NA TURE 



505 



THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1877 



THE ARCTIC BLUE-BOOK 



THE admirably illustrated volume which has just 

 appeared in this uninviting form, tells a tale of 

 adventures as interesting and heroic as anything in the 

 long record of Arctic discovery. It throws little light on 

 the question to which public attention has been too 

 much directed this winter — whether any of the misfortunes 

 of the expedition were due to the officers who started 

 the sledge p arties without adequate supplies of lime- 

 juice. The report of the Scurvy Committee will ap- 

 pear m a few days. In the mean time it is clear that 

 every pound weight on the sledges was calculated with 

 the utmost care ; that wherever anything was to be 

 used in a fluid state an adequate corresponding supply 

 of fuel needed to be carried ; that none of the ofificersj 

 judging from the experience of previous sledge ex- 

 peditions, seem to have anticipated scurvy ; and above 

 all that the work of all the parties on and at the 

 edge of the hitherto untrodden Palasocrystic sea proved 

 so frightfully severe that if lime-juice in abundant 

 rations had been taken the sufferings of the men 

 would probably have been only mitigated. It is to 

 the severity of the work, not to the absence of lime- 

 juice, that we believe the terrible outbreaks of scurvy 

 which crippled the sledging parties to have been really 

 due. In Commander Markham's Journal, written on the 

 spot a month out from the ship, he says, " The invalids 

 are not improving, and we are inclined to believe that 

 they are all attacked with scurvy, though we have not been 

 led to suppose that there is any probability of our being so 

 afflicted and are ignorant of the sy7nptomsJ' Swollen 

 knees and ankles are of frequent occurrence in all Arctic 

 sledging expeditions, and they were prepared to expect 

 as much. Scurvy had scarcely been thought of, and the 

 fact that it had not been thought of by officers whose lives 

 and the lives of their men depended on their forethought, 

 and who had studied the experience of their predecessors 

 with anxious care, is sufficient to show that, i priori, there 

 was little or no probability of its appearance. After the 

 erience of Markham's, Aldrich's, and Beaumont's 

 ies, no future travellers over the " Palasocrystic " will 

 X their lime-juice, but these officers seem all to have 

 unprepared for scurvy. Aldrich says in his journal, 

 day out : — 



' The men are nearly all suffering a great deal with 



fir unfortunate legs, which appear to get worse every 

 This we all feel to be very disappointing, as it 



tots the journey, and although stiff hmbs were expected, 

 ^Jryone thought the stiffness would wear off in time. It 

 I seems, however, inchned to hang on, and sets at defiance 

 iaU the limited medical skill we possess among us, and to 

 |scorn succumbing to turpentine liniment, bandages, good 

 •elbow grease,' &c. With regard to bandages, I am 

 lalmost afraid to apply them, for some of the limbs are 

 Inotatall healthy looking ; the slightest pressure of the 

 l&nger leaves a dent which remains a considerable time ; 



' although I have given the most stringent orders 

 libout lacing the foot gear on very slackly, I find the 

 loosest moccasin string cuts an ugly, red-looking mark. 

 JDne or two cannot even bear anyone to lie against them, 

 irhich makes it excessively inconvenient at night, although 



Vol. XV.— No. 389 



everyone is very good tempered, and complaints are 

 reduced to a minimum." 



Lieut. Beaumont's party was accompanied by Dr. 

 Coppinger till May 4, and Beaumont says : — 



"It was at the end of this journey, May 6, that J. Hand, 

 A.B., one of my sledge crew, told me in answer to my 

 inquiry as to why he was walking lame, that his legs were 

 becoming very stiff, he had spoken to Dr. Coppinger 

 about them, but attributing the stiffness and soreness 

 then to several falls that he had had, he did not think 

 much of it, before that officer's departure ; now, however, 

 there was pain as well as stiffness, and both were in- 

 creasing. I directed him to use liniment before he turned 

 in, which he afterwards said made him better." 



This was the first beginning of scurvy, but even a 

 medical officer attached to the expedition had obviously 

 supposed it the mere common swollen leg and ankle of 

 ordinary Arctic sledging. Beaumont goes on : — 



" On coming into camp I examined Hand's legs, and 

 found the thighs discoloured in patches, and from his 

 description of the stiffness and pain I suspected scurvy. 

 / had no reason to expect it, indeed I had never thought 

 of it, but the striking resemblance of the symptoms to the 

 ones described in the voyage of the Fox, as being those 

 of Lieut. Hobson, who suffered severely from scurvy, sug- 

 gested it to my mind, and my suspicions were confirmed 

 by Gray, the captain of my sledge, an ice quartermaster, 

 who, in his whaling experience, has seen much of it. He, 

 however, led me to believe, at the same time, that it 

 would probably wear off, saying that many of the men in 

 whale ships who have it lying ' 'twixt the flesh and the 

 bone all the winter,' as he expressed it, wear it off by the 

 regular exercise and work of their occupation when the 

 spring comes ; it was a good sign, he said, that it should 

 come to the surface. Thus, from the 7th until the loth I 

 waited, hoping that his words might prove true. I was 

 very reluctant to order Lieut. Rawson to return, it was 

 like sending back half the party ; it would be, I felt, a 

 great disappointment to him to turn back then, and his 

 advice and assistance would be a very great loss to me, 

 but the indications of the disease and their aggravated 

 nature became too plain to be misunderstood — sore and 

 inflamed gums, loss of appetite, &c., all pointed too 

 clearly to scurvy ; so on May 10 it was arranged that 

 Lieut. Rawson, with his party, should take Hand back, 

 deciding, on his arrival at Repulse Harbour, whether to 

 cross over to the Alert or go on to Polaris Bay. I at the 

 same time called upon the remainder of my men to say 

 honestly if they suspected themselves to be suffering from 

 the same disease, or could detect any of its symptoms, as 

 in that case it would be better for the party to advance 

 reduced in numbers than to be charged with the care of 

 sick men. I did this because two of them had complained 

 of stiff legs after the hard work on the snow»slopcs, but they 

 all declared themselves to be now perfectly well, and most 

 anxious to go on." 



So much for the scurvy question. The Blue-Book 

 makes it manifest that neither the commanders of the 

 sledge parties nor Captains Nares and Stephenson, nor 

 Dr. Coppinger suspected that the sledge parties would be 

 in danger of that terrible disease. 



The most interesting part of the story is told in the 

 daily journals kept by Markham, Aldrich, and Beaumont. 

 No reader of these simple and modest records will doubt 

 that " the ancient spirit is not dead" which has carried 

 the Union Jack in triumph over every ocean, and planted 

 it wherever honour and danger were most surely to be 

 found. 



Markham and Aldrich left the Alert on April 3, tra- 



