s use of the portable fires was their drying up the
moisture, and especially in those places where there was the least
circulation of air. This humidity, composed of the perspirable matter of
a multitude of men, and often of animals (kept for a live-flock) and of
the steams of the bilge water from the well, where the corruption is the
greatest; this putrid moisture, I say, being one of the main sources of
the scurvy, was therefore more particularly attended to, in order to its
removal. The fires were the powerful instrument for that purpose, and
whilst they burned, some men were employed in rubbing hard, with canvass
or oakum, every part of the inside of the ship that was damp and
accessible. But the advantage of fire appears no where so manifest as in
cleansing the well; for this being in the lowest part of the hold, the
whole leakage runs into it, whether of the ship itself, or of the casks
of spoilt meats or corrupted water. The mephitic vapours, from this sink
alone, have often been the cause of instantaneous death to those who have
unwarily approached to clean it; and not to one only, but to several
successively, when they have gone down to succour their unfortunate
companions: yet this very place has not only been rendered safe but
sweet, by means of an iron pot filled with fire and let down to burn in
it.

When, from the circumstances of the weather, this salutary operation
could not take place, the ship was fumigated with gun-powder, as
described in the Paper; though that smoke could have no effect in drying,
but only in remedying the corruption of the air, by means of the acid
spirits from the sulphur and nitre, aided perhaps by some species of an
aerial fluid, then disengaged from the fuel, to counteract putrefaction.
But as these purifications by gun-powder, as well as by burning tar and
other resinous substances, are sufficiently known, I shall not insist
longer on them here.

Among the several means of sweetening or renewing the air, we should
expect to hear of Dr. Hales's _Ventilator_. I must confess it was my
expectation, and therefore, persuaded as I was of the excellence of the
invention, it was not without much regret that I saw so good an
opportunity lost, of giving the same favourable impression of it to the
Public. If a degree of success, exceeding our most sanguine hopes, is not
sufficient for justifying the omission of a measure, deemed one of the
most essential for attaining an end, I would plea