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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![initiated into every species of vice, through the influence of bad companions — thus the infection spreads, the disease is evident, but it is difiicult to find a remedy. I have been led into this digression upon the habits of British seamen, with the view of correcting a very prevalent, but what appears to me a very erroneous opinion, that sailors are of a robust habit of body; my experience teaches me the contrary, I admit that they are healthy, and resist in a wonderful manner ex- posure to all the vicissitudes of the weather, but when they are attacked with any serious illness, they very rapidly sink under it. I have seen a strong middle- aged man rendered in twenty-four hours as weak as a child, by a slight attack of catarrh. I have seen others, young and stout, faint from the loss of four ounces of blood. Sailors in merchant ships are gener- ally short-lived; a life of hard labour and hard living induces a premature old age, and they, often broken- down and dispirited, sink into the grave without any evident disease. Sailors stand depletion badly, and blood-letting cannot be carried to the extent which we often find requisite on shore. The habit of in- temperance, so general amongst them, satisfactorily accounts for this. I have alw^ays been in the habit of adopting the excellent rule (or at least an approximation to it) of Dr Marshall Hall, when about to draw blood. I make the patient sit up, and support himself by his own muscles, and allow the blood to flow until he feels faint. If the disease be inflammatory, and connected with the chest, I follow this up by the use of the tartar emetic solution in small and repeated doses. The cases treated after this manner I have always found recover better than those where bleeding had been carried to its full extent. Many cases of inflammatory disease of a slight nature, and when timely seen, have recovered under the use of the emeto-cathartic mixture alone, with the application perhaps of a blister or sinapism. These remarks, however, are not altogether applicable to 0 ]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21443518_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
