most appalling. It carried off more sailors than all other causes
combined--nearly eighty thousand during the Seven Years' War alone.
Salt food, absence of vegetables, foul or deficient water, defective
cleanliness, mental depression, over-fatigue--some or other of these
agencies were always at work. Vasco da Gama had full reason to know the
effects of scurvy on his crew during his voyage to the East in 1497.
Pigafetta, during a voyage near Cape Horn in 1519, was exposed to the
evils of biscuit worm-eaten and reduced to repulsive mouldy dust, and
scarcely any other kind of food; his crew were attacked with scurvy
severely; their gums swelled so as to hide the teeth, and the upper and
lower jaws were so diseased that mastication was nearly impossible.
All our famous old navigators--Drake, Davis, Cavendish, Dampier,
Hawkins--had mournful reason to know how great were the ravages
produced on their crews by this distemper.
Perhaps the most sadly celebrated of all voyages, in regard to this
particular visitation, was that of Captain (afterwards Lord) Anson.
He was placed in command of a squadron bound for the South Seas to
act against French and Spanish vessels and settlements. The narrative
of his voyage was afterwards drawn up from his papers by Mr Walter,
chaplain of the _Centurion_. Setting forth in 1740, his sojourn in
foreign regions was a prolonged one. After the squadron had rounded
Cape Horn and entered the Pacific, scurvy began to make its appearance
among the crews; their long continuance at sea, the fatigues they had
undergone, and various disappointments that had had to be endured,
all contributed to the spread of the disease. There were few on board
the _Centurion_ who were free from its attacks. In the month of April
forty-three men died. Anson hoped that, as they advanced north, the
spread would be checked; but the death-rate was nearly doubled in May.
As the ship did not reach port till the middle of June, and as the
mortality went on increasing, the deaths reached a number exceeding two
hundred; even among the remainder of the crew they could not muster at
last more than six foremast-men in a watch fit for duty. To sum up: in
the first two years of a five years' voyage, Anson lost no less than
two-fifths of the original crew.
Anson's experience shewed that the scurvy was not driven back even when
the conditions might seem to have been moderately favourable. 'It has
been generally assumed that plenty of fresh provisions and water are
effectual preventives. But it happened that in the present instance we
had a considerable stock of fresh provisions on board, such as hogs
and fowls, which were taken in at Paita; besides which we almost every
day caught great abundance of bonitos, dolphins, and albicores. The
unsettled season, which deprived us of the benefit of the trade-wind,
proved extremely rainy; we were enabled to fill up our water-casks
about as fast as they were emptied; and each man had five pints of
water per day. Notwithstanding all this, the sick were not relieved,
nor the spread of the disease retarded. The ventilation too was good,
the decks and cabins well attended to, and ports left open as much as
possible.' Another passage in the narrative tends to shew that the
officers were much impressed with this failure of many preventives
which are usually regarded as very important. 'All I have aimed at is
only to shew that in some instances the cure and prevention of the
disease are alike impossible by any management, or by the application
of any remedies which can be made use of at sea. Indeed I am myself
fully persuaded that when it has once got to a certain head, there are
no other means in nature for relieving the diseased but carrying them
on shore, or at least bringing them into the neighbourhood of land.'
Thus wrote an observant man in the days when the remarkable qualities
of lime-juice were little known. Later in the same century, Captain
Cook, owing either to better management or to being exposed to less
unfavourable circumstances, or to both causes combined, fared better
than Lord Anson. Although he had a little lime-juice, he reserved
that for medical cases. He gave his men sweet malt-wort; another
article administered was sowens, obtained by long steeping oatmeal
in water until the liquid becomes a little sour; and sour-kraut,
consisting of slices of cabbage salted, pressed down, fermented, and
barrelled--without vinegar. Cook lost only one man from scurvy out of
a hundred and eighteen, during voyages that lasted three years, and
in oceans that ranged over so much as a hundred and twenty degrees in
latitude. Quite at the close of the century, Péron during a voyage of
discovery suffered greatly; but everything was against him. Putrefying
meat, worm-eaten biscuit, foul water--all tended to produce such a
state of matters that not a soul on board was exempt from scurvy; only
four, including officers of the watch, were able to remain on deck.
The second surgeon M. Taillefer, behaved heroically. Although himself
affected, he was employed at all hours in attendance on the rest--at
once their physician, comforter, and friend.
And now we come to the subject of lime-juice, a liquid which, on the
concurrent testimony of all competent persons, possesses a remarkable
power, both in preventing attacks of scurvy, and in curing the disease
when the symptoms have already made themselves manifest.
How the discovery arose, no one can now say; probably the fact grew
upon men's attention by degrees, without any special discovery at
any particular date. That vegetables and fruits are acceptable when
scurvy has made its appearance, has been known for centuries past. The
potato, for instance, has often been purposely adopted as an article
of diet in prisons, on the occurrence of this disease, with good
effect--a few pounds of this root being added to the weekly rations.
Countries in which oranges and lemons are abundant and cheap have not
been much affected with the malady. In 1564 a Dutch ship, bringing a
cargo of oranges and lemons from Spain, was attacked with scurvy; the
men were supplied plentifully with the fruit, and recovered. Other
varieties of the same genus, such as the lime, citron, and shaddock,
gradually became recognised as possessing much value in cases of this
malady. In 1636 Mr Woodall, a medical officer in the navy, published
his _Surgeon's Assistant_, in which he dwelt forcibly on the great
importance of employing fruits of this class. He expressed an opinion
that oranges, lemons, and the like, come well to maturity in the
intertropical zone where scurvy is most rife, and in a humble thankful
spirit commented thus on the fact: 'I have often found it true that
where a disease most reigneth, even there God hath appointed the best
remedies for the same, if it be His will they should be discovered and
used.' It was more than a century later that Dr Lind wrote especially
on this subject, emphatically pronouncing that the juice of oranges and
lemons is a better remedy for scurvy than any other known medicament.
Lord Anson's disastrous experience had drawn public attention to the
subject, and more attention was paid to Lind than had been bestowed on
Woodall.
Nevertheless, the eighteenth century nearly closed before the English
government were roused to action in the matter. To Sir Gilbert Blane
is due the honour of inducing the Admiralty to furnish a supply of
lime-juice to all ships of the royal navy, especially those starting
on long voyages. The effect was wonderful. The records of the Royal
Naval Hospital at Haslar, near Gosport, shewed that one thousand four
hundred and fifty-seven cases of scurvy were admitted in 1780, whereas
in 1806 there was only one single case; the introduction of lime-juice
as a regular item in ships' supplies having taken place in the
intervening period. Scurvy became quite a rare disease on shipboard;
and many ships' surgeons are said to have advanced towards middle life
without having seen an instance of it. When Captain Parry organised his
expeditions to the icy regions, he was sedulously attentive to this as
well as to all other matters connected with the health and well-being
of his crews. As he found that some of his men occasionally shirked the
lime-juice given out to them, he adopted the plan of mustering them
every day, and seeing that every one drank off his due allowance.
When the juice has been obtained by the aid of a screw-press or any
other means, it is heavy, cloudy, and sour. A proportion of ten per
cent. of spirit is added to preserve the juice from being too much
affected by tropical heats, and also to modify the possible effect
of too great acidity. The mixture is carefully bottled for sea-use;
and the sailors and marines begin to drink it about a fortnight after
leaving port. About an ounce a day per man is the usual allowance,
often mixed with sugar in their grog; the quantity is increased if any
symptoms of scurvy make their appearance. Lime-juice may be preserved
in the same way as ripe fruits by placing the bottles containing it in
water, boiling for half an hour, gradually cooling, and hermetically
sealing. Dr Leach, consulted by the Board of Trade, strongly
recommended the use of lime-juice in all emigrant and other passenger
ships, and drew up a dietary scale for this purpose. An act of
parliament had before that date been passed, directing the adoption of
this medicament in the mercantile marine; but the lime-juice supplied
by contractors was found to be frequently so grossly adulterated that
scurvy began to appear. Whereupon a further statute ordered that all
lime-juice should be officially inspected before being placed on
shipboard. One ounce daily per head is now a pretty general allowance
in all ships alike. The better class of passenger-ship owners, such as
Messrs Wigram, had long before adopted the system, without waiting for
any official pressure.
It is now, to sum up, admitted beyond doubt or cavil, that lime-juice
is the most valuable of all known agents for warding off scurvy, or for
curing when the disease has made its appearance.
In an earlier paragraph we briefly adverted to the fact that a
Committee is officially examining into the circumstances connected
with the outbreak of scurvy in the _Alert_ and _Discovery_. Of
course no attempt will be made here to anticipate the result, nor
to pronounce an opinion on the question involved. But Captain Sir
George Nares has himself made public some remarkable observations on
the matter, revealing facts never before so fully known to those who
are most directly interested in the subject. In a speech delivered
at Guildhall, the gallant officer said: 'No sledge-party employed in
the Arctic regions in the cold month of April has ever been able to
issue a regular ration of lime-juice. Every commander has desired to
continue the daily issue while travelling, as recommended by medical
authorities; but all have failed in doing so during the cold weather.
In addition to the extra weight to be dragged that its carriage would
entail, there is the more serious consideration of the time and fuel
necessary to melt it.... After the middle of May, when the weather
is warmer, lime-juice can be (and was) used as a ration. Of course
hereafter lime-juice in some shape or other must be carried in all
sledging-journeys; and I earnestly trust that some means will be
found to make it into a lozenge; for as a fluid, there is and always
will be extreme difficulty in using it in cold weather, unless Arctic
travelling is considerably curtailed. Owing to the thaw which sets
in before the return of the sledges, in its present state it must be
carried in bottles; but up to the middle of May it remains frozen as
solid as a rock. If the bottles have not already been broken by the
jolting of the sledge or the freezing of the contents, they have to be
broken on purpose before chipping off a piece of the frozen lime-juice,
as if it were a piece of stone.' Cannot our pharmaceutical chemists
come to the rescue, and devise some mode of making lime-juice into
small convenient lozenges or dry confections?
'BELL-ANIMALCULES.'
As we write, we look upon a prospect which excites our wonder and
interest. The eye sees a variety of form and structure presenting a
combination of grace and delicacy hardly to be matched in the whole
of Nature's domain. Within the compass of a small round disc or
circle, we behold numerous beings, each consisting of a bell-shaped
head mounted on a delicate flexible stalk. The margins of the bells
are fringed with minute processes, resembling miniature eyelashes,
and hence named _cilia_; and these processes wave to and fro with
an incessant motion, by means of which particles of solid matter
suspended in the water around are swept into the mouth of the bells.
Suddenly some impulse moves the beings we are gazing upon to contract
themselves, and as if by magic, and more quickly than the eye can
follow them, the bell-shaped bodies shrink up almost into nothingness
by the contracting power of their stalks. Soon, however, as the alarm
disappears, the beings once more uncoil themselves, the stalks assume
their wonted and straight appearance, the little cilia or filaments
once again resume their waving movements, and the current of life
proceeds as before.
The spectacle we have been describing is not by any means a rare
or uncommon one, to the microscopist at least. We have merely been
examining a tiny fragment of pond-weed and its inhabitants, floating
in a thin film of stagnant water. Attached to the weed is a colony of
those peculiar animalcules known popularly as 'bell-animalcules,' and
to the naturalist as _Vorticellæ_. Yet common as the sight may be to
the naturalist, it affords one example of the many undreamt-of wonders
which lie literally at the feet, and encompass the steps of ordinary
observers; and it also exemplifies the deep interest and instruction
which may be derived from even a moderate acquaintance with natural
history, together with the use of a microscope of ordinary powers.
The bell-animalcules are readily procured for examination. Their
colonies and those of neighbour-animalcules may be detected by the
naked eye existing on the surface of pond-weeds as a delicate white
nap, looking like some lower vegetable growth. And when a portion of
the weed is placed under the object-glass of the microscope, numerous
animalcules are to be seen waving backwards and forwards in all their
vital activity. The general appearance of each animalcule has already
been described. The bell-shaped structure which, with its mouth turned
uppermost, exists at the top of each stem or stalk, is the body. The
stalk is never branched in these animalcules; and except in certain
instances to be presently alluded to, each stalk bears a single head
only. The structure of the stalk is worthy of special mention. The
higher powers of the microscope shew us that within the soft substance
or _protoplasm_, of which not only the stalk but the body also is
composed, a delicate muscular fibre is contained. This fibre possesses
the power of contracting under stimulation, just as the muscles of
higher animals contract or shorten themselves. And by means of this
structure therefore, the bell-animalcules, when danger threatens them,
are enabled to contract themselves with great rapidity, the stalk
itself shrinking up into a spiral form. The operation reminds one
forcibly of some sensitive plant shrinking when rudely touched. The
lower extremity of the stalk forms a kind of 'root,' by means of which
the animalcules attach themselves to fixed objects, such as pond-weeds,
&c.
The bell-shaped body is sometimes named the _calyx_, from its
resemblance to the structure of that name in flowers. The edge of
the bell possesses a very prominent rim, and within this we find the
fringe of filaments or cilia, which in reality form a spiral line
leading to the edge of the bell, where at one point is situated the
mouth, represented by an aperture or break in the rim of the body. We
have seen that the cilia create miniature maëlstroms or whirlpools in
the surrounding water, which have the effect of drawing particles of
food towards the mouth. The study of the bell-animalcules affords an
excellent example of the gaps which yet remain to be filled up in our
knowledge of the structure even of the lowest and commonest forms of
life. No structures are more frequently met with in the animal world
than the delicate vibratile filaments or cilia, so well seen in the
bell-animalcules. The microscopist meets with them in almost every
group of animals he can examine. They are seen alike in the gills of
the mussel and in the windpipe of man; and wherever currents of air or
fluid require to be maintained and produced. Yet when the physiologist
is asked to explain how and why it is that little microscopic
filaments--each not exceeding in many cases the five-thousandth part of
an inch in length, and destitute of all visible structure--are enabled
to carry on incessant and independent movements, his answer is, that
science is unable, at the present time, to give any distinct reply to
the query. No trace of muscles is found in these filaments, and their
movements are alike independent of the will and nervous system; for
when removed uninjured from the body of the animal of which they form
part, their movements may continue for days and weeks together. What
a field for future inquiry may thus be shewn to exist, even within
the compass of a bell-animalcule's history--these animalcules being
themselves of minute size, and even when massed together in colonies,
barely perceptible to the unassisted sight!
A very simple and ingenious plan of demonstrating the uses of the cilia
in sweeping food-particles into the mouths of the animalcules, was
devised by Ehrenberg, the great German naturalist. This plan consists
in strewing in the water in which the animalcules exist, some fragments
of coloured matter, such as indigo or carmine, in a very fine state
of division. These coloured particles can readily be traced in their
movements, and accordingly we see them tossed about and whirled about
by the ciliary currents, and finally swept into the mouths of the
animalcules, which appear always to be on the outlook, if one may so
term it, for nutritive matter. Sometimes when we may be unable to see
the cilia themselves, on account of the delicate structure, we may
assure ourselves of their presence by noting the currents they create.
The structure of the bell-animalcules is of very simple and primitive
kind. The body consists of a mass of soft protoplasm--as the substance
of the lower animals and plants is named; but this matter is capable
of itself of constituting a distinct and complete animal form, and of
making up for its want of structure by a literally amazing fertility
of functions. Thus it can digest food; for in the bell-animalcules
and their neighbours, the food-particles swept into the mouth are
dissolved amid the soft matter of the body in which they are imbedded.
Although the animalcules possess no digestive system, the protoplasm of
the body serves them in lieu of that apparently necessary apparatus,
and prepares and elaborates the food for nourishing the body. Then we
have seen that the animalcules contract when irritated or alarmed. A
tap on the slide of glass on which they are placed for microscopic
examination, initiates a literal reign of terror in the miniature
state; for each animalcule shrinks up as if literally alarmed at the
unwonted innovation in its existence. This proceeding suggests forcibly
to us that they are sensitive--if not in the sense in which higher
animals exhibit sensation, at least in much the same degree and fashion
as a sensitive plant. And where sensation exists, analogy would lead
us to believe that some form of apparatus resembling or corresponding
to nerves exercising the function of feeling, must be developed in the
animalcules. Yet the closest scrutiny of the bell-animalcules, as well
as of many much higher forms, fails to detect any traces of a nervous
system. And hence naturalists fall back upon the supposition that this
curious protoplasm or body-substance of these and other lower animals
and plants, possesses the power of receiving and conveying impressions;
just as in the absence of a stomach, it can digest food.
The last feature in the organisation and history of the
bell-animalcules that we may allude to in the present instance is that
of their development. If we watch the entire life-history of these
animalcules, we shall observe the bell-shaped heads of various members
of the colony to become broadened, and to increase disproportionately
in size. Soon a groove or division appears in this enlarged head; and
as time passes, the head appears to divide into two parts or halves,
which for a time are borne by the one stalk. This state of matters,
however, does not continue; and shortly one of the halves breaks
away from the stalk, leaving the other to represent the head of the
animalcule. This wandering half or head is now seen to be provided
at each end with cilia, and by means of these filaments swims freely
throughout the surrounding water. After a time, however, it settles
down, develops a stalk from what was originally its mouth extremity;
whilst the opposite or lower extremity with its fringe of cilia comes
to represent the mouth of the new animalcule. We thus note that new
bell-animalcules may be produced by the division of the original body
into two halves. They also increase by a process of _budding_. New buds
grow out from the body near the attachment of the stalk; these buds in
due time appearing as young Vorticellæ, which detach themselves from
their parent and seek a lodgment of their own.
These briefly sketched details may serve to interest readers in a
comparatively unknown field of observation, accessible to every one who
cares to know something of one of the many life-histories with which
our universe teems, but which from their very plenty are seldom thought
of or recognised. And the present subject is also not uninteresting
if we regard it in the light of a corrective to those too commonly
received notions, usually fostered by ignorance of our surroundings,
that there is nothing worth attention in the universe but humanity and
human affairs.
ADVICE TO YOUNG WOMEN.
In marrying make your own match: do not marry a man to get rid of him
or to save him. The man who would go to destruction without you would
as likely go with you, and perhaps bring you along. Do not marry in
haste, lest you repent at last. Do not let aunts, fathers, or mothers
sell you for money or position into bondage, tears, and life-long
misery, which you alone must endure. Do not place yourself habitually
in the society of any suitor until you have decided the question of
marriage; human wills are weak, and people often become bewildered,
and do not know their error until it is too late. Get away from their
influence, settle your head, and make up your mind alone. A promise
may be made in a moment of sympathy, or even half-delirious ecstasy,
which may have to be redeemed through years of sorrow, toil, and pain.
Do not trust your happiness to the keeping of one who has no heart,
no health. Beware of insane blood, and those who use ardent spirits;
shun the man who ever gets intoxicated. Do not rush thoughtlessly,
hastily, into wedded life, contrary to the counsels of your friends.
Love can wait; that which cannot wait is something of a very different
character.--_Newspaper paragraph._
LINES TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS TYRIE,
A YOUNG EDINBURGH POET OF GREAT PROMISE.
The fairest flowers that Summer wrings
From grassy mound to scent the air--
The leaves that sweetest beauty wear
When from the skies on happy wings
Spring flies to earth--in sad decay
Are first to fall, and fade away.
And like the garden rose that rears
'Mongst lesser flowers its stately form,
But droops and dies before the storm,
When Winter's gloomy face appears--
Yet leaves within Affection's heart
A beauty, that can ne'er depart--
A love, that Death may never claim,
Nor mix with his forgetful gloom
Amidst the stillness of the tomb;
So Memory keeps _his_ honoured name
Within the mind; there shall it be
Till Time shall find Eternity.
His life was like the snowy cloud
That peaceful decks the evening sky,
And fills with love the gazer's eye;
But when the voice of thunder loud
Commands, it finds an early doom,
And disappears amongst the gloom.