THE
MEDICAL EXAMINER.
AND
RECORD OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.
NEW SERIES. —NO. CIV.—AUGUST, 1853.
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.
.Naval Hygiene. By G. K. B. Horner, M. D., Philadelphia,
Surgeon U. S. Navy.
This branch embraces a great variety of subjects relating to the
health of seamen. On it their strength, spirit and, necessarily, their
efficiency depend; without it commerce must suffer, and in time of
war the honor and defence of the country could not be maintained
against a powerful maritime nation, whose seamen are as brave
and numerous and more healthy than our own. It becomes us,
then, to consider the means best adapted to prevent this, and,
if possible, to render them superior in every respect. At the
same time we do that, we must not neglect to refer to the means
suitable to preserve the health of our extensive mercantile marine.
For these purposes the first means to be taken are those intended
to procure vessels properly constructed regarding the comfort
and health of their occupants; for, if they be confined to small,
filthy and ill ventilated apartments, other means taken may be
of no use. Ships of war are often built for sailing and fighting
only, merchant ships for beauty and holding large cargoes.
Hence, the quarters, in both, for the crews, and especially for the
men and officers of subordinate grades, are very small propor-
tionally to their number, besides being so constructed that pure
air is nearly unknown in them. It is even common to witness
this in vessels wherein the cabins and saloons, intended for the
passengers and officers of the highest grades, are as spacious and
airy as they can be made. In no class of vessels are we more
struck with these facts than in packets and steamers. In the
latter, engaged in trade between the eastern coast of the United
States and the western coast of California, I observed this con-
trast in accommodations. While the cabin and steerage passen-
gers were lodged mostly in separate state rooms and had sump-
tuously furnished saloons or cabins adjoining, the forward pas-
sengers were crowded in berths near the bows or about the fore-
castle. Some of them were occupied by two or three persons in
each one, and were so short that no man of good height could lie
in them at full length. To escape from such discomfort,
which was rendered intolerable from the heat of the tropical sun
added to that issuing from vast fires of coal, many passengers fled
nightly to the highest decks and slept upon them. Of the sufferings
of the forward passengers we may form an estimate, when in-
formed that a number of the best accommodated cabin ones de-
serted their rooms and slept on the quarter deck beneath the awn-
ings, so great was their heat. To ship builders and naval engi-
neers belong the general construction and arrangement of vessels,
and wrn would not recommend any medical interference with them
in most matters, or where mere comfort and convenience are con-
cerned. But in things relating to health, courtesy as well as public
and private interests demand that medical men should be consult-
ed. Whether these be or not, the former should endeavor at least
to have all parts of a ship made salubrious; to have the hatches
well placed for both air, light and the escape of effluvia ; the air
ports of large size, and so situated thaj they could be opened either
in calm or stormy weather without the admission of rain or sea
water. For the escape of heated air, animal and other exhala-
tions, the newly adapted ventilators passing through the upper
decks in partsnot used as gang ways and not occupied by guns, &c.,
ought to be preferred. These ventilators have tops closed above
and open at the sides, and answer the indications above mentioned,
and from being of cast iron are very durable.
To ventilate perfectly and .expel noxious gases, as well as
overheated air, windsails are indispensable. They are very
large and long cylinders or bags of canvas, open at bottom
and expanded at top into a capacious mouth, presented to the
wind, and held open by lines attached to their elongated sides.
Hoops within prevent their collapse. These windsails are sus-
pended from the rigging by other lines, and can be let down
through the hatches far enough to ventilate the lowest parts
of vessels. All those of our navy are thus purified, and made
vastly more healthy and comfortable than ships were before the
introduction of windsails.
But the part of every vessel most demanding the care of the
physician is that used by the infirm, and known in men-of-war
as “ the sick bay.” In those of our country it is almost without
exception on the berth deck, either in the bows or amidships
between the fore and main hatch. The former place is its loca-
tion in ships of the line, and frequently the latter is that in
vessels of smaller size. In our steamers the machinery will not
allow of the sick being kept amidships, and abaft there is no
room for them ; hence from necessity they have to remain for-
ward. This is the case even in the San Jacinto, one of our
largest steam frigates, and more than 220 feet long. She indeed
has no separate place for the sick; they have to lie near the fore
hatch of the berth deck, and are exposed to both the heat of the
galley or cooking range just abaft them, and to the intense fires
in the adjacent furnaces generating steam, in the hold below.
She has no gun deck nor other place of refuge (save the spar
one) from such heat, for the halt or sick, by day or by night; and
if it rain, or the weather be cold, or the wind strong, they have
the unhappy alternative of bearing its chilling blasts, or of closing
the hatches and being stewed in steam. From the description
by the crew of W’hat they suffered from these causes—the flooding
of the berth deck by the sea through the horse holes at the bows
of the same deck, the deluging of it by rain, the seas shipped,
and the water thrown upon it in the coldest weather to clean it—
we can rationally infer, that though she cannot be called a float-
ing hell, she might be well termed a steam purgatory. Of the
Saranac the same remark might be applied with good reason.
In the English ships of war I have visited, the sick were
placed on one of the gun decks, and on both or only on one side
of the bowsprit. This position is most desirable from its being
generally the least in the way; but when the men are letting
out or heaving in a cable, or the ship is in a heavy sea, plunging
deeply and buffeted by waves driven on by a head wind, it is
very noisy, and often deluged by the water forced into the ports,
seams and horseholes, or those through which the cables pass.
The motion, too, in the bows of a vessel, is very great at such
times, and renders them altogether unfit for patients ill of low
fevers, from the depressing effects on the brain; or for those
who suffer much from sea sickness, or who have fractured limbs.
In these cases, wThile ships are at sea, it is always necessary
to remove the patients abaft, and I usually place them near the
middle of one of the gun decks. While I was in the John
Adams, on a voyage from Minorca to Naples, thence to Mar-
seilles, and back to the former port, a most striking instance
occurred of the ill effects of a ship’s motion on a case of the first
kind, or that of low fever. The patient was a boy of that island,
for the first time at sea, who suffered from excessive sea sickness
and intermittent fever, to which he was liable. Accordingly, as
the wind was light or strong, the sea smooth or rough, the ship in
port or out of it, easy or uneasy, so the type of the fever was
of ordinary height or of the lowest kind, and deprived him of
nearly every sign of animation. When thus affected, his teeth
were covered with dark sordes, his eyes sank, his pulse was rapid
and scarcely perceptible, his face livid, and he sank into such a
state of insensibility, that he was only to be kept alive by quinine,
applications of turpentine and cantharides ointment, and other sti-
mulating remedies. In this manner he lived until he got back to
his native place ; but when she was about returning to Naples,
he could not remain in her, was sent to the Lazaretto of Port
Mahon, and there died under the charge of a Spanish physician.
Reference has been made to this case in my work on the Medi-
terranean ; but it has been again introduced, as it is finely illus-
trative of the bad influence of a ship’s motion on some patients.
To make the sick more comfortable, it is also very essential
that they have a privy convenient to them, and be as little as pos-
sible exposed to being struck by the sun; that they should have
well made and covered easy chairs with copper pans, which are
difficult of being broken, and require a long time to become cor-
roded. Porcelain pans are too easily fractured, and tin ones
very soon are rusted and rendered useless. A hatch directly
over a sick bay is of great advantage; it affords plenty of light,
admits a windsail, and enables the medical officers and patients—
both those affected with disease and those injured by accident—
a ready way of egress and ingress. When there is no such hatch,
and a person is severely injured, it becomes necessary to drag
him during sleeping hours beneath the hammocks of the crew to
get him into the hospital. To do this is difficult and painful to
him and carriers, from the hammocks being hung only a few
feet above the deck, and obliging the latter to .stoop very low
while they drag the former. Another great convenience is that
of having the dispensary and store room adjoining or near the
sick bay, so that articles can be had for patients without delay.
But in time of war the greater part of medical stores should be
below water mark, and secure from damage by an enemy’s shot.
A single one, and especially an explosive shot, might otherwise
smash all the bottles of the medical department and leave no
liquids for use. This misfortune might frequently happen in
our men of war of the present time, for in all of the corvettes,
and in most if not all our frigates, the dispensary is on the berth
deck. In former times it was in the cockpit of the last, and
below water mark. Want of air and light, and the inconve-
nient distance of the former from the sick, have probably caused
the change of place, besides many annoyances from the nume-
rous store rooms opening into the cockpit, and its proximity to
the spirit room and after magazine. When these are open no
lights are allowed to be burnt, and of course the darkness pre-
vents the compounding of medicines and other work being done.
When they are immediately required, this is a great inconveni-
ence to the sick and their attendants. In time of action, or any
other, when the crew are at quarters, the wounded or injured
sent to the cockpit must receive attention, and the use of co-
vered lights is then permitted.
With a hospital arranged as above described, patients, unless
over-crowded or affected with contagious diseases, will mostly
improve under judicious medical advice. Should any be affected
in the last manner, they ought to be forthwith sent on shore
where it be practicable, or placed in the most airy and least fre-
quented parts of the decks, either lower or upper. There they
should be hung in cots ; or hammocks, if there be none of the
former to be had; put behind screens, and allowed to hold no
communication with any other persons than their nurses and
physicians. If small-pox exist it will be very desirable that the
former should have had it by inoculation or naturally, or that
they be known to be well protected by vaccination. But, should
this sovereign preventive have been properly practised among a
crew before or after shipment, it is very improbable that they
will ever become extensively infected with small-pox. There-
fore, every one of a crew in the least liable to it should be vac-
cinated as soon as he gets on board ship, and while the vaccine
matter can certainly be obtained fresh. If it be not, it will prove
useless, according to my experience ;—for, of the many hundred
persons I have vaccinated or caused to be, in various ships of war
at sea, scarcely one gave any evidence of having been infected
with the virus. The same remark was made by a surgeon of
much greater experience than myself. So many failures may
have been owing to other causes, as gross diet—the adult state
of a great majority of the crews—and their greater unsuscepti-
bility to impression from the hardness of their skins, and loss of
sensibility. Some may ascribe the failures to the influence of
sea air, but none of these things are known to be facts. This,
however, is an acknowledged and well proved one. Old vaccine
matter has often failed to produce its peculiar effects on persons
ashore with every adjuvant required to insure success. Neither
the purest air, nor best diet, nor well adapted clothing and most
able medical advice have been of any service. The punctures
have, notwithstanding, healed and left no cicatrices, and the vac-
cinated have remained unprotected from variolous contagion.
To escape it in very cold weather is most difficult, from it being
necessary then to make vessels of comfortable temperature ; from
their crews being thickly clad, and seldom changing their clothes;
staying much below decks; crowding together in warm places;
closing ports and hatches, and stopping ventilation. When this
cannot be done, they become exposed to too much cold, suffer
from pulmonic complaints, rheumatism and chilblains, and hence
have a choice of the two evils—contagion, or the suffering caused
by these affections. Sometimes a ship may be kept very close
below and open above, as was the Brandywine in the winter of
J 830, at New York. To that fault we ascribe the complication
of the above diseases herein suffered. In her were mingled
cases of small pox, scarlatina, typhus fever, and every other af-
fection it seemed which could be induced by intense cold. Luck-
ily some of the former cases were sent to the naval hospital be-
fore the crew were extensively infected. But by the time the ship
left port, in March, she had lost one man from scarlatina, sent
thirty altogether to the hospital, and had forty more on the sick
list. In a few days after sailing, three more persons died of
the same disease and typhus, and in the course of a few months
others of the crew had been similarly lost. Among them was
the sergeant of marines, Clargis, a noble looking, accomplished
soldier, who had had a violent pneumonia terminating in morti-
fication of the lungs. His sufferings were indescribable; so
great and protracted were the dyspnoea and difficulty in expec-
torating the exceedingly foetid sputa which for day after day
were discharged, to the disgust of the whole crew.
So much was due to the fitting out of a man of war in winter !
a practice ever to be condemned or avoided. There are two
other practices in ships almost as condemnable; one is, that of
dry holy stoning, or rubbing the decks with huge stones and
sand; the other practice is that of deluging the former with
water in the coldest weather, even when it freezes as soon as
thrown upon them. Dry holy stoning is intended solely for
good appearance and cleanliness, washing decks for the same
purposes and to keep them tight. In doing this the men gene-
rally go barefooted, and suffer proportionally from the conjoined
ill effects of cold and moisture, inducing rheumatic and pulmonic
complaints. By holy stoning the chief mischief is done to the
eyes and lungs, which inhale the impalpable sand floating in the
air, and become irritated. To this cause is attributed the death
of the master-at-arms belonging to the vessel named, and who
became affected with phthisis pulmonalis. Cases of ophthalmia
arise and are aggravated from the same cause. But when the
sand is wet it may be rubbed on the deck without injury; and in
mild weather washing them does little harm—unless on the
lower ones—from their continuing wet a long time, and may be
of advantage, from the men getting their feet cleansed, who, if
the decks were not washed, would seldom have them so. To
obtain a like condition of the whole person, bathing in fresh or
sea water should be practised by a crew, whenever it be of mo-
derate temperature. Though buckets and tubs sufficient could
not be had for a large number of men, they might bathe on a
beach, or at sea, by having boats rowing about them and letting
down sails into the water by the four corners for the use of inex-
pert swimmers, as I have often witnessed, when the sea has been
calm. Bathing, besides being a very healthy practice, from its
tonic and cleansing effects, is a fine amusement, and for this rea-
son, if no other, ought to be encouraged. Like music, dancing,
playing at dice, chess, draughts and dominoes, it takes away the
monotony of sea life, makes time pass pleasantly, and creates
good will in a crew. Water is still more highly recommended
for drinking, and unless it be pure, it is vain to expect good
health in any vessel on a voyage, and cut off from the means of
procuring substitutes when it is impure. When good, it is the
only drink seamen can use freely with general impunity ; and no-
thing laid in for their sustenance makes them so efficient and so
comfortable. It is an indispensable article with them, and one
for which no substitute can be found. This is not so with any
other; if the pork be bad, the beef may be good; should the
bread be mouldy and wormy, the rice may be sound; if the
cheese be spoiled, an additional quantity of butter can be allowed.
The same may be done with any other part of the rations. Bad
water, too, may be as injurious in port, and sometimes more so
than at sea, when sailors at the same time indulge in eating
fresh meat, fruits and vegetables, especially the crude, unripe
and acid ones. If these be eaten at the same time that brackish
water is drank, or that obtained from fountains and rivulets just
after heavy rains, and charged with earthy matter, they never
fail to produce bowel affections. The greatest number which
have ever come under my notice have been caused in this manner;
and I always expect as a matter of course, when between the
tropics, or it be summer anywhere, to have at once a large num-
ber of such affections to treat. But by far the largest number
have been seen among crews drinking the water of the La Plata,
or that taken from its shores. Neither should it be used before
it is purified by being allowed to work, or by strainage, or throw-
ing into each cask a small amount of powdered alum, which is
thought at Buenos Ayres the best purifier, and ought to be pro-
portioned to the quantity and impurity of the water. For the
consumption of a small number of persons, dripstones may fur-
nish as much pure water as they may need for drink; and in the
Mediterranean, from the vast quantity of porous sandy lime-
stone found on its shores and islands, these stones can be easily
obtained at a low price. At Malta they are very plentiful, and
so cheap, that every vessel touching there ought to lay in a
supply for both present and future use; for after they have been
used for some time, the impurities of the water strained fill their
pores and impede its flow, so much as to prevent this being abun-
dant. Should a crew be large, other means must be adopted,
and none answer so well as large casks, set on end like a common
scuttle-bat, and having either a strainer at bottom made of seve-
ral layers of bunting or of hair cloth, resting on a grate and co-
vered with gravel and sand; or having a patent strainer of silver
gauze, with a clean sponge fixed inside of it. The frigate Savan-
nah had a strainer of the latter kind, which was attached to the
scuttle-bat when necessary, and was thought very good. For the
use of my patients in the Delaware I employed a strainer of the
former kind, holding only five or ten gallons of water, and for
the same purpose in the Savannah used a large stone filter,
wfliich had a double bottom and a chamber above, with a hole in
the centre into which a sponge was placed. The water ran
through this, thence percolated through a layer of sand and a
strainer beneath—got into the lowest chamber and was drawn
off by a stop-cock in a limpid, pure condition. For a sick bay I
prefer this filter* to any other, from its convenient size, easi-
ness of being cleansed and repaired, and so well answering the
purpose for which it is designed. Other filters perhaps may be
obtained to answer as well, and there is no excuse for a vessel
leaving, at least any of our ports, without having some of them.
In steamers there is less demand for them, from the great ease
with which their immense fires can by means of retorts or alem-
*It is said to be one of Wainwright’s of Staffordshire, England,
which have gravel and charcoal mixed with the sand, contained in the
middle or closed chamber.
hies, convert salt -water into fresh. Whether water thus dis-
tilled is as wholesome as that impregnated with some saline or
earthy matter, is a subject of doubt, as in some persons it has
caused diarrhoea, and it, moreover, when so purified, is insipid
and unpalatable.
Of the best methods of preserving and purifying water, much
has been written. Some have recommended a small amount of
quick lime and sulphuric acid to be put into each cask; some
have used muriatic acid, others calcined lime or pure charcoal,
with a little sulphuric acid; others have put in powdered char-
coal alone, or charred the casks inside. This is a very common
method of purifying them when old, and though it may not have
any great efficacy in preserving the water, it certainly has some
in preventing the decay of the casks. The charcoal itself, like-
wise, when put into the water, acts both as an antiseptic and
destroyer of foetor arising from the formation of sulphuretted
hydrogen. But I prefer filtrating impure water through char-
coal, when confined in a chamber or other place suited to hold
it and prevent its rising to the surface, as its lightness will cer-
tainly cause it to do when thrown loose into the water.
Provisions.—Such a variety of them are now used at sea, that
it would be superfluous to enumerate them or do more than write
a few remarks respecting some of the principal. Of these the
two most used are bread and meat. The former in all ships is
commonly biscuit made of wheat flour,—sometimes of this and
rice mixed, when the former is very dear, as in Brazil. The
hardest bread I ever saw was obtained at Bahia, and was said
to have been thus made. It was too hard for any ordinary teeth
to chew, and required hammering to be got into fragments. It
is hardly necessary to say that such bread, and the wormy,
mouldy and sour, should be condemned. Indeed biscuit gene-
rally is difficult of mastication and digestion, from its toughness,
and is neither savory nor wholesome, unless dried and crisped in
an oven just before it is eaten. Next to bread, rice may be
ranked as the most valuable vegetable food. Though it is in-
sipid, and constipates most persons, it can be easily rendered
palatable by seasoning, and prevented from producing costive-
ness by mingling it with stewed fruit or molasses. For the sick
I have found rice invaluable in bowel affections, either in the
form of a gruel or drink, or when simply boiled and flavored with
any pleasant condiment. In this state my patients, almost without
exception, have preferred it to arrow root or any other of the fari-
naceae, which have a flatness of taste—evils to be overcome only by
high seasoning with wine, sugar, lemon juice and spices, render-
ing them as rich as prohibited meats. Of these, any which are
preserved by being first cooked—by boiling or roasting—are to be
preferred for the sick or well, to all dried ones, or any preserved
by being put into brine, either of salt alone or that and nitre.
Both of these articles so impregnate flesh of all kinds as to make
it hard and insoluble in the gastric juice. It then creates irrita-
tion of the stomach, causes unnatural thirst, and is altogether
difficult of assimilation, besides impregnating the system with a
superabundance of saline matter. The first ill effects observed
afterwards are ulcers in the mouth, phlegmous in different parts
of the body and limbs, and finally scorbutic symptoms. To
avoid, then, these and other evils resulting from salt pro-
visions, as little of them as possible ought to be used, and when
they are, they should not be cooked before they have been first
soaked at least twenty-four hours in fresh water, and subse-
quently washed in it after it has been changed. Preserved fresh
meats are dear in appearance, but if we calculate their superior
niceness and wholesomeness; their freedom from bone, gristle
and other useless parts ; their not requiring more fire than enough
to rewarm them, and the very little space occupied by the canis-
ters containing them ; the very perfect manner in which these
meats are kept sound for an indefinite time, and the vast amount
of salt meats lost from corrosion by the brine, and putrefaction
from various causes, we may very safely conclude that the latter
meats are dearer than the fresh preserved. On the coast of
Brazil, where these cost 45 cts. per pound, I found them deci-
dedly cheaper than live fowls at six dollars per dozen, from the
great mortality among them at sea. Even when they do not
die, they often become sickly, waste away, and afford poor
nourishment. The same may be said of other live stock, save,
perhaps, pigs; and when not correctly, it is in rare instances,—
from fine weather and great care in feeding. When this is not
done, they are illy watered—the vessel labors much, tosses
them about and keeps them wet; they soon droop, get feverish,
and become unfit for use by the sick or well.
With fresh preserved meats we must likewise recommend vege-
tables which have been cooked in a similar manner and hermeti-
cally sealed in tin cases and bottles. There are also a large
quantity of vegetables now reduced by heat to a very dry state
and sealed in tin boxes, but when taken out and put into boiling
water, resume their wonted freshness and plumpness. The best
I have seen were prepared in France, and had been sent to the
Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing of the Navy, for
inspection and trial. They gave such satisfaction that we hope
they will come into general use and be prepared on a large scale
in our own country. In addition to the above articles, preserved
soups, custards and milk ought to be laid up for sea stores, at
least for short voyages, and as is now practised in some packets.
By the aid of ice it may be easily effected, though the articles be
not put in sealed vessels. In ships sailing from countries where
ice abounds, it might be stored away at a very low price, in suf-
ficient quantities to last for months, without any great inconve-
nience as regards room. On my passage in the Crescent City
from Chagres, all our meats were said to have been preserved on
ice laid in at New York, abundantly enough to last both during
her outward and homeward passage. Of spirits, wines and malt
liquors, it is necessary to procure a supply for culinary and me-
dicinal purposes. Habit, too, renders them requisite for some
persons, and the palates of others may make them indispensable
as articles of luxury. But for the treatment of invalids, I have
by long experience found them of minor importance with respect
to articles decidedly medicinal. As diffusible stimulants in cases
of emergency, they are serviceable; but as tonics or medicines,
used to produce a permanently invigorating effect, they are much
inferior to the vegetable bitters, and if any stimulation be re-
quired, it is much better to infuse these in a small amount of
spirits mingled with water. This also is preferable, because it
prevents patients from having it in their power to say that the
“ doctor recommended them to drink spirits,” and to urge this as
a plea for their continuance when well.
The next subject claiming our notice, and the most important
to the sick, is the laying up of all the medicines, implements
and appliances needed for them. In their selection we must
determine how many are needed, and next the quantity of each
one which may probably be required. In determining this we
must be governed by the space allowed to accommodate them,
the number of the crew, the length of the proposed voyage, and
the amount of sickness anticipated. The ability or inability to
procure a re-supply where the vessel is bound, and the abundance,
cheapness or dearness of certain medicines there, ought also to
regulate the quantity to be primarily obtained. It is very bad
economy to fail getting a full supply of articles which are exor-
bitantly high abroad, and equally bad to lay in such at home
when they are perhaps native products of the countries to be
visited and correspondingly cheap in them. This is a familiar
blunder, and committed in many vessels; and the only good
reason for it is that it encourages domestic commerce and causes
money to be expended at home. While laying in medical stores
also, we ought as much as possible to obtain the most efficient of
every class—to get them in the most concentrated form, so as to
occupy the least space—to put aside crude articles and procure
their active principles—and to have all medical stores, whether
in drawers or boxes, well secured against rats, mice and vermin,
by means of tin or other metals, and to have these 'well painted
externally, to prevent corrosion by rust. The medicines like-
wise should be put in packages and bottles, perfectly air and
water proof, and adapted in shape to the places wherein they
are to be kept. As a general rule, the former store most con-
veniently and take up least space when square. It will be found
in fitting up either a medicine chest or a dispensary, that when
round they require about one-half more room—a vast deal to
lose when not enough is allowed, although storage is made in the
most economical method. One of the strongest objections to
laying up an overplus of medical stores, or not packing them
closely in a dispensary or chest, is that it makes it necessary to
put the surplus in the hold. When this happens, they are apt
to be lost and pillaged; they cannot be got for immediate use
without inconvenience ; and give so much trouble to those having
charge of the hold that they complain, and quarrels result be-
tween them and the persons belonging to the medical depart-
ment. From medicines being kept in the hold I have frequently,
under the belief.that there were none of a certain kind in it,
obtained a fresh supply, when an abundance was there, as proved
by their having been subsequently found. On one occasion I
was positively informed that no alcohol and Epsom salts were in
store; a re-supply was ordered and purchased, and after it had
been brought on board, four gallons of the first article and a
barrel of the other were discovered in that part of the hold called
the spirit room. The prohibition of lights in it makes such over-
sights more easy; but in the latter instance it was attributed to
the inscription on the head of the barrel having been covered
with whitewash.
In procuring medical stores, we should likewise take into con-
sideration the climate wherein a vessel will have to cruise or
remain longest. Accordingly, if the climate is to be a cold one,
we ought to lay in a full supply of all articles adapted to the
treatment of rheumatism, pneumonia and other affections caused
by cold. If the climate is to be a hot one, we should get an
extra supply of mercurials, opium, saline compounds, acids
and other remedies suited for miasmatic fevers, dysentery,
diarrhoea, cholera and affections incidental to warm latitudes.
In temperate climates, when we are to have an alternation of
heat and cold, as in our own, we must of course obtain a supply
of medical stores adapted to both. The same ought to be done
in regard to clothing, and seamen of every class should be pro-
vided with such as may enable them to be well protected in any
change of weather. From a want of information concerning
the dampness and chilliness of that on the coast of California,
it must have happened that a large amount of summer clothing
was sent to our squadron there, instead of winter clothes, and
occasioned great discomfort to the seamen during my stay on
that station. For hot weather linen is most comfortable, but
cotton is preferable, from its medium quality between the former
and woolen goods, as well as for the much greater quantity to be
bought for the same money. Cotton, also, does not, like linen,
allow perspiration to be suddenly checked, nor does cotton so
absorb perspiration and remain sodden with water. Hence
muslin sheets are infinitely superior to linen for sea use. For
overcoats, in frigid regions, woollen cloth is indispensable, but in
rain, gum elastic and oiled are preferable, from their lightness
and superior impermeability. In sultry latitudes, the last named
is to be preferred to the second, from its being both waterproof
and not adhering together so closely when one part touches an-
other, that it becomes inseparable or cannot be drawn asunder
without being torn and spoiled. A vast amount of gum elastic
cloth is thus ruined. From its neatness and flexibility, however,
it is an excellent article for mattress covers, counterpanes, capes,
coats, cloaks and pantaloons in damp and mild climates, and may
be very useful in the most sultry, when care is taken to keep
apart the different folds and to prevent any portion of the side
on which the gum is spread from touching any other, when the
articles are laid by and not in use. Considering how much these
waterproof clothes contribute to comfort and health, it is won-
derful that they have not yet come into general use for sailors,
and that none are provided by Government for them. They
make much less use of gum-elastic shoes, which are so much
worn on land, and so indispensable in keeping the feet dry.
When gum-elastic overshoes cannot be got for this purpose, an
excellent substitute will be found by wiping off all dirt and black-
ing from shoes or boots, and then several times smearing them
with a composition of gum-elastic clipped to pieces, softened with
pure spirits of turpentine and dissolved by boiling in whale oil
or some other animal one. For the soles, several coats of copal
varnish will answer the same purpose; and this is to be pre-
ferred, from its giving them greater firmness and durability.
Besides the ordinary articles of the materia medica to cure
disease, we have to get a supply of others to prevent it, or those
termed disinfecters. The most commonly used, and one of the
most efficacious is chloride of lime, but it is objectionable from
its great bulk and weight proportioned to the amount of chlorine
it contains, and from its deliquescing when exposed to moisture.
The other chlorides, as those of zinc and lead, are therefore pre-
ferable ; but for instantaneous disengagement of chlorine I pre-
fer the mixture of table salt, sulphuric acid and black oxide of
manganese in due proportion—that is, having three parts of this
to four of the first article and four of the second one, diluted in
four parts of water. Sulphuric acid, also, poured on nitre, dis-
engages a large amount of disinfecting gas or nitrous acid fumes,
and constitutes the famous one of Dr. James Carmichael Smith,
of Dublin. The .proportion is a half fluid ounce of the acid to
two drachms of the salt. The burning of sulphur and nitre to-
gether, the fumes of gunpowder, tar, tobacco and vinegar, and
white washing with slacked lime or chloride of lime, may like-
wise be useful; and we may employ Labarraque’s solution of
chlorinated soda, which is certainly good to destroy the foetor
of sores and wounds. We also may use Sir William Burnett’s
solution of the chloride of zinc, and yet not have a healthy ship
if she be not cleaned, particularly in the hold, where such accu-
mulations of noxious substances collect. No disinfecting agent
could be got to counteract their deleterious action on a crew, and
all the patent air pumps which could be worked by them could
never throw out of a ship thus loaded with filth all the poisonous
gases generated in her during a long sojourn in a hot climate.
Nor when small pox or any other truly contagious disease is pre-
valent on board, can we trust exclusively to any such means for
disinfecting the air in a vessel, and rendering it innocuous, as
■well as inoffensive to our senses.