"As Sea-farers, that Valuable and Useful Part of Mankind, have many Hardships and Difficulties to contend with, so it is of great Importance to obviate as many of them as possible: And as the noxious Air in Ships has hitherto been one of their greatest Grievances, by making sick and destroying multitudes of them; so the finding a Means to prevent this great Evil, is of vastly more Consequence to Navigation, than the Discovery of the Longitude; as being a Means of saving innumerable more Lives..."