Physician and friend : his autobiography and his letters from the Marquis of Dalhousie / edited by George Smith.
- Grant, Alexander, 1817-1900.
- Date:
- 1902
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Physician and friend : his autobiography and his letters from the Marquis of Dalhousie / edited by George Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.
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![II.] years ago the observant and earnest physician wrote thus, when he had just come of age, and he was still qualifying himself by experience for the higher success in his profession. His first subject was the health and habits of seamen. When we consider the great extent of our Mercan- tile Navy, and the number of medical men now em- ployed in this service, we cannot help feeling astonished that science owes so little to their labours. Visiting as they do every port of any considerable commercial importance in the world, and thereby becoming con- versant with disease in all its various forms, as depending upon, and aggravated by, climate, season, and situation, with a moderate spirit of enquiry they might have communicated much useful information to the profession, and to the public, through the medium of our extensive periodical literature, and afi'orded great assistance to those entering for the first time upon similar duties, by placing at their disposal what ex- perience they had been enabled to acquire. It is to be lamented that we possess no good work on naval medicine and surgery. The information we have upon these subjects is to be sought for either in the pages of medical journals, or in expensive treatises upon isolated subjects, such as scurvy, yellow fever, dysentery, etc. The first attempt at embodying the observations of the medical officers of the British Navy has only been lately announced as about to be published under the superintendence of Dr Wilson. This will fill up an important hiatus in medical litera- ture, and it is to be hoped may be the prelude to a systematic work upon the subject intended for the guidance of the surgeons of vessels. I have been in the habit of keeping, for my own satisfaction and improvement, an account of every case which came under my care. Still mindful of the painful anxiety with which I entered upon my duties on board ship, ignorant of the nature of these duties,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21443518_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
