About this time an event happened which deserves to be stated. It had been customary in one of the churches of Dijon to bury considerable numbers of dead bodies. From these an infectious exhalation had proceeded, which had brought on a malignant disorder, and threatened the inhabitants of Dijon with something like the plague. All attempts to put an end to this infectious matter had failed, when Morveau tried the following method with complete success: A mixture of common salt and sulphuric acid in a wide-mouthed vessel was put upon chafing-dishes in various parts of the church. The doors and windows were closed and left in this state for twenty-four hours. They were then thrown open, and the chafing-dishes with the mixtures removed. Every remains of the bad smell was gone, and the church was rendered quite clean and free from infection. The same process was tried soon after in the prisons of Dijon, and with the same success. Afterwards chlorine gas was substituted for muriatic acid gas, and found still more efficacious. The present practice is to employ chloride of lime, or chloride of soda, for the purpose of fumigating infected apartments, and the process is found still more effectual than the muriatic acid gas, as originally employed by Morveau. The nitric acid fumes, proposed by Dr. Carmichael Smith, are also efficacious, but the application of them is much more troublesome and more expensive than of chloride of lime, which costs very little. In the year 1774 it occurred to Morveau, that a course of lectures on chemistry, delivered in his native city, might be useful. Application being made to the proper authorities, the permission was obtained, and the necessary funds for supplying a laboratory granted. These lectures were begun on the 29th of April, 1776, and seem to have been of the very best kind. Every thing was stated with great clearness, and illustrated by a sufficient number of experiments. His fame now began to extend, and his name to be known to men of science in every part of Europe; and, in consequence, he began to experience the fate of almost all eminent men--to be exposed to the attacks of the malignant and the envious. The experiments which he exhibited to determine the properties of _carbonic acid gas_ drew upon him the animadversions of several medical men, who affirmed that this gas was nothing else than a peculiar state of sulphuric acid. Morveau answered these animadversions in two pamphlets, and completely refuted them.