It were a very extraordinary Circumstance that two Persons at so great a Distance from each other, without getting a Hint of it one from the other, s… - Stephen Hales

In the Year 1740, I wrote to Dr. Martin Physician to Lord Cathcart, General of the Forces which lay imbarked at Spithead, for an Expedition in America, to propose (besides the usual sprinkling between Decks with Vinegar) the hanging up very many Cloths dipped in Vinegar, in proper Places between Decks, in order to make the Air more wholesome: And in case an infectious Distemper should be in any Ship, to cure the Infection with the Fumes of burning Brimstone.

Man, not contented with the Liquors, which his bountiful Creator intending for his Comfort, has wisely tempered with such a due Proportion of Strength, as would (if taken in Moderation,) make his Heart glad, has unhappily found Means to extract, from what God provided for his Refreshment, a most intoxicating and baneful Spirit, to which, in a great measure, is owing the remarkable Increase of Drunkenness of late Years; which Vice reigns to a most enormous Degree, among the habitual Drinkers of Gin, Brandy, and other Distilled Liquors; which are found to be most pernicious and destructive. For at the same shat they coagulate and thicken the Blood, they also contract and narrow the Blood-Vesels; which has, in fact, been found to be true, by Experiments I have purposely made with Brandy, on the Blood and Blood-Vesels of Animals.

November the sixth following, viz. in the Year 1741 Martin Triewald, Captain of Mechanicks and Military Architect to the King of Sweden, and Fellow of the Royal Society at London, in a Letter to M.D. and Secretary of the Royal Society, says, that "this Spring he had invented a Machine, for the Use of his Majesty's Men of War, which went to block up Petersburgh, in order to draw out the bad Air from under their Decks, the least of which does exhaust 36172 cubick Feet of Air in an Hour,"...