The disinfection of letters in Malta

Abstract

Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries right up to the middle of the nineteenth century Malta was traditionally considered to be the boundary with regard to sanitation; beyond this point everything was doubtful. It is known that any vessels arriving from ports beyond Malta with clean bills of health were put in quarantine. There are no known factual documents from which one can deduce the nature of mail disinfection methods adopted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It appears that towards the latter quarter of the eighteenth century the same method of disinfecting letters was used as in France. They were dipped in vinegar, and this method does not appear to have been changed while the British occupied the island during the Aboukir campaign.