A treatise on removable and mitigable causes of death, their modes of origin and means of prevention ; including a sketch of vital statistics and the leading principles of public hygiene in Europe and India. v. 1.

  • Norman Chevers
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on removable and mitigable causes of death, their modes of origin and means of prevention ; including a sketch of vital statistics and the leading principles of public hygiene in Europe and India. v. 1. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    men by accidents, and one by disease. Cook, in a paper read before the Royal Society, described the means which he employed to secure the health of his crew; the care which was taken in the selection of a vessel, in dryinj? and ventilating, in providing good provisions, antiscorbutics, and an abundant supply of fresh water. In the third voyage, the men were equally healthy. After some years had elapsed, and a reform of the Naval Administration,* the principles established by Cook were car- ried out by the Admiralty, and the health of the Navy was raised to a satisfactory standard, In Parry's three voyages of a year and a half and two years' duration, only seven men died out of 334. The annual mortality in the last voyages was 0-5 per cent.f For a description of the shameful manner in which our Navy was victualled under a much- abused contract system, towards the end of the last century, see the History of the Mutiny at Spithead and the Nore.J Accounts are from time to time appearing which would countenance the belief that not a few of our own merchant vessels still deserve to be regarded as mere floating slaughter-houses. Early in last Jime, the papers announced that no less than 274 persons, principally Chinese Emigrants to Cali- fornia, had died on board a British Ship, the Lady Montague, of 760 tons burden, between the llth February, 1S50, when she left China with no less than 500 souls on board, and the 18th of the following June ! The circumstances under which this frightful mortality occurred have not been clearly ascertained, but it appears that the water and provi- sions which had been supplied for the emigrants became putrid, and that the sufferings of the poor creatures were so unendurable that several of them committed suicide by jumping overboard. When the ship reached Hobart Town, on the 13th April, the mortality on board had been frightful; here medical and other assistance was obtained, but after the vessel left that port, the fever again broke out, and a nearly equal number of unfortunates perished. At about the same time it was stated in the Journals that the British Ship Sir Charles Napier had arrived at San Francisco from Panama, having been ninety days on the passage! She started with 174 passengers, and lost 36 of them during a three weeks' prevalence of measles, dysentery, and fever. In March last, the French Academy of Sciences awarded a prize to M. Masson for having introduced means of preserving vegetable sub- stances, an invention calculated to be of great service to the crews of French vessels. The General Mortality in the French Army is reckoned [in 1841] at 1 in 48 : but according to Colonel Paixhans (in his statements concern- ing the mortality of the French Army, made before the Chamber of Deputies, in the discussion regarding the levy of 80,000 conscripts, for the year 1838,) the mortality of French Soldiers, even during peace, is much greater than that of men engaged in civil pursuits. Accord- ing to his statements, the mortality of young men of 20 years of age, engaged in civil pursuits, was only about 1 in 83, and among those of 27 years of age about I in 71. In the Army, among the non- commissioned officers, it appeared that the mortality was only about 1 in 91, but among the senior soldiers, from 26 to 27 years of age, it was so high as 1 in 50; and among those who were only five years in the service, commencing at 20 years, the mortality increases to * McCulloch's Slaiistics of the British Empire. t Registrar-General's Report, Last Quarter of 184G.
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