Dr. Mac Culloch on Malaria on Ship-hoard, 67 



1 have here brought forward as authority. And though I might 

 refer to the journals of the several ships under his command, 

 contrasting them with those of the same ships under other com- 

 manders, I wish to avoid doing this, from feeling that I cannot 

 allot him the praise which he so highly deserves, without an 

 implication of blame on his predecessors and followers in the 

 same vessels. And the same reason induces me to suppress 

 even some other names where I might equally have allotted 

 praise ; as, though the readers of this journal may not be aware 

 of it, the records of the Admiralty, and the personal knowledge 

 of individuals in the navy, would easily point out those officers 

 to whose neglect there has been owing a loss of life, with in- 

 convenience to the service, and an expenditure of the public 

 money, implied in the loss of those lives, which it is most pain- 

 ful to think of, especially when we know how easily all this 

 might have been avoided. 



There is but one other modification of the connexion of 

 ships with the shore in tropical and insalubrious climates, which 

 seems to demand a specific notice, and for the sake of the precau- 

 tions applicable to it, under this division of the general subject 

 of the influence of malaria on the healths and lives of seamen. 

 I allude to a particular class of service which, as perhaps most 

 common on the coast of Africa, is best understood by this 

 allusion. It is the sending boats on shore, for the purposes, 

 among others, of wooding and watering. The consequences 

 are but too well known : fevers of the worst class, and a very 

 general or common mortality, often highly inconvenient, put- 

 ting out of question all views of mere humanity. I have said, 

 in the general Essay on Malaria, that much of this service 

 ought not to be performed by good seamen, and would be a 

 fitting labour for convicts ; and that it is difficult to compre- 

 hend the policy which allots, as punishment to those who have 

 forfeited their lives to the state, the best of climates and the 

 most salubrious of occupations, while what almost amounts to 

 a condemnation to death, is the lot of innocent and of valuable 

 men. 



And on this subject, as at least an easy and specific remedy, 

 1 have the experience of Captain Coffin to state ; who, in these 

 circumstances, applied for a party of negroes from the shore, 



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