858 CAUSE AND TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 



moon-blindness ; but these men positively assured 

 me that thej^ had not slept with their faces exposed 

 to the moon's rays. Again, it disappeared on their 

 near approach to land ; and at one time they were 

 completely relieved of it by the use of Irish pota- 

 toes. The men themselves attributed the malady 

 either to the tarroe root, of which thev had consumed 

 a large quantity on the voyage, or else to their water, 

 which, as they stated, had been for a long time 

 brackish and unwholesome. I am inclined to think 

 that it originated from the bilge-water ; for a similar 

 case from this cause came under my notice some 

 years since. 



■ Whilst amongst the Abrolhas', I was called upon 

 by the captain of the Europa to administer to a Por- 

 tuguese, whose eyes were affected by sleeping in the 

 moon's rays. I bled him, and applied blisters to the 

 temples. This treatment produced almost instan- 

 taneous relief. I informed the Messenger's people 

 of this ; but their captain was one of the old school, 

 who believing that all the ailments mankind are heir to 

 can be cured by salts, would employ no other remedy; 

 and, whether the disease was a cold, a fever from a 

 broken or dislocated member, or what not, his pre- 

 scription was a full dose of it, whereof he constantly 

 kept a large quantity on hand, of the denomination 

 known as Glauber salts, used ashore for horses. 



On the 16th we gammoned with the ship Mar}^, 

 of New Bedford. Her captain requested me to go 

 aboard of her, and administer to her cooper, who had 

 for a long time been very sick. In compliance with 

 his request I did so. In her steerage I found the 

 wreck of an unusually symmetrically-formed man, 



