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Dear Sir
It has occurred to me that considerable advantage might be derived, in long voyages, from some observations which I have made relating to different kinds of air, and which have been lately read at the Royal Society.
Distilled sea water must be rapid and unpleasant to the taste, but a small mixture of fixed air would make it as pleasant as the finest spring water, and at the same time much more wholesome. If the water be more strongly impregnated, it will have the properties of Pyrmont water, and be antiseptic and antiscorbutic - Another application which I have made of fixed air has been remarkably useful in a putrid fever, and the sea scurvy is of a putrid nature. The processes are exceedingly easy, and the expence of them almost nothing.
Mentioning these things, and others of a similar nature, at the table of the Duke of Northumberland yesterday, several of my friends suggested the probability of getting some reward from the board of Admiralty. If this could be done, I doubt not of your friendly assistance. If, however,