An inquiry into the propagation of contagious poisons, by the atmosphere

by Somerville Scott Alison

Vinegar is much used for the purpose, and with very considerable benefit, and is therefore to be employed.

The essential oils are capable of being diffused throughout the air, and with the assistance of heat, are often made available for the purpose of covering odours. When they are to be used, the oils should be poured upon a piece of live coal, held in the middle of the apartment; they are then immediately converted into vapour. In like manner, vinegar and the other volatile liquids may be disseminated through the atmosphere.

The oils, the vegetable substances in which they are contained, tar and the like, are occasionally burnt with the same intention, and sometimes with advantage.

The incense so much used by the ancients, was procured for the most part by the burning of the vegetable substances in which these essential and fragrant oils resided, by which part of them is diffused in vapour.

The ostensible and pretended object of the priests, in offering up incense, while that and other religious rites were performing over the bodies of deceased persons, was the conciliation and propitiation of the Deity. But while this was the sole ostensible object of the priests, and that which was held by the people, as the only and exclusive purpose proposed, there is good reason to believe that the offering up of incense, like many other observances of religion, had its temporal, and worldly, as well as spiritual ends; and that the sweet smelling odours, which were thought would be so grateful to Heaven, were, on those occasions, used in no small degree, as so many fumigations, to defend the pious and resigned priests from the effluvia of the dead body, and the consequent corruption of the atmosphere.

The use of fumigations, in a disguised form, was perhaps rendered necessary, as the purpose of purifying the atmosphere, might have seemed to cast reflections or imputations on the dead, which the vile, barbarous, and superstitious people, especially relatives, might have resented with acts of violence, or which might have thrown priest-craft into contempt and abhorrence.

Perhaps it was in reference to this matter, as it was in many others of graver import, that the ignorant and superstitious condition of the people on the one hand, and the cunning, subtlety, despotism, and superior knowledge of the ministers of religion on the other, in early times, made it convenient that certain ends, thought to be desirable, should be accomplished without reasons, explanations, or intentions being given.

There is, then, reason to believe, that the burning of oils and other fragrant substances, was used in very early times to purify the atmosphere from the effluvia of dead bodies.

The products of the combustion of essential oils, tar, pitch, and the like, are carbonic acid gas and watery vapour, which, there is reason to think, cannot be useful in purifying the air, or in neutralizing hurtful effluvia.

The permanently elastic gases which are used as fumigations, are the most potent agents of the kind, and they are generally used, and with much propriety and advantage, in all cases where disease is of a putrid character, and where, in short, the atmosphere is likely to be vitiated to a great extent. They form also the most useful fumigations for the purpose of purifying the atmosphere, and the walls and furniture of apartments lately inhabited by the sick, and their employment, in such cases, should never be neglected, even when there is no great reason to apprehend vitiation of the atmosphere, for when advantage is doubtful, there can exist no possibility of detriment. The agent now most commonly employed, is chlorine gas, and it is perhaps the most efficient in the list of fumigations.