Volume 3

Medicina nautica : an essay on the diseases of seamen ... / by Thomas Trotter.

  • Thomas Trotter
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medicina nautica : an essay on the diseases of seamen ... / by Thomas Trotter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    209/526 (page 195)
    come difeafed. In this manner every tender brought with it a fre/h frock of infe€tion, Thefe miferable and half-fed beings, anfwered to Shake- {pear’s ludicrous defcription of a difeafed army : “« Haif of them. darenot fhake the fnow from off their ‘* caffocks, left they fhake themfelves ‘to pleces.”— With fuch frail materials were our fhips recruited at this period of theiwar. bh ee : Into whatever fhip thefe men were diftributed, they carried with them the feeds of difeafe, be- came firft fick themfelves, and then fpread it to thofe near’ them, and moft fulceptible of its influence, The Orion, juft commiffioned, was fitting at this time, and before the was ready for fea, fent ups wards of one hundred men to the hofpital, chiefly: ill of fevers, and in all the variety of wretched- nefs. - . | , But the infection in the Oriow did not {top here ; as foon as fhe put to fea in April, it made confi- derable progrefs, and feized a number of the fea~ men. Five-deaths happened at fea, ‘The debj- litating effeéts of this fever, paved the way for a very general difpofition to fcurvy, which prevailed in July and Auguft, in whieh months Mr. Allen admitted forty-one fevere cafes into his lift, who were unable to move about the decks. Yet al] : this happened while the lemon-juice, according to Lord St. Vincent’s preicription, was daily iffued to the fhips’ company ; in the fummer feafon too, and when large quantities of freth fith were caught by the people. (Vide the Article Scurvy.) Some flight remains of this typhus, blended with pul- monic complaints, continued till the beginning of September ; but Mr. Allen perceiving the imme. diate debility, very wifely abftained from Ve'S; and found advantage from a nourifhing and ftimu-