The fever at Boa Vista in 1845-6, unconnected with the visit of the "Eclair" to that island / by Gilbert King.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The fever at Boa Vista in 1845-6, unconnected with the visit of the "Eclair" to that island / by Gilbert King. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    That the fever on board the 'Eclair' was primarily the rt'iniitent of the African coast, which is not a contagious disorder, but that the disease acquired contagious qualities in virtue of a series of causes. The Doctor remarks in the preceding page :— To me there is no proof that the fever in question was in any degree contagious before the vessol reached Boa Vista; and we have a right to look for proof both at Sierra Leone and the Gambia, where the evidence is against contagion [and he might have added the West Indies also]. At Boa Vista the reverse is the case; for the whole history of the progress of the fever, subsequent to the landing of the crew on the small island, proves it to have then possessed highly infectious qualities. I would say, then, that the contagious properties which marked the ' Eclair' fever at Boa Vista were acquired or contingent, and not primarily or essentially belonging to it. .... Why did this malignant disorder rage on board the 'Eclair,' and not in other vessels that loere loith her? Simply because her circumstances were peculiar, and it is entirely to this peculiarity and unwonted combination of circumstances that the contagionalily of the fever with which her crew was affected is due. It is true the Eclair had remained long at anchor in one of the most pestilential localities on the whole coast; that her crew had been much employed in boat service, and in clearing out her hold and that of the Albert; that she had taken in green wood for fuel at Sierra Leone; that a large collection of mud, fully three inches in depth, was found upon that portion of her bottom occupied by the boilers and machinery ; that this mud was not entirely removed from under her flooring even at the time she was recommissioned; that fever again began to appear in her when she returned to the African coast; and that it has broken out on board for the third time (on the West Indian station) within the last few months. There can be little doubt, then, that there was an unwonted combination of circumstances in this ship, even in her construction,* unfavourable to the health of her crew. But what proof do these circumstances afford of the existence of contagion ? None. As regards sickness in other vessels that were with her, Dr. Bryson informs us. * See Corresponilcncc, &c., p. 83.