ON THE EXTERNAL USE OF COLD WATER. 343 



some favourable opportunity ; which did not happen till I 

 was on my passage from Jamaica to England. 



On the 1st of August 1777, I embarked in a ship bound 

 to Liverpool, and sailed the same evening from Montcgo Bay. 

 The master told me he had hired several sailoi*s on the same 

 day we took our departure ; one of whom had been long at 

 sick quarters on shore, and was now but in a convalescent 

 state. 



August 23., we were in the latitude of Bermudas, and 

 had had a heavy gale of wind for three days, when the above- 

 mentioned man relapsed, and had a fever, with symptoms of 

 the greatest malignity. I attended this person often, but 

 could not prevail with him to be removed from a dark and 

 confined situation to a more airy and convenient part of the 

 ship ; and as he refused medicines, and even food, he died 

 on the eighth day of his illness. 



By my attention to the sick man, I caught the contagion, 

 and began to be indisposed on the 5th of September, and 

 the following is a narrative of my own case, extracted from 

 notes daily marked down. I had been many years in Jamaica, 

 but. except being somewhat relaxed by the climate and fa- 

 tigue of business, I ailed nothing when I embarked. This 

 circumstance, however, might perhaps dispose me more readi- 

 ly to receive the infection. 



September 5th, 6th, 7th, small rigors now and then, — a 

 preternatural heat in the skin, — a dull pain in the forehead, 

 the pulse small and quick, — a loss of appetite, but no sick- 

 ness at stomach, — the tongue white and slimy, — little or no 

 thirst, — the belly regular, — the urine pale and rather scanty, 

 — in the night restless, with startings and delirium. 



September 8th, every symptom aggravated, with pains in 

 the loins and lower limbs, and stiffness in the thighs and 

 hams. 



I took a gentle vomit on the second day of this illness, 

 and next morning a decoction of tamarinds ; at bed-time, an 



