Dr. Mac Culloch on Malaria on Ship'board^ 75 



haps, more within the reach of positive regulations than the 

 former. 



The first general rule is this; that the ship should be washed 

 every day, or as often as is practicable, by means of the plug, 

 nor is the washing to be deemed effectual, till the water from 

 the pump is as clear as that outside. 



As, in any case of the production of malaria from the ship 

 itself, its very construction renders it peculiarly effective, 

 through confinement, every practicable mode of ventilation 

 should be resorted to ; while, as contagion is not the cause 

 of these fevers, all the common plans of whitewashing, and so 

 forth, usually adopted, may be dispensed with, as producing 

 trouble and doing no good : and, in this view, all fumigations, 

 from whatever materials, are useless ; because the effect of 

 them is temporary, and necessarily nothing, when the poison- 

 ous cause is in a state of perpetual production. This has been 

 a leading source of deception and evil, and particularly so, as 

 appearing to be founded on solid principles, while these were, 

 in reality, false ones. 



On the view of confinement, it is also proper that no divi- 

 sions or bulk-heads should be suffered in a ship, if they can be 

 dispensed with, as they concentrate and render the poison 

 more active. 



To conclude, if these regulations could be rendered effec- 

 tual, it is believed that the greatest cause of mortality in ships 

 would be removed ; and if, in addition to this, every ship, leav- 

 ing any port, were adequately fumigated by sulphurous acid, 

 and the persons and clothes of newly-entered men, or men on 

 shore on leave, were attended to, by the well-known means, 

 together with such other equally familiar precautions as are re-s 

 commended against contagion, it is believed that fever would 

 shortly become unknown in the British Navy ; and further j 

 that as this is the only real cause of mortality, remembering 

 always that dysentery and cholera also arise from malaria, and 

 from the same causes, a ship would, in any case, be the 

 healthiest of residences, and thus the mortality of the sea 

 would become an absolute trifle to what it has hitherto been. 



I may now conclude. — ^The past history of the Navy is a 

 history of fearful or most injurious mortalities from fevers. 

 The inconveniences to the Service, ill appreciated by landa* 



