The influence of climate, and other agents, on the human constitution : with reference to the causes and prevention of disease, among seamen : with observations on fever in general, and an account of the epidemic fever of Jamaica / by Robert Armstrong.

  • Armstrong, R. (Robert) (Civil engineer)
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of climate, and other agents, on the human constitution : with reference to the causes and prevention of disease, among seamen : with observations on fever in general, and an account of the epidemic fever of Jamaica / by Robert Armstrong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    attack^ and recovered. The two other men, and myself, escaped. A few years afterwards, various attempts were made at the Naval Hospital at Port Royal, to ascertain the state of the air in confined situations. The ground floor of that building was about two feet and a half above the level of the sea, at high water, but there the rise and fall of tide is trifling. The soil consist- ed of shingle, and rubbish brought there to raise the ground, mixed with decomposing coral, which allowed the salt water to percolate through. T'he excavations under the floors were sunk to about the level of the sea, as before the flooring was laid in one of these wards, a little stagnant salt water was found in the centre. In another, the ground was very damp, and on scooping up the soil with a trowel, to the depth of nearly six inches, a little water had collected the following morning. A certain degree of ventilation was maintained under the floors, by three or four passages through the wall, on each side of the building, which sloped downwards. These apertures were about six inches square, and were covered externally by small iron gratings, which considerably diminished the area. In one of the unoccupied wards, these passages were closed for three ^veeks, and an opening made in the floor, by cutting across two of the planks. Bottles of water were now lowered, and inverted, and brought up full of air. Considering it probable, however, that any noxious material existing in the air, might be soluble in water, and be washed away as it rushed through it, a quantity of air was drawn up from the other end of the ward, by means of a large syringe fitted with a tin tube, which was passed through a hole in the floor, and con-