in the Medical (Economy of Ships. 5 



sable ? or, does it arise from a mere ostentatious principle of 

 useless refinement in bleached hammocks, which, through self- 

 conceit and contrast, glut the eyes of such as virtually have the 

 superintendence of them? 



The quarter and main decks are washed every morning at four 

 o'clock, or at day-break, by those who slept-in during the mid- 

 dle watch, or from twelve until the same hour ; and the lower 

 decks of frigates, and orlop decks of line-of-battle ships, are 

 washed twice, or, at least, once a-week throughout the year. 



I will not presume to determine how often, or precisely when 

 the decks of ships should be wetted ; but, by the way, simply ob- 

 serve that the time should be regulated by intervening circum- 

 stances ; and the less the necessity, and the drier the ship, the 

 healthier it is for ships' companies. 



In ships of-the-line, the oeconomv of the sick-bay rests with 

 the surgeon. But as it is comparatively small for the number on 

 an average sick, the patients who have not room to sleep in it, 

 must lie between decks, with the regulation of which he has no- 

 thing to do. In frigates the sick are also under the necessity of 

 sleeping on the main deck, unscreened from the strong partial 

 draughts, as well as unprotected from the rude jostle of the 

 thoughtless. These are very sensible of the great alteration of 

 temperature from the early opening of the ports and wetting or 

 W£ishing of the decks. This sudden alteration of temperature is 

 frequently as much or more than ten degrees. Those who per- 

 chance are partially uncovered, instantaneously awake, from the 

 sensations induced by the change, or, if they do not, they are likely 

 to suffer by it; because an immediate alteration of temperature 

 to, or beyond this degree, is known to be generally productive of 

 inflammation. 



In detached services, and in long cruizes and voyages, while 

 such a system of washing and slopping prevails, and to which 

 every sacrifice is made, need the dreadful consequences be pointed 

 out ? It is nonsense to say that it makes men hardier, or ob- 

 viates an unnatural tenderness. A learned philosoj)her and in- 

 genious moral writer, in his inimitable essays, succinctly points 

 out, with his usual discrimination, the dangers arising from the 

 fallacy of such notions. 



There are many on board ships variously affected, who yet do 

 not apply to the surgeon for relief, through the fear of being stig- 

 matized as sculkers, or the greater fear of having their allowance 

 of wine or spirits withheld. Such have their hectic exacerbations, 

 and have to turn out of their hammocks, as the phrase is, on these 

 occasions, and strut about the decks for two hours or more, in 

 cold water half way up their legs, handing or dashing it along by 

 buckets full ; l)y which the perspiration Ijctumc^ suddenly ^up- 

 A li pressed, 



