An essay addressed to captains of the Royal Navy, and those of the merchant's service; on the means of preserving the health of their crews: with directions for the prevention of dry rot in ships / By Robert Finlayson.

  • Finlayson, Robert (Surgeon in the Royal Navy)
Date:
[1825]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay addressed to captains of the Royal Navy, and those of the merchant's service; on the means of preserving the health of their crews: with directions for the prevention of dry rot in ships / By Robert Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a A wise physician, skill’d our wounds to heal, Is more than armies to the Public Weal.” It would be unpardonable to pass unnoticed, even in this short survey, the very popular and scientific works of Dr. James John¬ son :—His u Essay on the Influence of Tropical Climates, more especially the Climate of India, on European Constitutions,” &c. stands like a beacon for the direction of the medical officer on oriental service, while his other works are equally important to the home practitioner. The late preference held out by the Commissioners for Victual¬ ling His Majesty’s Navy, to such as may have graduated at the different universities, cannot fail to have the most beneficial tend¬ ency, by exciting more vigorous exertions on the part of the young medical officer; and, in this way, the best interests of the navy have been advanced. In taking, thus, a rapid survey of the revolution which has lately been effected in nautical medicine, it will appear that sea-scurvy has been almost totally exterminated in our fleets ; that the treat¬ ment of inflammatory diseases is now so well understood, that they are generally soon cut short, or subdued ; and that some of the most formidable diseases within the Tropics, such as fever> dysentery, and liver complaints, have become, at least, manageable, under the salutary directions of certain tropical writers.1 Yet, owing to the existence of certain long-established and per¬ nicious regulations with regard to washing decks, and the sud¬ den vicissitudes to which sailors are exposed in consequence, this class of men is rendered peculiarly liable to repeated attacks of in¬ flammatory disease. And it is to be, moreover, lamented, that such diseases, even when subdued, have a strong tendency to weaken the constitution, and render the individual more liable to the inva¬ sions of chronic affections and consumption afterwards—the two great scourges of the British navy at the present day.2 It is with a view, therefore, of being the means of removing some of the existing causes of such inflammatory complaints, that this Essay has been written * for every one will admit, that the prevention of disease (when it can be effected) is better than its cure. 1 See Dr. Wm, Burnett’s (one of the Medical Commissioners) most excellent “ Practical Account of the Mediterranean Fever see, also, Dr. James Johnson’s Essay already mentioned, and Bampfield on Tropical Dysentery. x The principal part of the obituary of the royal navy, at present, takes place at our great naval hospitals, whither the men are usually sent with chronic disease or consumption, after having been frequently attacked, anfl worn down by the acute forms.
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