1 8 8 Voyage of the Novara. 



arranged with great comfort. Six physicians are on duty 

 here, and the most exemplary care and attention are be- 

 stowed on patients. Officers and public servants wlio fall 

 sick have, in particular, large, light, airy, elegantly furnished 

 apartments ; other jjatients are received into lofty, well-ven- 

 tilated, spacious halls, usually holding from 50 to 60 beds. 

 Altogether the hospital can accommodate 600 patients. The 

 most common diseases are dysentery, intermittent fever, and 

 heart and liver complaints. Here we saw numerous cases 

 of Beri-Beri (the Barbiers of English medical writers), that 

 singular, usually incurable disease which begins with inter- 

 mittent fever, and generally ends with paralysis of the spinal 

 chord. In the year 1857, of 500 patients at Batavia no fewer 

 than 348 were attacked with this frightful complaint, of 

 whom 249 died within a brief space. In the medical section 

 of the Novara publications will be found a complete account 

 of this most interesting malady, which fortunately is very 

 limited in its ravages, and hitherto has been almost ex- 

 clusively confined to the natives. 



In one of the wards we were shown a Dutch sailor labour- 

 ing under an asthmatic attack, whose hands and feet had 

 been shockingly mutilated in 1846 by pirates in the Straits 

 of Malacca. We also found among the patients several 

 German sailors and soldiers, whose transports of joy were 

 unmistakeable on hearing once more the sound of their na- 

 tive language, and at the opportunity of conversing with a 

 fellow-countryman. 



