_Dilution_, the great advantage of it, 391, _& seq._
_Discipline_, advantage of, to health, 348, 355.
_Diseases_, list of all those on board of the fleet, 94.
--What sorts seamen are most subject to, and most exempt from, 216.
_Diseases_, acute, tend naturally to wear themselves out, 70.
--Imputed anciently to supernatural influence, 220.
--Owing to neglect, _ibid._
_Dropsy_, medicines adapted to it, 558.
_Dysentery_ depends on the same cause as fevers, 36.
--Arises in the Prince George from cold weather, 79.
--More fatal in its acute state in a cold than a hot climate, 155.
_Dysentery_, appearances upon dissection, 471, _& seq._
_Dysentery_, forms of medicines adapted to it, 553.
E.
_Earthquakes_ frequent in the West Indies, 88.
_Effluvia_, what kind of them produce diseases, 134, _& seq._
_Elephantiasis_, peculiar to Barbadoes, 235, _& seq._
_England_, health of the fleet there compared to that in the West
Indies, 67, _& seq._
--Fleet there more sickly at particular periods than in the West
Indies, 208.
_English_, their cleanliness only of modern date, 282.
_Erasmus_, his account of the causes of pestilential diseases in
England, 282.
_Erysipelas_, Peruvian bark the best medicine in it, 558.
_Exercise_, the advantage of it, 343.
_Exercise_ in the sun very pernicious, 233.
_Expeditions_, list of, frustrated by disease alone, 214.
_Explosions_ of gunpowder, frequent and destructive, 539.
--Means of preventing them, 540.
F.
_Fatigue_ tends to shorten life, 346.
_Fevers_ depend on the same cause as fluxes, 36, _& seq._
--More prevalent in port than fluxes, 113, 127.
--Assume a different type upon the importation of infection, 182.
--Difference of its infection from that of some other diseases,
244, 249.
_Fever, ship_, description of it, 371.
--Treatment of it, 386.
_Fever, inflammatory_, principal symptoms of it, 384.
_Fevers, intermittent_, some unusual remedies for them, 456, _& seq._
--Forms of medicines adapted to them, 552.
Fires, the most effectual means of sweetening the air of a ship, 117.
--The most powerful means of destroying infection, 276, _& seq._
_Flour_ preferable to bread for exportation, 307.
_Fluxes_ depend on the same cause as fevers, 36, _& seq._
--Prevail least when fevers most violent, 44, 113.
--Apt to arise in ships soon after their arrival in the West Indies,
19, 84, 183.
--More frequent at sea than in port, 113.
--More frequent in ships that have been subject to fevers, 183.
--Why so frequent and fatal at West India hospitals, 192, _& seq._
--Observations on them, 466.
--Treatment of them, 473.
_Formidable_, extraordinary degree of health on board of her, 107,
128, 365.
--Causes of it, 72, 108.
--Fever arises in her from men lent to another ship, 128.
--From pressed men, 161.
_French ships_, their discipline and œconomy inferior to British, 114.
_Frigates_ more healthy than ships of the line, causes of this, 54,
_& seq._
--More healthy when their fire place was between decks, 287.
--A contrivance for ventilating them, 292.
_Fumigation_, method of performing it, 270, _& seq._
G.
_Gibraltar_ relieved by Lord Rodney, 19.
--Admissions and deaths at the hospital there, 187, 205.
_Gibraltar_ man of war, account of her, 53.
_Grosislet Bay_, description of it, 28.
_Gunpowder_, accidents from it, 190, 539, _& seq._
_Guthrie, Dr._, his observations on infection in Russia, 279.
H.
_Habit_, effect of it in resisting infection, 294.
_Hæmorrhages, internal_, oil and tincture of rhubarb of eminent
service in them, 486, _& seq._
_Hæmorrhage_, a limb sometimes carried off without any ensuing, 542.
_Hæmorrhoids_, medicines adapted to them, 555.
_Hardship_ impairs health and shortens life, 218.
_Heat_ communicated to the hand, a symptom of the ship fever, 378,
_& seq._
_Hemisphere, Northern_, a cold summer general all over it, 157.
_Herodotus_, his account of the clothing and health of the ancient
Ægyptians, 284.
_Hospitals_ not so proper for the sick as their own ships, 60.
--Account of diseases sent to them, 185.
--At Gibraltar, 187.
--At Barbadoes, 189, 197.
--At St. Christopher’s, 195.
--At St Lucia, _ibid._
--At Jamaica, 198.
--At New York, 201, _& seq._
--General view of them all, 205.
--Proportion of deaths in them no criterion of the success of
practice, 195, 200.
_Hurricane months_, 28.
_Hurricane_, a violent one in the West Indies--its good effect on the
health of the inhabitants, 40, _& seq._
_Hypochondriac_ complaints do not affect the laborious part of
mankind, 219.
I.
_Jaw, locked_, account of those affected by it in the battles of
April, 1782, 520, _& seq._
--Its symptoms different from those of the tetanus, 526.
--Wherefore most frequent in hot climates, 529, _& seq._
_Indolence_ a cause of scurvy, 345.
_Infection_, the obscurity of and difficulty of investigating it, 238.
--Various ways in which it is introduced into a ship, 241.
--It may arise without the presence of fever, 242.
--Habit renders people insensible to it, _ibid. & seq._
--It never affects all indiscriminately who are exposed to it, 245.
--It does not pass from one species of animal to another, 249.
--How to prevent the production of it, 254.
--Means of eradicating it, 264.
--Method of guarding against it, 293.
--Less frequent in hot climates than cold, 276.
_Inflammatory_ complaints most frequent in ships where no infection,
172.
_Inoculation_, conjecture concerning the cause of its safety, 247.
_Intermittent fevers_ sometimes arise on board of a ship, 32.
--Some unusual remedies for them, 456, & _seq.q._
_Intestines_, great, the principal seat of the dysentery, 470.
L.
_Labour_ necessary to health, 217.
--Pernicious if in excess, _ibid._
--What diseases it tends to avert, 219.
--Scurvy prevented by it, 344.
_Land wind_ at Jamaica, 119.
--Not at the small islands, _ibid._
_Lemon juice_, extraordinary instance of its efficacy in scurvy, 86.
--The most effectual remedy in scurvy, 303.
_Lemons and limes_, their juice the best detergent in scorbutic
ulcers, 502, _& seq._
_Lientery_, a symptom in obstinate fluxes, 489.
_Limes_, instance of their great antiscorbutic effect, 56.
_Liver_, inflammation of it seldom known in the West Indies, 95.
--But appeared at New York in men belonging to the West-India fleet,
156.
M.
_Magnesia_, given with acids, removes sickness of the stomach, 452.
_Malt liquor_, the utility of it, 320.
_Malt, essence of_, a weak antiscorbutic, 57, 504.
--Of service in the beginning of scurvy, 146, 164.
_Manners, Lord Robert_, his death lamented, 520.
_Marshes_, their exhalations cause fevers, 43.
_Melasses_, method of using it, 305.
--Great utility of it, 308.
_Mixing of men_, bad consequences of, 252, _& seq._
_Moisture_, the bad effects of it, 288.
_Mortality_, method of calculating the proportion of it, 88.
--Greater at sea from the want of an hospital and of proper
diet, 143.
--In the fleets and hospital at different periods, 205.
--In the army in the West Indies, 206.
--In England, 207.
--Total in the fleet for three years and three months, 209.
_Mortification_, an uncommon instance of it in the shoulder, 83.
N.
_Necessaries_, Surgeons, their quantity very inadequate, 302.
_New York_, the fleet therein 1780, 38.
--in 1782, 150.
_Nyctalopia_, a symptom of the scurvy, 24, 501.
_Nymph_ frigate, account of her health, 164.
O.
_Oatmeal_, the abuse of it, 308.
_Observations_, the difficulty of making them, 9.
_Officers_, more affected by foul air than common men, 116, 137.
_Opium_, advantage of combining with antimonials, 392.
--With neutral salts, 395.
--Its use in continued fevers, 404, 408.
--Cautions and directions with regard to it in fluxes, 476, 479.
--Its use in ulcers, 504.
--The best method of giving it in the locked jaw, 532, _& seq._
_Osbridge_, Lieut, his ingenious contrivance for sweetening water,
331.
P.
_Pediluvia_ hurtful in inflammatory fevers, 397.
_Petechiæ_, a symptom in the ship fever, 377.
_Phthisis pulmonalis_, not so common in the West Indies as Europe, 97.
--but more rapid, _ibid._
_Phœnix_, Spanish Admiral’s ship, her excellent materials and
construction, 53.
_Pigeon Island_, remarkable proof of its healthiness, 228, _& seq._
_Plague_, its infection does not spread far, 298.
--Means of preventing it from spreading, _ibid._ and 299.
--Never known in tropical climates, 277, _& seq._
_Porter_, its effect in preventing scurvy, 320.
_Potatoes, raw_, a remedy for scurvy, 60.
--Proposed as an article of victualling, 309, _& seq._
_Prudent_, effects of soaking her timbers in pickle, 81.
_Pulmonic_ complaints, medicines adapted to them, 556.
_Putrefaction_, simple, effluvia of it may produce fevers, 134,
_& seq._
Q.
_Quick lime_, the best preservative of water, 326, _& seq._
R.
_Recruits_, new raised, the cause of sickness, 180.
_Returns_, intention of them, 6, 7.
--Specimens of them, 23.
--Method of forming them into tables, 24.
_Rheumatism_, forms of medicines adapted to it, 557.
_Royal Oak_, cause of her health, 80.
--Method of curing the scurvy on board, 81.
_Ruby_, remarkably healthy, 167.
S.
_St. Lucia_, woody, mountainous, and rainy, 27.
--Proportion of deaths at the hospital there, 195.
_Salt_, the good effects of it in diet, 314.
_Sandwich_, health of, on her first arrival, 19.
_Scorches_, great numbers killed and wounded in this manner, 190.
_Scurvy_, in a cruise to windward of Martinico, 49.
--In a cruise near Jamaica, 121.
--High degree of it in the Nonsuch, _ibid._
--On the passage to New York, 148.
--Why less of it in the ships last from England, 147.
--Its rapid progress in the latter part of a cruise, 148, _& seq._
--Method of curing it on board of the fleet at New York, 151.
--Numbers that died of it according to Sir Richard Hawkins, 214.
--In Commodore Anson’s Squadron, _ibid._
_Scurvy_, observations on it, 499.
--What meant by the latent state of it, 505.
--The best remedies for it, 506, _& seq._
--In what manner the nature of the diet induces it, 509.
--Whether it is infectious, 516.
_Seasons_ in the West Indies, account of them, 28, _& seq._
_Ships_, new, not more unhealthy than others, 19, 52.
--Disadvantage in changing their commanders, 80.
--Why large ones most sickly, 128, 133, 253.
_Shingle ballast_, the advantage of it, 289.
_Shoes_ of great use to seamen, 339.
_Sick_, what the best place for them in a ship, 262.
_Sickness_, method of calculating the proportion of it, 90.
_Situation_, effects of the difference of it upon health, 28.
_Small-pox_ very prevalent in the fleet, 85.
_Sope_ supplied on board of the fleet, 145.
--Its great utility, 151, 257.
_Sour krout_, manner of using it, 305.
_Splinters_ more destructive than balls, 103.
_Spices_ good against noxious air, 230.
_Spruce beer_, the great advantage of it, 320.
_Strangers_ communicate disease to each other without any apparent
previous disease, 243.
_Surf_, danger from it in watering at St. Lucia, 88.
_Surgeons_, a greater proportion of mortality among them and their
mates, 134.
--Advantage of encouraging them, 266.
_Sweating_ of use in curing the ship fever, 388, _& seq._
--In the dysentery, 475.
_Sweet vegetables_ more antiscorbutic and medicinal in their natural
state, 58.
T.
_Tables_, method of forming them, 90.
_Tenaculam_ recommended in amputation, 543.
_Thermometer_, general range of it in the West Indies, 29.
--Observations on it at Port Royal, 124.
_Thucydides_, his observations on the plague at Athens, 296.
U.
_Ulcers_ keep pace with scorbutic and feverish complaints, 132.
--Proportion of them, 150.
--Very frequent in the Barfleur, _ibid._
--Great effect of a cold climate in diminishing them, 156.
--Form a considerable part of sea complaints, 221.
--Apt to arise in scorbutic habits, 339, 500, 505.
_Uniform_ for common seamen recommended, 336.
_Union_ remarkably healthy, 167.
--Subject only to inflammatory complaints, 173, 297.
_Urine_, appearance of it in the yellow fever, 437, 440, _& seq._
V.
_Venereal disease_, the medicines best adapted to the various forms
of it, 559.
_Vernon_, Admiral, health of his fleet compared with Lord Rodney’s,
131, 198.
--The first who caused the spirits allowed the seamen to be
diluted, 324, _& seq._
_Victory_, 12th of April, 1782, 99.
--Its effects on the health of the men, 101, _& seq._
_Ville de Paris_, sickness and mortality on board after being
captured, 115.
--Foundered, 210.
_Vinegar_, use of it in the navy, 302.
--In the Roman armies, _ibid._
_Vitriol, white_, used as a remedy in intermittent fevers, 462.
_Vomit, black_, the most dangerous symptom in the yellow fever, 436.
W.
_Wall, Dr._ recommends opium in low fevers, 393.
_War_, why fleets most sickly in the beginning of it, 69.
_Warren, Dr._, his successful treatment of a case of the locked jaw,
532.
_Water_ of springs preferable to running water, 324.
--Quick lime the best preservative of it, 326.
--Various other means of correcting it, 329.
--Distillation from sea water recommended, 332.
_Watering duty_ dangerous and unwholesome, 88, 118.
_Well_ of a ship, great danger of foul air in it, 285.
--Method of preventing it, _ibid._
_Wind of a ball_, the effects of it, 537.
_Wine_, the great advantage of it in the French fleet, 322.
--Superior to spirits, 324.
--Its utility in continued fevers, 410.
_Women_, why not so subject to acute diseases in the West Indies as
men, 234.
_Wounds_, number that died of, 209.
--Account of those received in April, 1782, 520.
Y.
_Yams_ used in place of bread, 76.
_Yellow fever_, 425.
_Yellowness_ of the skin not always a symptom of malignity, 181.
Z.
_Zinc_, effects of it in obstinate intermittent fevers, 456.
--Cases in which it is proper, 461.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] These were the Conqueror, the Cornwall, and the Boyne, which were
so damaged in the battles, that they were obliged to bear away for St.
Lucia.
[2] The following may serve as a specimen of these returns:
STATE of HEALTH of His Majesty’s Ship ALCIDE. Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes,
1st June, 1781.
+--------------------+--------------------+----------------------+
| Sick now on Board. | Died in the course | Sent to the Hospital |
| | of last Month. | in the course of |
| | | last Month. |
+--------------------+--------------------+----------------------+
| Fevers 4 | Of Fever 1 | Ill of Scurvy 35 |
| Flux 5 | | |
| Scurvy 26 | | |
| Catarrh and } 7 | | |
| Rheumatism } | | |
| -- | | |
| Total 42 | | |
+--------------------+--------------------+----------------------+
REMARKS.
During the course of last month we had one hundred and fourteen of
the men, who contracted the scurvy in the late long cruise, recovered
by the use of limes, which were procured at Montserrat. A pint of
wine, with an equal quantity of water, made agreeable with sugar and
tamarinds, is served to each patient daily. The regimen is exactly the
same as mentioned last month.
Since we came into port, very few have been seized with scurvy, but
several complain daily of fluxes and feverish complaints, none of which
seem at present to be of any consequence.
Four patients have last month complained of an almost total blindness
towards evening, accompanied with head-ach, vertigo, nausea, and a
sense of weight about the precordia. The pupil is then extremely
dilated, but contracts readily when a strong light is presented to it.
Two of them had the scurvy in a high degree, one of them slightly,
and the other seemed entirely free from it. I am not well acquainted
with the nature or cure of this disease, which I believe is called
Nyctalopia by some systematic writers.
I gave those who were affected with it an emetic, which brought up a
great deal of bile, and relieved the symptoms both of the head and
stomach. This encouraged me to a repetition of it, which seemed also to
be attended with benefit. I likewise applied blisters behind the ears,
and gave bark and elixir of vitriol, with the antiscorbutic course, to
those that required it.
I can form no probable conjecture concerning the cause of this disease.
I have observed a dilation of the pupil in scorbutic patients, and they
complained of a cloud before their eyes, with imperfect vision, which
disappeared as the scurvy went off.
WILLIAM TELFORD.
To Dr. BLANE,
Physician to the Fleet.
[3] Although this hurricane, in itself and its consequences, was so
destructive to the lives and health of men, yet, with regard to the
inhabitants on shore, it had a surprising and unexpected effect in
mending their health. I wrote an account of this hurricane to the late
Dr. Hunter, who communicated it to the Royal Society, and the following
passage is extracted from it:
“The consequences of this general tumult of nature, on the health
of man, was none of the least curious of its effects. I made much
inquiry on this head, not only of the medical gentlemen who had the
charge of hospitals, and of the physicians of the country, but of the
inhabitants, and every one had some cure to relate either of themselves
or their neighbours, in a variety of diseases. Nor could I find that
either those who were in health, or those who were ill of any disease
whatever suffered from it, otherwise than by its mechanical violence;
but, on the contrary, that there was a general amendment of health.
This is a fact, which I could neither credit, nor would venture to
relate, were it not supported by so many concurring testimonies. It had
a visible good effect on the acute diseases of the climate. The chronic
fluxes, of which there were then some at the naval hospital, were
cured or much relieved by it. But the diseases upon which it had most
evident and sensible effects, were pulmonic consumptions. Some recent
cases of phthisis, and even the acute state of pleurisy, was cured by
it; and in the advanced and incurable state of it, the hectic fever
was removed, and remarkable temporary relief afforded. A delicate lady
of my acquaintance, who was ill of a pleurisy at the time, and passed
more than ten hours in the open air, sitting generally several inches
deep in water, found herself free of complaint next day; had no return
of it; and when I saw her a few weeks after, was in much better health
and looks then usual. The people observed that they had remarkably keen
appetites for some time after, and the surviving part of them became
uncommonly healthy; some of both sexes, whom I had left fallow and thin
a few months before, looking now fresh and plump.
It is very difficult to account for this, as well as every thing else
in the animal œconomy; but it was probably owing in part, at least, to
the very great coldness and purity of the air from the upper regions
of the atmosphere. Great agitation of mind sometimes also produces
a revolution in health; and we know that the effect of external
impressions in general is very different when the mind is vacant, from
what it is when occupied and interested by objects, whether of pleasure
and satisfaction, or of danger and suffering.”
[4] In order to ascertain more exactly the degree of sickness in each
month, a column was afterwards added to the form of the returns,
expressing the number taken ill of the several diseases in the course
of the month.
[5] I was informed by Captain Caldwell, that when he commanded the
Hannibal, of 50 guns, his crew was so much afflicted with the scurvy,
in a passage of nine weeks from St. Helena to Crookhaven, in Ireland,
that ninety-two men were confined to their hammocks in the last stage
of that disease, though they had been supplied with sugar at St.
Helena, and served with it on the passage. They remained three weeks at
Crookhaven; at the end of which time every man was fit for duty: and
though they had fresh provision, they had no fresh vegetables, so that
their cure is to be ascribed to the use of lemons and oranges, which
the Captain very humanely ordered to be purchased for them from on
board of a foreign ship that happened to put into the same harbour.
[6] See Appendix to Part II.
[7] They were the Formidable and Namur, of 90 guns; the Arrogant,
Conqueror, Marlborough, Hercules, and Fame, of 74 guns; the Yarmouth,
Repulse, Prothée, Anson, and Nonsuch, of 64 guns.
[8] These were the Prince George, of 90; the Bedford, Canada, and Royal
Oak, of 74; the America and Prudent, of 64 guns.
[9] This is a term in use for the different articles of seamen’s
cloathing, particularly shirts and trowsers.
[10] The mortification in the shoulder, mentioned above, was somewhat
singular. It happened to a man in the Yarmouth, who, after being for a
week ill of a fever and flux, was one day, early in the morning, seized
with a pain in the upper part of the right arm, which immediately began
to mortify. He soon after became convulsed, and died the same day about
two o’clock.
[11] Earthquakes are frequent in the West Indies, and perhaps proceed
from a weaker operation of the same cause that originally produced
the islands themselves, which seem all to have been raised from the
sea by subterraneous fire. There are evident vestiges of volcanoes in
them all, except Barbadoes; but there are other unequivocal marks of
this island having been raised from the bottom of the sea; for it is
entirely formed of coral, and other sub-marine productions, of which
the strata are broken, and the parts set at angles to each other, as
might be expected from such a cause. There is, perhaps, at all times
in the caverns of the earth, elastic vapour struggling to vent itself,
and when near the surface, it may sometimes overcome the incumbent
masses of matter, and produce certain convulsions of nature. In the
account of the hurricane which I wrote to Dr. Hunter, I gave reasons
for believing, from the testimony of the inhabitants, that hurricanes
are attended with earthquakes; and if a conjecture might be advanced
concerning the cause of this, it might be said, that as the atmosphere
is lighter at that time, by several inches of the barometer, the
elastic vapour, confined by the weight of the incumbent earth and
atmosphere, being less compressed, may exert some sensible effects,
producing a sort of explosion.
[12] Since the publication of the first edition of this work I have
been informed that this complaint is not so rare on shore as in the
fleet, which may be partly owing to the greater coolness of the air at
sea, and partly from the seamen not having been a sufficient length
of time in the climate to be affected with this disease, as few of
them had been more than two years from England. But as this affection
of the liver was very common in the fleets and naval hospitals in the
East Indies, it is evident that there is a great difference of the
climates in this respect. It is worth remarking, that it sometimes
breaks out in the West-India Islands like an epidemic. The complaint,
for instance, was very little known in the island of Grenada, till
about the year 1785, when it became very frequent in a particular
quarter of the island; and the gentleman who sent the description of
it to England alledged, that there were the most unequivocal proofs of
its being contagious. It was most successfully treated by very copious
bloodletting, and in exciting a salivation by mercury. See Dr. Duncan’s
Medical Commentaries, Decad. 2, vol. I.
[13] Dr. Lind, on the authority of Mr. Ives, surgeon to Admiral
Matthews.
[14] London Gazette, _June_, 1781.
[15] This is well illustrated by the manner in which Captain Nott,
of the Centaur, was killed in Fort-Royal Bay. This brave man, having
carried his Ship nearer the enemy than the rest of the line, but
nevertheless at a great distance, had his signal made to keep the line,
and having gone into his cabin, as it is said, to examine the import of
the signal, a cannon ball struck him in the groin, and it was so far
spent, that it stuck in his body. It tore away a whole plank of the
ship’s side, the splinters of which killed a young gentleman, the only
person near him.
[16] I have seen an account of the diseases of the army at St. Lucia
for a whole year, kept by Mr. Everard Home, an ingenious gentleman
belonging to the army hospital, and it appears, that, during ten
months out of the twelve, the dysentery was the predominant disease.
This seems to contradict the opinion, that the land air is more apt
to occasion fevers than fluxes; but it is to be remarked, that the
sickness of the soldiers on this island was not so much owing to the
malignant influence of the air, the situation of the garrison being
high and airy, as to the bad accommodations and provisions, together
with hard labour.
[17] See Essay on the Yellow Fever, by Dr. Hume, in a Collection of
Essays published by Dr. D. Monro.
[18] Campbell’s Lives of the Admirals, Vol. IV.
[19] The late Dr. William Hunter.
[20] See Appendix to Part II.
[21] Captain Samuel Thompson.
[22] As my own stay at different ports was short, and as my own
knowledge could not extend beyond that period, Dr. Farquarson, First
Commissioner of Sick and Wounded Seamen, very politely gave me leave
to inspect the books of the different hospitals at his office, and I
collected from them the fate of all the men that were landed.
[23] It is proper to mention, that the name of the disease in the
hospital books being taken from the ticket sent on shore with each sick
person, great accuracy is not to be expected, as this is frequently
done in a careless manner. My returns were made with great exactness;
and, in the latter part of the war, the hospital books may also be
depended upon in this respect, the tickets, at my request, having been
made out with accuracy.
[24] In this, and the other tables, the smaller fractions are neglected.
[25] See the last chapter of Part III.
[26] In the year 1741, the fleet under Admiral Vernon was at Jamaica at
the same time of the year; and the following is the account of the men
sent to the hospital in May and June:
+--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+
| DISEASES. | Admitted. | Died. | Proportion. |
+--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+
| | | | NEARLY |
| | | | ONE IN |
+--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+
| Fevers | 957 | 255 | 3½|
| Fluxes | 267 | 73 | 3½|
| Scurvy | 314 | 41 | 7½|
| Other Complaints | 167 | 26 | 6 |
+--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+
| Total | 1703 | 395 | 4 |
+--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+
There was on board of this fleet about two thirds of the number of men
that was on board of the fleet in 1782. I cannot ascertain how many
died on board of the ships in Admiral Vernon’s fleet; but the deaths at
the hospital alone are somewhat more than what happened to our fleet
both on board and at the hospital.
[27] I was enabled, after coming to England, to ascertain the deaths
in that part of the squadron from which I happened at any time to be
absent, by having leave from the Navy Board to inspect the ships’ books
deposited at their office.
[28] See Appendix to Part II.
[29] The mortality of the army in the West Indies is much greater; for
it appears by the returns of the War Office, that there died in the
year 1780, two thousand and thirty-six soldiers, which being calculated
by the numbers on the station, and those who arrived in the convoy in
March and July, the annual mortality is found to be one in four. The
greatness of this mortality will appear in a still stronger light, when
it is considered that those who serve in the army are the most healthy
part of the community. When I was at the encampment at Coxheath in the
year 1779, I was politely favoured with a sight of the returns, both of
the general officers and physician, and it appeared that in an army of
ten thousand and eighty-nine men, there died, from the 10th of June to
the 2d of November, forty-three, exclusive of twelve who died of small
pox. This being calculated, is equal to an annual mortality of one in
a hundred and nine; and it was not half so much in the encampment of
the former year. It appears by Mr. Simpson’s tables, that the mortality
of mankind in England, from the age of twenty to forty-five, which
includes the usual age of those who serve in the navy and army, is one
in fifty.
[30] See Table II.
[31] See Table II.
[32] None are comprehended but those who were killed or wounded
in battles in which the whole fleet was present, this account not
including those who fell in single actions in frigates or other ships.
[33] It would appear, that, anciently, though the slaughter in battle
was greater than in modern times, yet that disease was still more
destructive than the sword. One of the oldest testimonies to this
purpose is in the History of Alexander’s Expedition, by Arrian--τους
μεν ἐν ταῖς μαχαις ἀπολωλεκασιν, ὁι δε ἐκ των τραυματων ἀπομαχοι
γεγενημενοι, ὁι πλειοῦς δε νοσω ἀπολωλεσαν.--Arrian. Hist. Alex. Exped.
Lib. v. cap. 26.
[34] Upwards of three thousand were also lost at sea in ships of war
belonging to the same fleets in the hurricane of October, 1780, and in
the storm in September, 1782, in which the Ville de Paris and the other
French prizes were lost on their passage to England.
[35] The authors from whom I have borrowed have been chiefly Dr.
Lind and Capt. Cook. To the former we are indebted for the most
accurate observations on the health of seamen in hot climates; of the
improvements made by the latter, an excellent compendium may be seen in
Sir John Pringle’s Discourse before the Royal Society, on the occasion
of adjudging a prize medal to Capt. Cook for his paper upon this
subject.
[36] In the late war sickness alone was not the cause of want of
success in any instance, except in the last action in the East Indies,
in which so many men were ill of the scurvy, that there were not hands
enow to manage the guns.
There is another fact in history, which, though not so applicable to
this subject as those above recited, forcibly evinces how important a
study the health of men ought to be in military affairs. When Henry V.
was about to invade France, he had an army of fifty thousand men; but
owing to a sickness which arose in the army, in consequence of some
delays in the embarkation, their number was reduced to ten thousand at
the battle of Agincourt. The disease of which they chiefly died was the
dysentery.
RAPIN.
[37] It is not meant by this to insinuate that every commander is
absolutely accountable for the health of his ship’s company, and
censurable when they are sickly; for this may depend on his predecessor
in command, or a stubborn infection may have prevailed from the
original fitting out or manning of the ship which he may not have
superintended.
[38]
Οὐ γαρ ἐγωγέ τι οῗδα κακώτερον ἄλλο θαλάσσης,
Ανδεά τε συγχεῦαι, εἰ καὶ μάλα καρτερὸς εἴη.
ΟΜΗΡ. ΟΔΥΣ. Θ.
Dire is the ocean, dread in all its forms!
Man must decay, when man contends with storms.
POPE.
[39] Wherever causes are obscure, superstition naturally ascribes
them to some preternatural influence; and what seemed farther to have
encouraged this, anciently, was, that violent epidemics occurred most
frequently in camps and at sieges where great political conjunctures
were likely to arise, in which superior powers were supposed to
interest themselves. Thus we read in Homer of fatal diseases being sent
as punishments by the gods. But the pestilential diseases so often
mentioned by poets and historians as prevailing in cities and armies,
were probably nothing else but fevers, produced partly perhaps by the
scarcity and bad quality of provisions, but probably still more by
corrupted human effluvia, which was very apt to he produced by the
want of personal cleanliness, to which the mode of cloathing among the
ancients would more particularly subject them, especially in camps and
besieged towns.
[40] If the experiments of modern philosophy are to be depended on,
they go a certain way to account for the unwholesomeness of air from
woods in hot climates, and in wet weather; for Dr. Ingenhousz found
that the effluvia of plants in the night time, and in the shade, are
more poisonous in hot than in cold weather; but though there is a
salubrity in the effluvia in sunshine, the heat of the weather makes
no difference with regard to this. He found also that vegetables, when
wet, yield an unwholesome air.
It is difficult to ascertain how far the influence of vapours from
woods and marshes extend; but there is reason to think that it is to a
very small distance. When the ships watered at Rock Fort, they found
that if they anchored close to the shore, so as to smell the land
air, the health of the men was affected; but upon removing two cables
length, no inconvenience was perceived. I was informed of the following
fact, in proof of the same, by the medical gentlemen who attended the
army in Jamaica:--The garrison of Fort Augusta, which stands very near
some marshes, to which it is to leeward when the land wind blows, was
yet remarkably healthy; but it became at one time extremely sickly upon
the breaking in of the sea in consequence of a high tide, whereby the
water which was retained in the hollows of the fort produced a putrid
moisture in the soil, exhaling a vapour offensive to the smell, and
with all the noxious effects upon health commonly arising from the
effluvia of marshes.
[41] Dr. Hendy has lately published an ingenious treatise upon this
disease.
[42] See Sydenham’s Works.
[43] See Part I. Book II. Chap. VI.
[44] We have a proof of this fact in particular, in the account of the
jail distemper, which broke out at the Old Bailey in the year 1750.
[45] See Martin’s History of the Western Islands, and Medical
Communications, Vol. I. page 68.
[46] There are some contagious diseases which cannot be propagated but
by their own peculiar infections, as has been before observed, just
as the seeds of vegetables are necessary to continue their several
species; so that if the infectious poison were lost, so would the
disease. Of this kind are the small pox, and the other diseases to
which man is subject but once during life. There are other diseases
which produce infection without having themselves proceeded from it. Of
this kind are fevers and fluxes.
But there is no infection of any kind, however virulent, that affects
indiscriminately all persons exposed to it. If a number of persons,
who never have had the small pox, are equally exposed to it, some will
be seized, while others will escape, who will be affected at another
time, when they happen to be more susceptible. It is doubtful how far
the habit of being exposed to such specific infections renders the
body insensible to them, as was said with regard to fevers; but there
is another principle of the animal œconomy laid down and illustrated
by Mr. Hunter, which goes at least a certain length in explaining
this variable state of the body with respect to its susceptibility
of infectious diseases. This principle is, that the body cannot be
affected by more than one morbid action at the same time. If a person
is exposed to the small pox, for instance, while he labours under a
fever, or while he is under the influence of the measles, he will not
catch the first till the other has run its course. It may happen,
therefore, that people escape the effect of contagion in consequence
of being at the time under the influence of some other indisposition,
either evident or latent: and supposing the body to be exposed to a
number of noxious powers at the same time, one only could take effect.
But it seems difficult to explain why some of those who are actually
seized, and who have previously been to all appearance in equally good
health, shall have it in a very mild degree, while in others it will
be malignant and fatal. This is very remarkable with regard to the
small pox, which are in some cases so slight, that they can hardly be
called a disease, while in others they are so malignant, as hardly to
admit of any alleviation from art. May not this, in some measure, be
explained from some of the principles above mentioned, in the following
manner:--The small pox, in their mildest form, are attended with little
or no fever, which, therefore, is not essential to them; and when we
see them attended with various forms of fever, and thereby prove fatal
even in the most hale constitutions, we ought not to attribute this to
any thing in the nature of the small pox, but rather to say, that they
have served as an agent in exciting a fever, for which there happened
to be some previous latent disposition, that would not otherwise have
exerted itself, and that this disposition, or contamination, as it
may be called, may have been induced by some past exposure to morbid
effluvia, which either from habit, or some other circumstance, may not
have been sufficiently powerful to excite the constitution to fever
without some such stimulus. Any other occasional circumstance producing
disturbance or irregularity in the functions of the body, may, in like
manner, excite any particular kind of fever to which the body may at
that time be disposed. Thus the amputation of a limb will have this
effect; also exposure to cold or fatigue, and intemperance in eating or
drinking.
It would appear from these considerations, that there are certain
circumstances, or temporary situations of constitution, which invite
infection, and render its effect more certain and violent in one case
than another. There are artificial methods, however, of obtruding it,
as it were, upon the constitution, though not particularly disposed, or
even though averse to receive it; and may not this, in some measure,
account for the greater safety of some diseases when communicated by
inoculation, than when caught in the natural way?
But these, as well as many other facts in animal nature, do not admit
of a satisfactory explanation upon any principle as yet known. Even the
most common operations of the body, such as digestion and generation,
when considered in their causes and modes of action, are so obscure and
mysterious, as to be almost beyond the reach of rational conjecture. A
little reflection will teach us the utmost modesty with regard to our
knowledge of such things; for nature seems to have innumerable ways
of working, particularly in the animal functions, to which neither
our senses can extend, nor perhaps could our intellects comprehend
them. Had we not, for instance, been endowed with the sense of sight,
nothing could have led us even to suspect the existence of such a
body as light; and there may be numberless other subtile and active
principles pervading the universe, relative to which we have no senses,
and from the knowledge of whose nature and exigence we must for ever
be debarred. We have, indeed, become acquainted with electricity by
an operation of reason; and animals have lately been discovered to
which the electric fluid serves as a medium of sense through organs
calculated to excite it, and to receive and convey its impressions.
But there are few subjects we can study that are more subtle and
obscure than the influence of one living body on another. There is a
familiar instance of the great subtilety of animal effluvia, and also
of the fineness of sense in a dog’s being able to trace his master
through crowds, and at a great distance; and we can conceive that
infectious matter may adhere, and be communicated in a similar manner.
We have endeavoured to illustrate the great obscurity of its operation
by an allusion to generation, digestion, and other animal functions,
with which it is equally obscure and inexplicable. It is similar to
generation in this, that its influence does not pass from one species
of animal to another; for the poison of the plague, that of the small
pox, that of fever, and the venereal disease, do not affect brutes[47],
nor do the infectious diseases of brutes affect different species of
them, nor the human species. The only exception to this, that we know
of, is the bite of a mad dog.
From these facts, and also from what was formerly mentioned of
contagion not affecting indiscrimately all that may be exposed to
it, it would appear that some nice coincidence of circumstances is
necessary to modify an animal body, so as to receive its action. There
must be a sort of unison, as it were, or sympathy, betwixt different
living bodies, so as to render them susceptible of each other’s
influence.
It is none of the least curious facts with regard to infection, that
there are some species of it by which the body is liable to be affected
only once in life. When this is considered, it is indeed conformable to
what happens in the course of the disease itself; for, unless there was
in the body a power of resisting it, there could be no such thing as
recovery. Where the disease actually exists, the continued presence of
the poison, which is also infinitely multiplied, would infallibly prove
fatal in all cases, unless the living powers were to become insensible
to it[48].
[47] Hunter’s Experiments.
[48] Mr. Hunter’s Lectures.
[49] It is sincerely to be wished that this were adopted, and it is
surprising that an article so salutary and necessary, and so difficult
to be procured on foreign stations, should not have been the object
of public attention, rather than a mere article of luxury, such as
tobacco. But in order that it might not be a matter of choice with
seamen, it would be worth while to supply them with it at prime cost,
or even as a gratuity, and then they might be compelled to use it
for the purpose of cleanliness. There are other articles of less
importance, but being necessary to enable men upon foreign stations to
keep themselves neat and clean, deserve to be made the object of public
instruction. These are handkerchiefs for the neck, thread, worsted,
needles, buckles, and knives.
[50] At the time I am writing this, (March 8th, 1785) there has
occurred a fact which proves the effect of time in generating
infection. There now prevails a contagious fever in several of
the hospitals in London, and, among others, in that to which I am
physician. In another hospital it has been so violent, that there has
been a vulgar report that the plague had broke out in it. The same
fever also prevails among the poor at their own houses. The cause
of it seems to be, that the cold weather has been uncommonly long
and severe; for the frost began early in December, and the cold has
hitherto been more like that of winter than spring. The thermometer
all this month has varied from 30° to 35°. Cold is favourable to
infection, by preventing ventilation; for people exclude the air in
order to keep themselves warm, and the poor in particular do so on
account of their bad clothing, and their not being able to afford fuel
to make good fires. Heat is the great destroyer of infection, and seems
to act by evaporating, and thereby dissipating it; and the effect of
fires in apartments is to produce a constant change of air, thereby
preventing its stagnation and corruption, and the accumulation of
unwholesome effluvia. With this view, a chimney is of great use, even
though no fire should be kept in it, as it serves for a ventilator.
But if an aperture were to be made in an apartment merely with a view
to ventilation, it should be placed in that part of the wall next the
ceiling; for foul air naturally tends upwards, and the external air
entering at the top of a room, would not be so apt to subject those
within to the effect of cold, as it would not blow directly upon them.
There would also be this advantage in jails, that apertures in this
situation would not be so liable to be forced for the purpose of escape
as if they were nearer the floor; and in hospitals they would be out
of reach of those who, wishing to indulge in warmth, at the expence
of pure air, might be induced to shut the windows. But an external
communication with the air any where is of the utmost importance; and
it is observable in Mr. Howard’s account of prisons, that the jail
distemper was most frequently to be met with where there was no chimney.
[51] It is of some consequence to attend to the materials of the
seamen’s beds; for, instead of flock, they are frequently fluffed with
chopped rags, which, consisting of old clothes, emit a disagreeable
smell, and may even contain infection.
[52] By a _berth_ is understood the interval between two guns, or any
space between decks, which is sometimes formed into a sort of apartment
by means of a partition made of canvass.
[53] It is remarkable that this method of purifying was practised in
the most ancient times, as we learn from the following passage in
Homer, where Ulysses is represented fumigating the apartments of his
palace in which the suitors had been slain:
Τὴν δ᾿ἀπαμειζόμενος προσεφη Πολυμητις Ὀδυσσευς
Πυρ νυ̃ν μοι πρώτιστον ἐνὶ μεγάροισι γενέσθω.
Ως ἔφαθ’. ουδ’ἀπιθησε φιλη τροφος Ἐυρυκλειος
Ἠνεγκεν δ᾿ ἄρα πυρ και θηιον. αυταρ Ὀδυσσευς
Ἒυ διεθέιωσεν μέγαρον και δῶμα και ἀυλήν.
ΟΜΗΡ. ΟΔΥΣ. Χ.
Bring sulphur straight, and fire, the Monarch cries;
She heard, and at the word obedient flies.
With fire and sulphur, cure of noxious fumes,
He purg’d the walls and blood-polluted rooms.
POPE.
This practice was probably founded in superstition, rather than the
knowledge of nature. That some divine influence should be ascribed to
fire was very natural, as the principal deities of the ancients were
only personifications of the elements; and it is worthy of remark, that
their name for sulphur signifies _something divine_ το θεῖον, which
was probably owing to its being found in those chasms of the earth, in
Sicily and Italy, which were supposed to communicate with the infernal
regions; for the whole Greek mythology relating to these was taken
from the phænomena attending the subterraneous fires in those parts.
It is curious farther to remark, in other instances, how facts useful
to mankind, the truth of which has been confirmed in later times by
the more enlightened knowledge of nature, were first suggested by some
superstitious circumstance. Thus the wound received by Sarpedon could
not be cured, according to the Poet, till, by divine intimation, he was
desired to apply to it the rust of the spear with which it had been
inflicted, in consequence of which it healed. But the weapons in those
days were made of brass, so that the rust of the spear must have been
the _ærugo æris_, which has been found by the experience of modern
surgery to be one of the best detergents in ill-conditioned sores.
It is probably, from a false analogy, founded on some such incident,
that an idea prevails among the vulgar, which has become proverbial,
that some part taken from the offending body is good in all external
injuries. Thus some part of a mad dog is said to have a virtue in
curing his bite. Herein may be seen the difference of that knowledge
which is suggested by superstition, and that which is acquired by the
observation of nature.
[54] A loggerhead is a large round mass of iron, with a long handle to
it.
[55] A fact, related in Anson’s Voyage, is also strongly in proof
of the same opinion. When the rich Spanish prize was taken, it was
necessary to crowd the prisoners into the hold, for fear of an
insurrection, which was to be dreaded from their numbers; yet, when
they arrived in China, none of them had died, nor had any disease broke
out. They suffered only in their looks, being wan and emaciated to a
great degree.
[56] It may be brought as a farther proof of a warm climate being
unfavourable to every sort of infection, that though the itch is very
common in ships and hospitals in Europe, I do not remember ever to have
met with it in the West Indies, except in ships newly arrived from
England.
[57] This circumstance, in the character of the English, is only of
modern date; for we learn from Erasmus, who was in England about
two hundred and fifty years ago, that they were then extremely
slovenly. The following passage is extracted from a letter he wrote
to a physician in York, after his return to Holland:--“Conclavia
solâ fere strata sunt argillâ, tum scirpis palustribus, qui subinde
sic renovantur ut fundamentum maneat aliquoties annos viginti sub se
fovens sputa, vomitus, mictum canum et hominum, projectam cerevisiam et
piscium reliquias, aliasque sordes non nominandas.” He adds, that the
windows were very ill calculated for ventilation, and imputes to the
closeness and filthiness of the houses the frequent and long continued
plagues with which England was infested, and particularly the sweating
sickness, which, he says, seemed peculiar to this country. He mentions
that his own country had been freed from the pestilence by certain
changes that the State had made in the houses, in consequence of the
advice of some learned man. Erasm. Lib. xxii. Epistol. 13.--It is
probable that the greater number of those epidemics, called plagues,
were only bad infectious fevers. What would contribute still more to
the production of infection was the want of linen, which was hardly in
use in those days. The disappearance, or at least the great diminution
of such complaints in modern times, particularly in London, has been
ascribed to the great increase in the proportion of vegetable food; but
it is certainly more owing to the improvement in personal cleanliness,
and to the greater spaciousness and neatness of houses. As a farther
proof of this, it may be mentioned that in the charity, called
the Charterhouse, in London, founded by Henry the Eighth, for the
maintenance and education of poor boys, their sustenance is all animal
food, as it was at the original institution, yet they are extremely
healthy. The same observation applies to Winchester school, which was
founded some ages before that.
There are some passages in ancient history in confirmation of the same
opinion. Herodotus relates, that the ancient Egyptians were the most
healthy of all the nations, except the Libyans, and he imputes this to
the invariableness of their weather, and the serenity of their sky.
But he mentions in another part of his works, that they were also the
most cleanly of all people, not only in their household utensils, but
in their persons, and that their clothing was chiefly of linen, which
it was one of the principal studies of their life to wash and keep
clean--ἑιματα δε λινεα φορεουσι ἀιει νεοπλυτα ὲπιτηδευοντες τουτο
μαλισα. Herodot. Euterp. 37.--It is remarkable that he makes no mention
of the plague, though he gives a very minute account of the country
from his own observation, from whence it may be naturally inferred,
that it did not then exist there, though Egypt is now so subject to it,
that the plague is supposed by many to be an endemial disease in it.
It would appear also from another passage in this historian, that he
uses the word λοιμος, which we translate _plague_ in a loose sense to
signify any violent acute distemper; for he relates that a great part
of the army of Xerxes, in their retreat from Greece, perished by the
_plague_ λοιμου and dysentery, in consequence of famine. Herod. Lib.
viii. cap. 115.
[58] It is proper also to observe here, that those ships which are
built of winter-felled timber are much drier than those built of what
is summer felled; and this circumstance should have been mentioned
with regard to the Montague, for the cause of her healthiness,
notwithstanding her being a new ship, was probably from being built of
winter-felled timber. It should, therefore, be strictly enjoined to
fell the wood in winter; for those who are employed to do it have an
interest in doing it in summer, on account of the value of the bark.
[59] A windsail is a long cylinder of canvass, open at both ends, kept
extended with hoops, and long enough to reach from the lowermost parts
of the ship through all the hatchways into the open air.
[60] It is not necessary that seamen should have chests, for bags or
wallets answer their purpose equally well, and are much more convenient
in respect of stowage.
[61] Since the first edition of this work, I have met with a fact in
confirmation of this principle, with regard to the cutaneous complaint
called the _ring-worm_. This had prevailed in a private school in the
neighbourhood of London, which I visited, but it had to all appearance
become extinct; yet it nevertheless affected those boys who were newly
sent to the school.
[62] It is mentioned by Thucydides, that while the plague raged at
Athens, the people were affected with no other disease; from which it
would appear that those persons who would otherwise have been attacked
with some particular indisposition, were seized with the plague in
place of it. Vide note p. 247.
[63] Part I. Book II. Chap. VI.
[64] It is related by the travellers into Turkey, that the Christians
save themselves from it, merely by shutting themselves up in their
houses, and the inhabitants, who sleep on the open roofs of the houses,
do not catch it even from those of the adjacent buildings, though the
wall that separates them is of no great heighth.
[65] Vide Opera Ambrosii Parei.
[66] See Essay on Sea Diseases.
[67] Limes, shaddocks, and perhaps all the other fruits of that class,
possess the same virtues; but I have most frequently observed good
effects from lemons.
[68] In the course of the passage from England to the West Indies in
February, 1782, the following directions for using the sour krout and
melasses were given in public orders by the Admiral to the different
ships of the squadron:
“The allowance of sour krout made by the public boards in England, is
two pounds to each man every week; and the Admiral orders that from a
pound and a half to two pounds (beginning with the lesser quantity,
and increasing as the men may find it palatable) be boiled with every
gallon of pease on a pease day. The cooks are desired not to wash it,
nor to put it into the coppers till the pease are sufficiently broken.
“Half a pound is directed to be issued raw to each man on beef days,
and a quarter of a pound on pork days. It is recommended that the
allowance of vinegar be saved, particularly on meat days. When sour
krout runs short, the pease and beef days to have the preference; when
shorter still, the pease days. Melasses having been allowed in lieu of
part of the oatmeal, in the proportion of eleven pounds to two gallons,
the Admiral directs, that a pound of melasses be boiled with every
gallon of oatmeal on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, mixing it and
stirring it round with the burgoo immediately after it is drawn off.
He directs that half a pound of melasses be issued with every three
pounds of flour over and above the common proportion of raisins; and
to prevent any abuse, it is directed that the purser’s steward pour
it into the platter with the flour of which the pudding is made. The
Admiral forbids the use of pease in lieu of oatmeal, as has sometimes
been the practice.”
These rules were suggested by Sir Charles Douglas, captain of the
fleet, whose benevolence is equal to his known professional skill; and
he had ascertained the utility of the preceding directions when captain
of the Duke in the former part of the war.
[69] In the French ships of war there is an oven large enough to supply
not only all the officers and sick, but part of the crew, with soft
bread every day. The advantages attending the use of flour in place
of bread are so great and obvious, that the former will probably, in
time, be substituted entirely for the latter. There is a proof of its
being practicable to use it in place of bread in British ships of war,
even with their present conveniences, communicated to me by Captain
Caldwell. When he commanded the Agamemnon, of 64 guns, at New York, in
the end of 1782, there happened to be no bread in store to supply that
ship on her passage to the West Indies, and flour was given in place
of it. The men, without any inconvenience, were able to bake it into
bread for themselves, and it proved so salutary, that Captain Caldwell
ascribed the uncommon degree of health which his men enjoyed to the use
of the flour. The only objection that can be made to it is the greater
consumption of wood occasioned by baking; but this may be obviated by
adopting the grates invented by Mr. Brodie, in which the ovens are
heated by the same fire with which the victuals are boiled.
[70] Mr. Napeane, afterwards Under Secretary of State, was at that time
purser of the Foudroyant, and acted a very benevolent and disinterested
part, by being instrumental in introducing this reform in the navy
victualling.
[71] Half a pound of cocoa, and as much sugar, was allowed in place of
a pound of butter.
[72] TABLE, exhibiting the daily Allowance of Provisions for each Man
in the Navy.
---------+---------+------+----------------------------------------+---------
| Biscuit.| Beer.| Beef.| Pork.| Pease.| Oatmeal.| Butter.| Cheese.
| lbs. |galls.| lbs. | lbs. | Pint. | Pint. | ozs. | ozs.
---------+---------+------+------+------+-------+---------+--------+---------
Sunday | 1 | 1 | | 1 | half | | |
Monday | 1 | 1 | | | | 1 | 2 | 4
Tuesday | 1 | 1 | 2 | | | | |
Wednesday| 1 | 1 | | | half | 1 | 2 | 4
Thursday | 1 | 1 | | 1 | half | | |
Friday | 1 | 1 | | | half | 1 | 2 | 4
Saturday | 1 | 1 | 2 | | | | |
---------+---------+------+------+------+-------+---------+--------+---------
This has continued from the last century till the alterations above
mentioned, all of which, except the introduction of vinegar, have been
made in the three last years of this war. When the stock of small beer
is exhausted, half a pint of spirits is allowed daily, diluted with
four or five times its quantity of water. When wine is supplied, the
daily allowance of it to a man is one pint.
[73] Instead of leaving this to the management of the men themselves,
it might be done with greater advantage to them by instituting short
allowance in the following manner:--Let a certain proportion, suppose
one third, of the salt provisions, bread, and pease, particularly the
first, be stopped, and let the amount of this, for the whole crew
be thrown into one estimate. Let the agent victualler pay into the
purser’s hands the value of these provisions in money, at the contract
price, with such a discount as will allow for the use of the money. Let
the purser, in return, give him a receipt, as if for so much provisions
checked. This money, being distributed in the name of short allowance,
will enable the men to purchase vegetables, and the provisions will be
saved for a time of want, or for a cruise.
[74] The sailors in the squadron of Commodore Anson never murmured more
under any of their hardships than when they were fed with fresh turtle
for a length of time in the South Sea.
[75] Since the first edition of this work was printed, I have met with
a book published by Mr. Fletcher, a navy surgeon, in which he mentions
that spices, being antiseptic bodies, might be substituted for part
of the salt in curing provisions, and this would, no doubt, be an
improvement in the sea victualling. The quantity of spice he proposes
for every barrel of beef or pork is four ounces of black pepper, and
as much allspice, and also eight ounces of nitre in powder. It may be
farther alledged as an advantage of spice over salt, that it would be
less apt to run into brine, which robs the meat of the greater part of
its nourishment.
[76] This accident happened in the Cyclops frigate in September, 1780.
Mr. Gordon, the surgeon, favoured me with the following account of it:
“Mr. Smith, an officer, John Barber and Anthony Wright, seamen, having
eat some victuals prepared in a foul copper, complained soon after
of violent gripes, giddiness, and vomiting, and they had a few loose
stools. There was intense heat; the pulse was quick, full, and hard; a
tremor of the hands and tongue, and wildness of the eyes. The looseness
was soon succeeded by obstinate costiveness, tension of the abdomen,
difficult breathing, and loss of deglutition. In the night, towards
the morning, there came on insensibility, with an increase of all the
symptoms, except the heat. The body was violently convulsed, with cold
clammy sweats and coldness of the extremities. The abdomen subsided a
short time before they died, and, before they expired, a small quantity
of greenish matter, mixed with phlegm, issued from the mouths of two of
them.
Thirty three other men were put upon the sick list with similar
symptoms in a less degree, and some of them continued on the list for
five or six weeks before they perfectly recovered.”
It is not said what means were attempted for the recovery of these men;
but, besides emetics and milk, or oil, a dilute solution of the fixed
alkali in water has been recommended against this poison.
[77] I was furnished by Dr. Clephane, physician to the fleet at New
York, with the following fact, as a strong proof of the excellence of
this liquor:
In the beginning of the war two store ships, called the Tortoise and
Grampus, sailed for America under the convoy of the Dædalus frigate.
The Grampus happened to be supplied with a sufficient quantity of
porter to serve the whole passage, which proved very long. The other
two ships were furnished with the common allowance of spirits. The
weather being unfavourable, the passage drew out to fourteen weeks,
and, upon their arrival at New York, the Dædalus sent to the hospital
a hundred and twelve men; the Tortoise sixty-two; the greater part
of whom were in the last stage of the scurvy. The Grampus sent only
thirteen, none of whom had the scurvy.
[78] We have a remarkable proof of this in comparing the fleet under
the command of Admiral Byron with that under the Count d’Estaing, when
they both arrived from Europe on the coast of America in the year 1778,
some of the British ships having been unserviceable from the uncommon
prevalence of scurvy, while the French were not affected with it.
[79] See an article in Rozier’s Journal de Medicine for July, 1784, by
Dr. Ingenhousz.
[80] Since I came to England I have met with a pamphlet published by
Mr. Henry, of Manchester, in which an ingenious method, founded on
chemical principles, is proposed for separating the quick lime from
water; but I fear it is too nice and complex to be brought into common
practice. It would certainly be worth the trouble; but there are so
many duties in a ship of war to call off the attention of the men, and
they are so little accustomed to nice operations, that it would be
difficult to persuade officers to attend to it and enforce it. If a
sufficient quantity should not be precipitated by the air in the water,
and by the accidental exposure to the atmosphere, it might be more
effectually exposed to the air by Osbridge’s machine, to be described
hereafter, or by a long-nozzled bellows, and if a small impregnation
should be left, this is rather to be desired than avoided.
[81] See Dr. Lind on the Health of Seamen.
[82] The want of this apparatus may be supplied, in case of exigency,
by a contrivance mentioned by Dr. Lind, consisting of a tea-kettle with
the handle taken off, and inverted upon the boiler, with a gun barrel
adapted to the spout, passing through a barrel of water by way of
refrigeratory, or kept constantly moist with a mop.
In this place I cannot help mentioning also, that in case of great
extremity it has been found that the blood may be diluted, and thirst
removed, by wetting the surface of the body even with sea water, the
vapour of which is always fresh, and is inhaled by those pores of the
skin whose natural function it is to imbibe moisture, of which there is
always more or less in the common air of the atmosphere.
[83] When we consider that linen was not in use among the ancient
Romans, we might be apt to wonder that they were not more unhealthy;
but their substitute for this was frequent bathing, which not only
served to remove the _sordes_ adhering to the surface of the body, but
to air that part of the clothing which was usually in contact with
the skin. The washing of the bodies of men suspected of infection
upon their first entrance into a ship, has already been mentioned,
and I have known some commanders who made their men frequently bathe
themselves with great seeming advantage.
[84] A coarse woollen stuff so called.
[85] He makes the following computation of the additional expence for
each man in some of the articles that have been mentioned:
£. _s._ _d._
For 3 handkerchiefs, at 1s. 6d. 0 4 6
12 pounds of sope, at 6d. 0 6 0
1 knife, at 1s. 0 1 0
1 pair of buckles, at 9d. 0 0 9
-------------
0 12 3
Suppose 3 shirts a year, the difference 0 2 3
3 pair of trowsers, ditto 0 2 3
1 milled cap 0 2 0
----------
Total £. 0 18 9
[86] See Part I.
[87] Had I then known the salutary effects of porter and spruce beer,
of which I have since been convinced, I should have proposed them as
substitutes for rum.
[88] The authenticity of this fact, as well as every other assertion in
this work relating to the mortality in the fleet, may be proved from
the ship’s books, deposited at the Navy Office.
[89] I fancied that my reasoning on this subject was in a great measure
new; but I lately met with the following passages in Celsus and
Hippocrates, which seem to be illustrative of the same idea:--Quibus
causa doloris, neque sensus ejus est, his mens laborat. Celsus, Lib.
ii. cap. vii. which is nearly a translation of the following aphorism
of Hippocrates:--[Greek hOkosoi poneontes ti tou sômatos, ta polla tôn
ponôn ouk a sthanontai, touteoisin hê gnômê noseei]. Hippoc. Aphor.
Lib. ii. Aphor. 6.
The same principle is ingeniously explained by Mr. Hunter in his
Lectures.
[90] See page 181.
[91] See pages 125 and 126.
[92] The form of administering this medicine was to add twenty drops of
thebaic tincture, from half a grain to a grain of emetic tartar, and
from five to ten grains of nitre, to two ounces of water or camphorated
julep, of which one half was given about two hours before the common
hour of rest, and the remainder at that hour. If spiritus Mindereri is
preferred to the nitre, it may be given from two drachms to half an
ounce for a dose, and it is better to administer it separately; for if
it should not be exactly neutralized, it may decompose the antimonial,
and render it inactive.
[93] Since the publication of the first edition of this work, there has
appeared a small tract on the treatment of low fevers, by Dr. Wall,
of Oxford, and as his ingenuity and learning give him a just claim to
the high rank he holds in his profession, attention is due to what he
advances. The principal scope of the work is to recommend, from his own
observation, the early use of opiates in those fevers, and the Doctor’s
authority, as well as my own experience, convince me of the propriety
of this practice in many cases occurring in this country, particularly
among the lower sort of people, for whom spare diet and hard labour
render evacuations less necessary than among the better sort. The
inferior class of people are also more subject to this sort of fever
from their houses and persons being less clean, and their apartments
being worse ventilated; so that practice in these, as well as other
cases, is to be varied according to the constitution and previous
habits of life.
[94] I first learned this, as well as many other useful and practical
facts, from Mr. Farquhar, Surgeon in London, who has laid me under the
greatest obligations by communicating many of his observations, derived
from the most extensive experience and a truly penetrating sagacity.
[95] I owe this piece of instruction, as well as many others, to Dr.
Cullen’s Lectures.
[96] In a review of Haslar hospital made in person by that excellent
officer, Vice-admiral Barrington, in 1780, it was very judiciously
proposed, among other salutary improvements, that there should be two
apartments for the reception of the sick upon their first landing; one
wherein they should be stripped of their dirty clothes, and another in
which they should go into the warm bath, and put on the hospital dress,
that they might not carry infection into the wards.
[97] The following is the form of it, and it was first introduced by
Mr. Whitfield, apothecary to the hospital, under the name of Bolus
Sedativus:--℞. Confection. Damorat. [dram]ss. Castor. Russic. pulv.
[scruple]ss. Tinct. Thebaic. g^{tt.} iv. Syr. sim. q.s. Fiat bolus
sexta quaque hora sumendus.
[98] Great nicety is required in all cases with regard to the times
and doses of cordials; for it by no means follows that these should
be in proportion to the lowness and loss of strength. This is well
illustrated by Mr. Hunter in his Lectures, where he explains the
distinction between the powers of the body and its _actions_. There
must be a certain degree of strength to bear the excitement occasioned
by stimulating and strengthening medicines or diet; for nothing is
more pernicious, or even fatal, than that any part or function should
make exertions beyond its strength; and there is the more danger in
ill-timed remedies of this kind, as a state of weakness is generally a
state of irritability.
[99] See a method proposed for obviating this, page 358.
[100] Page 381 et seq.
[101] Sailor’s fever.
[102] See pages 161, 181, and 380-1.
[103] I have in the whole of this work been extremely cautious in
reasoning concerning causes, from an opinion that they are very
obscure, and that the theoretical part of physic is very imperfect
and fallacious. This is perhaps in no instance more remarkable than
in those opinions that prevail concerning the nature and influence of
bile in producing diseases. An increased secretion of bile commonly
attends the feverish complaints of hot climates, and those of the
hot seasons of temperate and cold climates. It is not unnatural,
therefore, to impute the disease then prevailing to this redundancy of
bile: but, upon considering the matter more closely, it will appear
to be rather a concomitant symptom, or effect, than a cause of those
fevers; for, in the first place, in those cases in which there is
the greatest secretion of bile, as in the _cholera morbus_, there is
no fever. The only danger in this disease arises from the violent
irritation produced in the bowels by such an extraordinary quantity of
this secretion which commonly passes downwards; though I have seen it
prove fatal when it flowed into the stomach, and produced perpetual
retching and excoriation of the fauces; but in this case also without
any fever. Secondly, in the most fatal of all fevers, in the West
Indies, there are no marks of an increased secretion of bile, but,
on the contrary, a preternatural defect of it, as appears by its not
being evacuated either by stool or vomiting, by the white stools which
sometimes attend the yellow fever, and by its not appearing in the
first passages, nor in its own receptacles after death. Perhaps also
that state of the bowels which renders it so difficult to procure
stools may be in part owing to the want of this natural stimulus. It
is nevertheless true, that in the intermitting and remitting fevers of
hot climates and seasons there is perhaps always an accumulation of
bile at the beginning, and an increased secretion of it during their
course. It is farther true, that this adds to the patient’s uneasiness,
and aggravates the symptoms, and that the cure consists partly in the
evacuation of the bile. But it is also true, that in the very worst
sort of fevers in hot climates it is a favourable symptom where the
secretion of the liver is restored and increased, a bilious diarrhœa
being one of the most auspicious symptoms that can occur in a yellow
fever; and in those that are protracted and afford hopes of recovery,
there is generally a gush of bile from time to time.--We may therefore
lay down the following positions: 1. That in cases in which bile is
most freely and copiously secreted no fever exists, as in _cholera
morbus_. 2. That in the worst sort of fevers there is no preternatural
secretion of bile, but, on the contrary, a defect of it. 3. That
nevertheless there is an uncommon quantity of bile secreted in most
of the fevers of hot climates, and that part of the cure consists in
evacuating it.
I am extremely diffident, as I have said, in all matters depending
on our supposed knowledge of the animal œconomy; but the preceding
circumstances seem to countenance the following reasoning:--The bile,
according to Dr. Maclurg, who has given one of the best dissertations
on its nature and properties, is composed of two parts; the gross
part, which is coagulable by acids, and that part in which the
bitter principle resides. The first constitutes the principal part
in point of quantity, and seems to be that portion of the mass of
fluids which loses the property of sound healthy blood, by a tendency
to putrefaction, and is thrown out by this secretion. I will not
undertake to vouch for the truth of this, but shall assume it as true
in the following reasoning:--According to this theory, therefore, the
greater part of the bile is what may be called the effete part of
the circulating mass, or perhaps only of the red globules or gluten,
the watery and saline part, which passes off by urine being the
corrupted part of the serum. This part of the bile being very liable to
putrefaction, the bitter part is considered by Dr. Maclurg as intended
to correct this, and also to answer some good purpose in digestion.
One of the effects of the bile in this operation is to extinguish
acidity, whether proceeding from substances taken in, or generated in
the stomach. The blood in all climates, and in all situations of life,
is subject to have part of it thus corrupted, which, being separated
from the common mass by the liver, is mingled and discharged with
the common _feces_; but external heat continued for any length of
time tends to augment this corruption of the fluids, and therefore
to increase the secretion of bile; and it has been observed both by
myself and others, that the bile found in those bodies that have been
inspected after death, in consequence of fevers in hot climates, is
less bitter, and not so penetrating to the fingers, being therefore
deficient in the antiseptic principle. But since external heat makes
no alteration in the degree of temperature of the fluids themselves,
this effect must take place through the medium of the solids, in
consequence of that general languor and want of energy which too much
external heat induces in the functions, particularly in that power
by which the living body preserves itself from putrefaction. Now if
this portion of the blood, thus altered and depraved, is readily
secreted and speedily thrown out, as in _cholera morbus_, no harm
befals the constitution, nor any inconvenience but what arises from
the irritation of the _primæ viæ_. But this may not take place if the
body should be otherwise deranged; for the removal of this noxious
matter from the mass of blood depends upon a due irritability of the
blood vessels, the liver, and the bowels, whereby they are stimulated
to contract, and thereby expel it. According to the principle of Mr.
John Hunter, (whose deep and industrious researches into the animal
œconomy place him high in the list of those few on whom nature has
bestowed real genius, and who are capable of adding something new to
the stock of human knowledge,) there is in a state of health a relative
habitude or mutual harmony existing between the solids and fluids,
whereby they stimulate and produce actions in each other, in which
the healthy state of the functions consists, whether employed in the
formation of what is found, or the expulsion of what is noxious: so
that where it happens that the solids have a morbid insensibility to
the impressions of corrupted and acrimonious fluids, the retention
of these adds still more to the general derangement. To illustrate
this, it may be observed, that the stomach and bowels, when they are
endowed, as it were, with their natural perception, immediately expel
any preternatural accumulations of bile that may take place; but when
they are insensible to this stimulus through disease, no effort is made
to relieve nature till it is excited by medicine. The same reasoning
may be applied to the various vessels and ducts. Thus when we see the
liver gorged with bile, without any free excretion of it into the gall
bladder, as I have sometimes found to be the case upon inspecting the
body in some of the worst cases of fever, would it not appear that the
gall ducts have lost that natural irritability whereby the bile is
expelled? Or, in consequence of a depraved state of action, connected
with febrile affection, may it not happen that the absorbents, which,
in their natural state, only absorb particular substances, and in a
given quantity, will suffer a change in this natural action, and absorb
whatever happens to be applied to their orifices? In case of jaundice,
the bile, which is perhaps not at all absorbed in a state of health, is
taken up in large quantities, and mingled with the mass of blood, which
proves a seasonable relief in the state of accumulation and distension
occasioned by the obstruction. This may happen in cases of fever, not
indeed as a relief to nature, but from a depraved state of irritability
in the lymphatics, induced by disease. Though no increased quantity
of bile, therefore, is found in the gall bladder, there may have been
an increased excretion of it, a preternatural absorption having been
excited. So that it may admit of a question whether the colour of the
skin, in the yellow fever, is owing to this, or if the idea of it given
in the text[104] is more just; but in either case it seems probable
that the extreme tendency to putrefaction in the whole body is owing
either to the presence of bile, in consequence of absorption, or the
retention of something in the blood from a defect of its secretion.
This reasoning concerning the bile in hot climates may, in some sort,
be illustrated by what happens to the urine in cold climates. The
urine is the vehicle of an excrementitious part of the blood, of which
an increased proportion is generated in certain fevers, and if it is
thrown out in the form of high-coloured, turbid urine, the fever will
most probably be slight and short; but if it becomes pellucid, or
_crude_, as it is called, the general derangement will be increased,
the fever will be more violent and dangerous, and the first sign of
returning health will be a turbid appearance and sediment.
If the reasoning in the above discussion should appear to some readers
unsatisfactory, or ill connected, I can only say that if it is
deserving of this character, I am willing to have it considered not
only as an illustration, but an example of the nicety and fallacy of
theoretical disquisitions.
[104] See page 437-8.
[105] I have been very cautious of admitting any theory into this work;
but I cannot help adopting the doctrine of my much-valued master, Dr.
Cullen, on this point, viz. that a great part of the symptoms of fever
arise from reaction, or that effort which nature makes to overcome
the morbid cause. I am happy in any opportunity of acknowledging my
obligations to this learned professor, to whom the medical world in
general is so much indebted, as well for the rational views of the
animal œconomy, which he teaches, as for that spirit of study and
inquiry which he infuses into the minds of his pupils.
[106] M. Desportes, who wrote a treatise on the diseases of St. Domingo.
[107] There is a difference in the appearance of the blood when sizy,
perhaps not sufficiently insisted on by practical writers; for though
there should even be a very thick buff, yet, if the surface is flat,
and the _crassamentum_ tender, no great inflammation is indicated, in
comparison of that state of the blood wherein the surface is cupped,
the _crassamentum_ contracted so as to afford the appearance of a large
portion of _serum_, and where it feels firm and tenacious, though
perhaps but thinly covered with buff. This is a distinction well worth
attending to in practice; for it is in these last circumstances that
blood-letting gives most relief, and where the patient will bear the
repetition of it with most advantage.
[108] See the same observation in Mr. Hume’s Essay on this Disease,
published by Dr. Donald Monro.
[109] The state of the stomach is very much affected by that of the
external surface of the body; and it is sagaciously observed by
Sydenham, that the stomach being commonly very irritable in the plague,
the most effectual means of making it retain what was administered
internally was to excite a sweat.
[110] The red bark was brought to England in a Spanish prize in the
year 1781, and a very accurate account of its medical and chemical
properties was published the year after by Dr. William Saunders, of
Guy’s hospital. None of it had been brought to the West Indies before
the peace, so that I had no opportunity of trying it in that climate.
[111] Mr. Telford related to me, that he had cured several
intermittents that had baffled the bark, by means of white vitriol,
whilst he was surgeon of the Yarmouth in 1779. He gave it in doses of
five grains every four hours in the intermission, and was successful in
every case except two, in which the patients were far advanced in the
dropsy.
He met with several cases of the same kind in the Alcide, in 1782,
in which he was successful with the flowers of zinc, after having
given large quantities of bark to no purpose. He preferred, however,
the white vitriol, as being milder in its operation, and less apt to
disagree with the patient’s stomach.
He did not employ either of them in the recent state of the disease,
nor does he assert that they are universal or infallible remedies; but
only alledges, that he has experienced the most evident good effects
from them in an advanced stage of the disease, and a reduced state of
the patient, where the common remedy had failed.
[112] Dr. Huck Saunders, whose recent loss the world has reason to
regret on account of his experience and sagacity as a physician, as
well as his virtues as a man, communicated to me, in conversation, some
observations on the cure of obstinate intermittents, which deserve to
be mentioned here. When he was physician to the army at the Havannah
he cured a number of agues which had resisted the bark, by giving two
ounces of the vinous tincture of rhubarb and six drams of the tincture
of sena seven or eight hours before the fit. This being repeated two or
three times, carried off the disease. He also informed me, that he had
met with agues in England which did not yield to the bark; but, upon
leaving it off, and putting the patients on a course of mercury, they
were cured upon returning to the use of the bark.
Arsenic has also been found to be an effectual remedy in intermittent
fevers. I was informed by Dr. Huck Saunders, that when he was in North
America, in the war before the last, there was an expedition undertaken
against the Cherokee Indians, whose country is extremely subject
to agues; and as an adequate quantity of bark would have been very
cumbersome where light service was necessary, Mr. Russel, who had the
medical management of the expedition, provided a great number of pills,
containing each one eighth part of a grain of arsenic, by the proper
use of which he was enabled to cure the intermittent fevers with which
the troops were seized.
I shall here mention another unusual remedy in intermitting fevers;
and though I can bring only one instance in proof of its efficacy, yet
this is so strong as to make it deserve farther trial. A man, on board
of the Sandwich, had an obstinate intermittent which had resisted the
bark, and was stopped by applying to the stomach a plaster, composed of
gum plaster, epispastic plaster, and opium, in proportions which I do
not now recollect.
[113] Sir John Pringle on the Diseases of the Army.
[114] This is elegantly expressed as follows, in Sir George Baker’s
learned Dissertation on this disease:--“Primo neglectus tractatu
asperior occurrebat: etenim corpus extenuatum atque confectum ut morbo
fervido impar erat, ita ipsi impar curationi. Itaque optimum erat
occurrere ipsis principiis atque auxilia mature præripere. In hoc enim
corporis affectu aliquod certe in medicina opus est, haud multum in
naturæ beneficio.”
[115] In Dr. Griffith’s form of his medicine for the piles, six drachms
of fresh-drawn linseed oil are joined with two drachms and a half of
the vinous tincture of rhubarb, and given twice a day in a draught. I
commonly used oil of almonds at the hospital. This may be considered
as another instance of those useful combinations of medicines, which
experience alone sometimes discovers. I have found it of use also in
other internal hæmorrahages.
[116] See Diseases of the Army, p. 273. 6th Edit.
[117] Since coming to England, I have been informed by Dr. Garden,
a learned and ingenious practitioner from South Carolina, that this
medicine, in order to produce its proper effect, should be given in
a very weak decoction; for that after having almost abandoned it in
consequence of its failure when he gave it in strong decoctions, and
in substance, he was again convinced of its efficacy by using it in a
very weak decoction, a scruple being boiled in a pint of water to half
a pint.
[118] See page 345. A fact mentioned in Capt. Cooke’s Voyage to the
North Pacific Ocean, may be also alledged in favour of this opinion.
He remarks, that the Kamschadales, who were habituated to hard labour,
were free from scurvy, while the Russians and Cossacks, who were in
garrison in their country, and led indolent lives, were subject to it.
[119] I was informed of this fact by Mr. Cairncross, an ingenious
surgeon belonging to one of the battalions that served there during the
siege.
[120] I imagined that this was a new practice; but I find, since the
first edition of this work was printed, that it has been recommended by
Pere Labat in his voyage to the Antilles.
[121] There is a symptom which takes place when men are beginning to
recover from scurvy, (particularly when the cure is rapidly effected
by the use of lemon and orange juice) upon which I have frequently
reflected, but for which I have never been able to account. This
consists in acute pains, which are felt in the breast and limbs,
resembling rheumatic pains. I once knew the crew of a ship which was
much affected with scurvy, and had about ninety men under cure by
lemons and oranges, who were most of them affected with this symptom in
one night, and made such a noise by crying out as to alarm the officers
who were upon duty.
[122] See the Medical Essays of Edinburgh. Sennertus, lib. iii. part i.
sect. ii.--Haller Elem. Physiolog. lib. xix. sect. ii.
[123] In the Princessa, 1781, and the Nonsuch, Prince George, and Royal
Oak, in 1782.
[124] Since this was first written, the melancholy tidings have
arrived of another case to be added to this fatal list. It is that
of the amiable and gallant Lord Robert Manners, who commanded the
Resolution on the 12th of April, and having lost his leg, besides
receiving a wound in his arm and breast, died of this untractable
symptom on his passage to England; and though he shared a fate to be
envied by every lover of true glory, his loss can never be enough
deplored by his country and friends, being formed by his great virtues
and accomplishments, joined to the lustre of his rank, to hold out an
example of all that was good and great as a man and an officer.
[125] See Kaau Boerhaave’s account of this epilepsy in a school at
Harlaem, in a book, entitled Impetum faciens dictum Hippocrate per
corpus consentiens (page 355.) A fact of the same kind is also related
in a pamphlet, entitled Rapport des Commissaires chargés par le Roi de
l’examen du Magnetisme Animal.
[126] London Medical Observations and Inquiries, Vol. VI.
[127] Medical Commentaries, Vol. III., and a Thesis printed at
Edinburgh, 1784.
[128] See experiments on a heated room. Philosophical Transactions,
1775, Vol. LXV.
[129] That species of locked jaw, called by authors the _Trismus
Infantium_, to which children are liable the first week after birth, is
probably owing to the contact of the external air upon the skin, which
is accustomed in the womb to a moist and warm medium.
[130] Aretæus Cappadox says, that tetanus in general is even more apt
to occur in winter than in summer. De Cauf. & Sign. Morb. Acut. lib. i.
cap. vi.
[131] There are several valuable practical remarks on this complaint in
some of the ancient authors, especially Aretæus. Their principal means
of cure consisted in the application of warm oil to the whole surface
of the body, particularly of the part affected. This author also
recommends clysters of warm oil, occasionally combined with a medicine
called _hiera_, which consisted of certain spices and gums, with some
purgative, such as aloes or colocynth. Aretæus Cappad. de Curat. Morb.
Acut. cap. vi. Celsus, lib. iv. cap. iii. Goræaus in vocabulum,ἱερα.
[132] This is a fact which does not admit of doubt; but the manner in
which the effect is here produced is a matter of conjecture. It is most
probably owing to the compression and tremor of the air in consequence
of its resistance to the motion of the ball. We can also conceive,
that, with regard to an yielding part, such as the stomach or abdomen,
a body flying with great velocity may even, for a moment, displace a
portion of it by passing through the same space, without any other
mechanical injury than contusion, in a manner similar to what happens
to two balls in the act of collision in philosophical experiments made
to illustrate the nature of elasticity; or the compressed air may
even, in this case, act, as it were, like a cushion, preventing the
sudden impulse and contact of the ball. This explanation furnishes
a reason why the parts of the body above mentioned should be more
liable to be affected by accidents of this kind than the head. Perhaps
this difference may also, in part, arise from the principle laid down
by Mr. Hunter, that the stomach is more essential to life, and more
immediately the seat of it, than the head or any other member or organ
of the body, and that an injury to this part is more immediately
destructive of life than any other.
[133] The honourable Captain Fitzroy.
[134] Colonel Markham.
[135] Animals are affected by these accidents as well as men. A cow
in one of the ships was killed in one of the actions in April, by a
double-headed shot passing close to the small of her back.
[136] Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ excerpta est.
[137] Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ deprompta est.
[138] Vide pag. 408.
[139] Vide pag. 409. Hæc formulæ ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti.Thomæ
excerpta est. sed vice confectionis Damocratis hodie obsoletæ,
adhibentur confectio aromatica & opium purificatum, ratione habitâ ad
portionem fingulorum adeo ut parem edant effectum ac in vetere formulâ.
[140] Vide pag. 456.
[141] Ex auctoritate Cl. Huck Saunders.
[142] Ex auctoritate Cl. Huck Saunders.
[143] Ex auctoritate Cl. Lind.
[144] Vide pag. 479.
[145] Vide pag. 489.
[146] Ex auctoritate Cl. Heberden apud Cl. Pringle in opere suo de
morbis castrensibus.
[147] Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœiâ Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ, excerpta est.
[148] Vice olei ricini dare licet olei amygdalæ unciam unam cum
tincturæ sennæ unciâ dimidiâ. Vide Pharm. Nosoc. Sti.Thomæ.
[149] Hæc formula ex auctoritate Cl. Griffiths. In periculis a me ipso
factis felicissimum successum ex hoc medicamento percepi.
[150] Hoc medicamentum speciatim his hæmorrhagiis accommodatum quæ ex
aliquo viscere læso vi externa exoriantur quales in nave sæpius quam
alicubi accidere solent, ex præcipitiis & ex corpore colliso a molimine
machinarum & tormentorum.--Prodest quoque in his casibus pulvis
ipecacoanhæ compositus.
[151] Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ deprompta est.
[152] Hæc est quam proxime formula a Cl. Mead legata Nosocomio Sti.
Thomæ ubi olim munere medici functus est, & ibi ex eo tempore usque
hodie feliciter in hydrope adhibita est.
[153] Cl°. Huck Saunders qui dyspnœâ hydropicâ laboravit ipse, auxilio
notabili erat hoc medicamentum. In talibus malis interdum summopere
prodest decoctum digitalis purpureæ, ut medicus supra memoratus in suo
casu compertus est.--Vid. Medical Transactions, Vol. III.
[154] Vide Cl. Pringle in opere suo de morbis castrensibus.
[155] Hujus doctrinæ auctor est Hippocrates, quæ restaurata est
auctaque a Cl. Milman in opusculo suo de hydrope.
[156] Hæc methodus medendi quæ æque efficax ac simplex est, primo
excogitata fuit a Cl. Georgio Fordyce medico nosocomii Sti. Thomæ, ubi
& ipse felicissimo cum successu eandem expertus sum, in muneribus meis
ibi fungendis.
[157] Vide opus Cl. Johannis Hunter de morbo venereo.
[158] Vires opii in isto morbo primo innotuerunt ex experientiâ Cl.
Nooth, dum præfuit nosocomiis militaribus in America, & pro optimo
remedio a peritissimis medicis & chirurgis jam habetur.
[159] Non hic intelligitur ptyalismum veram esse causam quâ efficitur
medela morbi, sed præcipitur ut pro argumento sit hydrargyrum in vasa
minima permeasse adeo ut effectum edat in subigendo morbo. Vide Opus
Hunteri.
[Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]