Thoughts on the best means of lessening the destructive progress of cholera : in a letter addressed to the Right Honourable Viscount Melbourne / by Joshua Brookes.

  • Brookes, Joshua, 1761-1833.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts on the best means of lessening the destructive progress of cholera : in a letter addressed to the Right Honourable Viscount Melbourne / by Joshua Brookes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    men of science to be beneficial in decomposing contami¬ nated air, but which I apprehend has not yet been suffi¬ ciently made public. The following process I learnt when a student, above half a century ago, of the venerated Dr. Fordyce, Professor of Chemistry, &c. It consists of an admixture of the black oxide of manganese, strong sulphuric acid, muriate of soda, and water,—producing oxymuriatic acid gas (chlorine), which ought to be exposed to evaporation in saucers, and distributed in various places in apartments. Of the utility of this plan, all the inhabitants residing in the vicinity of my late residence can bear testimony;—for having received the body of a huge elephant for dissection about twenty years ago, in the hot month of August, the whole atmosphere be¬ came vitiated ; but by the use of the above-mentioned che¬ mical preparation the air was immediately purified, and rendered respirable again: subsequently, other means were found for the removal of the nuisance. Thus it occurs to me, that after the explosion of gun¬ powder (which has been effected in some parts abroad by artillery in the open air), this summary and copious ge¬ neration of chlorine is, to say the least, one of the best dis¬ infectants. As the pestilence has visited Great Britain, it becomes decidedly requisite to expose the said chemical admixture in large shallow stone earthenware pans for evaporation, in all the streets, &c. where it rages. The torn and defective coverings of the poor, with all spoiled bedding, curtains, &c., should be immersed in the Thames (a part being hurdled off for the purpose), and after being macerated there about a month, when washed and dried, might be sold for the use of paper manufacturers, who purify and whiten all coloured cloth by means of a bleach¬ ing liquid, and subsequently finish the operation by the oxymuriatic acid gas (chlorine). I am, however, greatly perplexed when I think on the