An HISTORICAL ACCOUNT of a NEW METHOD for extracting the foul AIR out of SHIPS, &c.

I

PREFACE.

Have often faid, that it is not, in our country at

leaft, fo eafy a thing to ferve the public, as is commonly imagined; not meaning hereby the difficulty of finding out ufeful experiments, (although even that is great enough), but the hardships which attend the putting them in practice. Whence this fhould come to pass, it is foreign to the present purpose to inquire. They who are acquainted with the feveral motives upon which men often act, among which felf-intereft, envy, pride, and obftinacy, have no inconfiderable fhare, will readily fee the fprings of this feemingly unaccountable difpofition of mind.

:

I would not have it thought, that I have had occafion to make this ill-natured remark, from what I may myfelf pretend to have done for the benefit of the public but it is fufficiently juftified by the oppofition which the invention defcribed in the following treatise has met with. The machine is fo fimple, and of fo extenfive advantage, that as it is furprifing' to see the greatest pains taken to make it abortive at firft, fo it is no lefs ftrange that it has not been fo univerfally used, in the royal navy, as might have been expected from the great good which it promises.

It is not my business to examine the causes of this

neglect ;

neglect; which is in a very moving and handsome manner complained of in the voyage of the great Lord Anfon*; an immortal work, which will be always read with a pleafure, equal to the benefit to be reaped from it, with regard to our navigation and commerce to thofe parts of the world, to which the adventures relate.

As this hero is not lefs admired for his humanity and good fenfe, than for his conduct and courage; he has taken care that the relation of his enterprises should be a monument of the one, as well as of the other. The accounts given of that strange disease, fo fatal to our feamen, the fea-fcurvy, are hints fo new and useful in phyfic, that I have thought it not unbecoming the place with which I am honoured in my profeffion, to write a fhort difcourfe on this fubject, and give it to the honeft and ingenious author, to be published together with his reprinted Account of a new method for extracting the foul air out of fhips, &c. an invention, which, I may venture to fay, does honour to our nation, and will in time be found of more public benefit than any discovery in mechanics, which has been produced thefe hundred years.

Having therefore had the fatisfaction, in the beginning, to recommend this experiment to the admiralty, I now join a fhort difcourfe on the fcurvy to the reprinted edition of Mr Sutton's book, as a convincing and happy proof of the fuccefs which attends it. And the author has alfo added fome other authentic accounts to the fame purpose. From all these things duly confidered, it is to be hoped that the evil fpirit of oppofition, which, as is mentioned in Mr Sut* See p. 36. 37.

ton's

ton's account, &c. exerted itself even against the making a trial, will now be rebuked and cast out.

To conclude, as any one verfed in mechanics will eafily fee (as we formerly obferved) that this management of the air may be applied to many other purpofes of life, (to fome inftances of which I have been an eye-witnefs), fo it will prove a great lofs to mankind, if it is not univerfally brought into practice : efpecially, fince, by the generofity and difinterestedness of the inventor, the whole expense may be confidered as a trifle. Many more confiderations might be urged; but they will readily occur to the wisdom of those whose province it is to direct our naval affairs.

The foregoing preface was written, and ready to be put to the prefs, when Mr Sutton brought me the agreeable news, that the Right Honourable the Lords of the Admiralty had just then given him orders, to provide all the ships of his Majesty's navy with this ufeful machine. Thus, laudable discoveries, though discountenanced at firft, do at laft break through all difficulties, and meet with suitable encouragement.

R. M.

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