Medicine. ^89 



the destructiveness of the Scitrvij in ships on long 

 voyages, in armies, particularly in garrisons, as 

 well as in some regions of the high latitudes. 

 Towards the close of the period under examina- 

 tion, that dreadful disease has been disarmed of 

 all its violence, and seems now to be completely 

 reduced under the dominion of the healing art. 

 This revolution has been effected by procuring for 

 persons in the situations above mentioned more 

 comfortable shelter, cloathing and food. Fresh 

 meats substituted for salted, and vegetables plen- 

 tifully supplied, especially the vegetable acids, 

 may be considered among the principal means of 

 prevention and cure. The citric acid, in particu- 

 lar, has accomplished wonders in this disease; and 

 the late discovery of crystallizing it renders the 

 remedy conveniently portable to any distance, and 

 capable of preservation in all climates and seasons, 

 and for any length of time. The eminent services 

 of Dr. LiND in improving our knowledge of this 

 disease can never be forgotten. The philosophic 

 and enterprising Captain Cook was the first who 

 reduced the improvements in nautical medicine ta 

 practice, in all their extent, and with complete 

 success/ 



Pestilential diseases are supposed to have greatly 

 abated in frequency and malignity in the course of 

 the eighteenth century. This observation, how- 



e In the first voyage for the establishment of the East-India CompanT^ 

 out of four hundred and eighty men one hundred and five died of scurvy^ 

 before they reached the Cape of Good Hope. Lord Anson, in his voy- 

 age round the world, lost, from the same disorder, four-fifths of his origi- 

 nal number. Those who have read the narrative of his expedition, by 

 Robins, will recollect the dreadful picture which is drawn of the ravages 

 of this disease, in the vessels under his command. Captain Cook, thirty- 

 years after Anson, with a company of one hundred and eighteen men, 

 performed a voyage of three years and eighteen days, throughout all the 

 climates, from 52 deg. north, to j% deg. south, with the loss of only one 

 man, who had been previously indisposed. See Dr. Ramsay's learned 

 and interesting Rdvleiv of the hnprovcmenti^ Prorrrsi! ami Si'-iie "/ ^edi^int "» 

 the Eighteenth Cffntury, &c. p. ?8 and 30. 



