6 Remarks on Damp Decks, and other Circumstances 



pressed, and the body has to encounter the ill effects of the sud- 

 den transition from heat to cold, particularly from its long con- 

 tinuance. These observations are in every sense applicable to 

 the predisposed or susceptible to tubercles, and those diseases 

 by which it is generated. 



Spirits and the stronger acids evaporate speedily, and are, to 

 use vulgar language, not vehicles of cold ; therefore it is that 

 they obviate the implied effects of it, in stimulating or astringeing 

 the exhalants and integuments of the head, when the hair is cut, 

 or the head or other parts of the body become wet. That the 

 muriatic acid, &c. contained in sea-water, thus stimulate or 

 astringe, in a certain degree, the exhalants and skin, and thereby 

 overcome the antagonizing agencies of their vehicle, cold water, 

 and the consequent sudden and continued abstraction of calorific 

 from the feet and legs, is in many cases very reasonable to be- 

 lieve ; but the privation too long continued counteracts the sa- 

 lutary effects of the stimulating qualities of the acids, induces a 

 change of action in the vessels, and disturbs the circulation. 



Moreover, the state of the air of ships from damp decks op- 

 poses the cure of acute inflammatory diseases, by unremitting 

 aggravations, and by counteracting the intended effects- of a most 

 efficient class of medicines, sudorifics. It is the bane of all chronic 

 complaints, especially chronic rheumatism, the inseparable con- 

 comitant of old grog-drinking sailors. It is unfavourable to the 

 cure of ulcers, and really inimical to the cure or palliation of tu- 

 bercles, and the pulmonic inflammations by which, for the most 

 part, it is produced. 



It is judiciously ordered that partial draughts of pure atmo- 

 spheric air be communicated to the lower decks and places of 

 ships in the navy, and that this should at all times be attended 

 to, even though the decks are not washed. This perhaps is the 

 only practice which can be entirely depended on for the extrica- 

 tion of foul air, and therefore should, when practicable, supersede 

 the use of fumigations, which, in my humble opinion, rather 

 tend to conceal than to decompose or dispel it. 



I ca'inot have done with this subject without introducing the 

 following strange remarks, from the recent work of an excellent 

 writer on that grand portion of the earth : 



Semper soli rubens et torrida semper ab igni ;" 



nor can I refrain from offering a doctrine different from his, 

 after the liberty which he has expressly and courteously given in 

 the Sabine strain, viz. 



Si quid noviiti rectius istis, 



Candidus imperii: si non, his utcre mecum." 



"In 



