cure the curvy in an advanced ftate at fea; yet he is perfuaded, that it is fufficient to prevent "that diftemper from making 66 any great progress, for a con"fiderable time;" and therefore he doth not hesitate to pronounce it" one of the best antifcorbutic medicines yet found out *." This falutary gas, or fixed air, is contained more or lefs in all fermentable liquors, and begins to oppofe putrefaction as foon as the working or inteftine motion com mences. that the wort will be able to not fufficient convenience. The Ruffians however make a fhift to prepare at fea, as well as at land, a liquor of a middle quality between wort and fmall-beer, in the following manner. They take ground malt and rye-meal in a certain proportion, which they knead into fmall loaves, and bake in the oven. These they occafionally infufe in a proper quantity of warm water, which begins fo foon to ferment, that in the space of twenty-four hours their brewage is compleated, in the production of a small, brifk, and acidulous liquor, which they call quas, palatable to themfelves, and not difagreeable to the tafte of ftrangers. The late Dr. Mountfey, member of this Society †, who had lived long in Ruffia, and had been Archiater under two fucceffive fovereigns, acquainted me that the quas was the common and wholefome drink both of the fleets and armies of that empire, and that it was particularly good against the fcurvy. He added, that happening to be at Moscow when he perused the "Obfervations on the JailFever," publifhed here, he had been induced to compare what he read in that treatife with what he should fee in the feveral prifons of that large city; but to his furprize, In wine it abounds, and perhaps no vegetable fubftance is more replete with it than the fruit of the vine. If we join the grateful taste of wine, we muft rank it firft in the lift of antifcorbutic liquors. Cyde is likewife good, with other vinous productions from fruit, as alfo the various kinds of beer. It hath been a conftant obfervation, that in long cruizes or diftant voyages, the fcurvy is never feen whilft the fmall beer holds out at a full allowance; but that when it is all expended, the diforder foon appears. It were therefore to be wifhed, that this moft wholefome beverage could be renewed at fea; but our hips afford Having been favoured with a fight of the Medical Journal of Mr. Patton, furgeon to the Refolution, I read the following paffage in it, not a little ftrengthening the above teftimony. "I have found the wort of the utmoft "fervice in all fcorbutic cafes during the voyage. As many took it by way "of prevention, few cafes occurred where it had a fair trial, but thefe, however, flatter myself, will be fufficient to convince every impartial perfon, "that it is the beft remedy hitherto found out for the cure of the fea-fcurvy: and I am well convinced, from what I have feen the wort perform, and from its mode of operation, that if aided by portable foup, four-krout, fugar, fago, and currants, the fcurvy, that maritime peftilence, will feldom or never make its alarming appearance among a fhip's crew, on the longeft voyages, proper care with regard to cleanliness and provifions being obferved." 66 The Royal Society. after after vifiting them all, and finding them full of malefactors, for the late emprefs then fuffered none of those who were convicted of capital crimes to be put to death, yet he could difcover no fever among them, nor learn that any acute diftemper peculiar to jails had ever been known there. He obferved that fome of those places of confinement had a yard, into which the prifoners were allowed to come for the air; but that there were others without this advantage, yet not fickly: fo that he could align no other reafon for the healthful condition of thofe men than the kind of diet they ufed; which was the fame with that of the common people of the country, who not being able to purchase flefh-meat, live moftly on rye-bread, (the most ascescent of any bread) and drink quas. He concluded with faying, that upon his return to Petersburgh, he had made the fame enquiry there, and with the fame refult. late war, and the fcurvy breaking out among his crew, he bethought himself of a kind of food, he had feen used in some parts of the country, as the most proper on this occafion. Some oatmeal is put into a wooden veffel, hot water is poured upon it, and the infufion continues until the liquor begins to tafte fourish; that is, till a fermentation comes on, which in a place moderately warm may be in the space of two days. The water is then poured off from the grounds, and boiled down to the confiftence of a jelly t. This he ordered to be made, and dealt out in meffes, being firft fweetened with fugar, and feasoned with fome prize-wine he had taken, which though turned four, yet improved the taste, and made this aliment no less palatable than medicinal. Thus far my informer: from whofe account it would appear, that the rye meal affifted both in quickening the fermentation, and adding more fixed air; fince the malt alone could not fo readily produce fo acidulous and brisk a liquor. And there is little doubt but that whenever the other grains can be brought to a proper degree of fermentation, they will more or lefs in the fame way become ufeful. That oats will, I am fatisfied, from what I have been told by one of the intelligent friends of Captain Cook. This gentle man being on a cruize in a large hip, in the beginning of the Obfervations on the Method of burying the Parish Poor in London, and on the Manner in which fome of the capital Buildings in it are conftructed and kept, as two great Sources of the extraordinary Sicklinefs and Mortality, by putrid Fevers, fo fenfibly felt in that Capital; with Hints for the Correction of thefe Evils. By a Gentleman who figns himself HYGEIA. TH HE leaft attention to the mode of interment in this city, particularly of the bodies of the poor, would lead one to confider it as a principal cause of this fpecies of difeafe. In fome buryinggrounds, near the centre of this metropolis, the graves or pits for the reception of the poor are madę * The Effex, a seventy gun fhip. 14 fufficiently fufficiently wide to contain 3 or 4 wooden coffins a-breaft, and deep enough to hold twice as many in depth these pits, after each burial, are covered with a few loofe boards, and a little mould to hide the coffin from common view; but they are never filled up till the whole complement of corpfes has been interred. When this is done, a fecond grave is opened upon the fame plan, close to the first, leaving the fides of the former coffins ftill expofed; by which means thefe wholefale receptacles of the dead become to offenfive, as frequently to oblige the minifters, and others upon funeral duty, to ftand at a confiderable distance, to avoid the ftench arifing from them. Barely to mention the existence of a nuifance of this kind, is fufficient to fhock every man of reflection and humanity; and the teftimonies of numerous writers confirm the infalubrity of fuch a practice *. As much as poffible the interment of dead bodies in large cities hould be prohibited; and the pumerous places hitherto appro priated to that use, should be converted into lawns, walks, gardens, fquares, and fuch like useful and ornamental objects. To fupply the defect of burying-places arifing from this change, other grounds should be chofen at proper distances and on the north fide of a city, as fouthern winds are more fultry, and likely to convey to the inhabitants any noxious exhalations, the diffufion of which, it is well known, northern winds tend rather to check than to promote. If, however, the practice of burying the dead within the city be continued, fome regulation thould be adopted to prevent its pernicious effects, by fixing the depth of every grave at five feet at the leaft, and the number of bodies depofited in each to two at the most, and in cafe of two the grave fhould be made one foot deeper; but on no condition whatever should any grave be left open after the interment of a corpfe. With respect to vaults, they fhould be difcouraged as perpetual fources of putrid exhalations; and "I have known instances of the hospital fever beginning in a ward when there was no other caufe but one of the men having a mortified limb," Pringle's Difenfes of the Army. Forestus fays "he was an eye-witness to a plague which arofe from the fame cause.” He likewife mentions "a malignant fever which broke out in North Holland, occafioned by the rotting of a whale that had been left upon the shore." In a French treatife Sur la Pefle, mention is made of "a malignant fever affecting the crew of a French fhip, upon the putrefaction of fome cattle they had killed in the island of Nevis, in the West Indies.” Diodorus Siculus mentions "the putrid fteams rifing from the bodies of those who lay unburied, as one of the caufes of that dreadful diftemper that broke out among the Carthaginians at the fiege of Syracufe." Pringle mentions, "amongst the causes of malignant fevers, burials within the towns, and the bodies not laid deep. Difeafes of the Army. See alfo Screta de Feb. Caftror. Foreftus mentions "a plague that raged at Venice in his time, owing to the corruption of a fmall kind of fifh in that part of the Adriatic." See alfo Mead, Sir John Celbatch, &c. по no dead body should be permitted to be depofited in a vault, unless inclosed in a leaden coffin, well foldered down. From the increase of trade in this metropolis, and the larger and more frequent affemblies of people at public markets, coffee houses, and other places of bufiness and amufement, it is probable that many perfons fuftain confiderable injury in their health. The Royal-Exchange affords a ftriking inftance to this purpose. The 'change hours, a few years ago, feldom exceeded two o'clock, and now three is confidered as the time of high change. The crouds of people that usually remain at this place for upwards of an hour, muft certainly be pernicious, of which every one may be convinced who enters upon full 'change immediately from the frether atmosphere of the street; he feels the former not only much hotter, but also so offenfive as to render refpiration, at first, somewhat difficult. Before the company retire all the gates are fhut, feaving only one fmall outlet; and thus the air, tainted, and rendered noxions, is pent up and confined against the evening, when the gates are again opened; and valetudinarians, who have not leifure to go into the country, under a notion of purchafing a mouthful of fresh air, rush into an atmosphere loaded with human effluvia, which of all others, when become vitiated, is the most dangerous to health and life. To this place, likewife, many children are conducted, particularly in the early part of the day, to breathe the aurora matutina; but inftead of that falutary regale, they inspire chiefly the fæcule of yesterday, which are retained under the deep piazzas for want of free ventilation. It is not expected that, by these fuggeftions, perfons engaged in butinefs will be induced to avoid the Exchange, neither do I think the danger exceedingly imminent, as the pepper-vaults under this edi fice, and the regale gentlemen partake of in the neighbouring coffeehoufes, muft mutually tend to obviate infection; but, certainly, in the place of the prefent close wooden gates, open iron gates might be fubftituted, by which a freer circulation of air would be promoted. It cannot, however, at any time, be advifable to frequent this place for the fake of falubrity of air. The transfer offices, at the Bank, are infalubrious, not only from the multitudes of people who daily croud them, but also from their peculiar conftruction, which not having fide windows and common chimnies, like all regular and wife buildings, cannot poffibly admit that free circulation of air, which the health of the people who are ftatedly employed there indifpen fibly requires. The air, also, that iffues from the fuperb ftoves, inftead of compenfating for the want of vital air, which feems to have been defignedly excluded from those coftly apartments, ferves only to increase the general infalubrity, by diffufing the pernicious particles with which it is impregnated. Among various other fources of putridity, may be included levees, play - houfes, public exhibitions, kitchens under ground, night cellars, routs, mafquerades, and nocturnal revels of all kinds. Meeting-houses, alfo, being usually built with low roofs, muft prove perni cious to the health of many individuals, as every thing that deftroys the purity of the air, debilitates the body, and conduces to the production of putrid and other difeafes. Illuminations, and the vaft increafe in the nfe of lamps and can. dles, muft tend to impair the purity of the circumambient air, as all burning bodies have the property of rendering it lefs fit for respiration, of which we may be convinced by the difficulty of breathing over a charcoal fire. It has been, I know, a general received opinion, that fires check the progrefs of plagues, and peftiferous winds; but experience in London affords a ftrong proof to the contrary; great tires were made during the ravages of the plague in this city, which were fo far from abating it, that the week after the general conflagration the deaths were almoft doubly augmented: there is reason, therefore, to conclude, that, as burning bodies emit a mephitic matter, large fires tend to deftroy the purity of the air. In this city, where coal fires are principally ufed, with the inflammable, mephitic, and other matters thrown out, probably an acid is decompofed, and exhaled from the fulphur in the coal; and thereby certain miafmata, of a putrid tendency, may be neutralized; but, from the inftances in the plague abovementioned, there is reafon to prefume that the injury introduced into the atmosphere overbalances the good effects arifing from the acid decompofition. One of the most universal and dangerous channels of infection, has its fource in the ftate of the hofpitals in this city, which are ufually fo contrived as to be peculiarly adapted to generate contagion. From twenty to forty perfons are generally configned to one room, and were they all in health, it might reafonably be fufpected, that the breath and effluvia from fuch a number of people would foon render the air unfit for refpiration, and at length give rife to difeales of the putrid kind: what then can be expected, when as many patients, under various diseases, breathe day and night in one confined apart ment? I have now, Mr. Editor, eurforily mentioned a few fources of injury to the health of my fellowcreatures. I am forry that want of leifure will not permit a more minute detail of thefe and other causes of disease; but thould the hints I have given preferve one useful member of the community, it will afford an ample compenfation to HYGEIA. [Gentleman's Magazine.] |