots, and dispersed through th Wards of an Hospital, discharge copiously the Fumes of the Nitrous Acid, and the Discharge is more rapid if the Pot be placed in hot Sand. I « - Sea Salt a little moistened _ - _ i J parts, Acid of Vitriol (of the specific Gravity of 1,7) - - 12 parts, mixed in Pots of a moderate Size, which may be put in a Sand Bath, or not, at pleasure, produce the Acid Fumes or | V