Part 6

(We are now acquainted with a mode of destroying contagion, much more simple and efficacious than that of fumigating with such compound and costly powders as those mentioned in the preceding note; we mean _the vapour extricated from nitre by means of the vitriolic acid_. See an Account of the experiments made on board the Union Hospital-ship, to determine the effect of the nitrous acid in destroying contagion. By James Carmichael Smith, M.D. &c. London, 1796. Tr.)

[74] The author adds, that the smoke from the vegetable substances burnt with them helps to keep the acid vapours longer suspended. We do not see how. Tr.

[75] This asylum of innocence and misfortune holds the first place among all institutions of the same kind in Europe. It was founded by the Empress Catherine the Second. Under the auspices of this Sovereign, and by the great attention of Mr. _de Betzky_, to whom his country owes infinite obligations for the devotion of his time and fortune to the encouragement of the arts and the promotion of undertakings for the public good, this institution had nearly attained to perfection, at the time when this account of it was written.

[76] I caused to be fixed up at the gate near the porter's lodge, two sets of railing, at the distance of twelve feet from each other. The people belonging to the hospital stood at the inner railing, and those who came to see them, at the outer.

[77] There was always a guard of twenty-two men and an inferior officer. After July, I obtained an order not to have them changed.

[78] It was not without great difficulty that we got a house for quarantine, as well on account of obstacles occasioned by the public calamity, as from the scarcity of houses sufficiently roomy. Hence this business was not settled until October. In the mean time, many children continued to be exposed at the hospital-gate. Some of these I put into a wooden house in the vicinity; and Mr. _de Durnowo_ took others of them under his roof. As soon as the above-mentioned quarantine-house was ready to receive them, which was not the case till November, I sent them thither.

[79] In this quarantine-house I also established a small hospital for the reception of pregnant women, and the care of them after their delivery, as long as the plague might continue. Mr. _de Durnowo_ undertook the management of this establishment.

[80] As it was possible for the plague, though it declined in the town, to have been kept up in this quarantine-house by the children that were daily brought there and by the lying-in women; in order to provide against such an event and in compliance with the orders of the Empress, Mr. _de Durnowo_ and myself presented a memoir, containing a detail of the regulations and precautions above-mentioned, to the Committee of Health, who were pleased to signify their approbation thereof.

(Here follows in the original, the letter of approbation from the Committee of Health, which though it is highly flattering to the author, is unimportant to the reader, and is therefore omitted by the Translator.)

[81] In the beginning of the year 1772, I had the remainder of the children who had been received into the quarantine-house, admitted, a few at a time, into the Great Hospital. Their number, including orphans, whose parents had been carried off by the plague, and new-born infants, amounted to one hundred and fifty.

Transcriber's Notes

page viii & ix: the four items listed have been expanded from the original compact paragraph.

page 29: Pogaretsky ==> Pogaretzky

page 44: accompained ==> accompanied

page 75: petechia ==> petechiæ

footnote 5: Samoïlowoitz ==> Samoïlowitz

footnote 27: Pogaretsky ==> Pogaretzky

footnote 33: Russel ==> Russell

footnote 36: Russel ==> Russell

footnote 59: sly ==> fly

footnote 59: hurful ==> hurtful