340 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



of the stove can make its escape, I generally have 

 my cahin heated as high as 50 or 60 degrees, 

 and sometimes upward, though I am liable to be 

 called upon deck or even to the mast-head, at a mo- 

 ment's warning. 



In these frigid regions, the scurvy becomes a 

 very alarming disease. It is, however, rarely seen 

 in a Greenland ^ship, and is chiefly known to be 

 destructive here, from the miserable manner in 

 which many individuals have perished, by attempt- 

 ing to winter in Spitzbergen and the neighbouring 

 countries. It seems, however, pretty certain, that 

 this disease is not so much influenced by the seve- 

 rity of the climate, as by the use of improper ali- 

 ment. From an excellent paper on this subject, 

 by Dr John Aikin, published in the Memoirs of 

 the Literary and Philosophical Society of Man- 

 chester, we may very satisfactorily deduce the con- 

 clusions following : — 



That the intense cold which prevails, is probably 

 the proximate cause of the scurvy attacking persons 

 attempting to winter in arctic countries. 



That the mode of living is nevertheless of such 

 essential importance, as to be capable of either 

 bringing on or repelling the attacks of the disease. 



That the use of salted provisions and spirituous 

 liquors, form a regimen the most inimical to health, 

 by inducing a state of the body so liable to the at- 

 tacks of the scurvy, that under all recorded instan- 

 ces, this disorder, in all its severity, has constantly 



