USE OF METEOaOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS TO NAVIGATORS. ^| 



tlie daily and alarming vicissitudes of the weather? And when 

 the results of our meteorological observations had pointed, 

 out the true etiology of this kind of epidemic, would they not 

 have led a sagacious observer to the means, equally simple 

 and efficacious, which the natives of this coast, afflicted no 

 doubt by such fatal changes, have contrived to diffuse around 

 them, to obviate their dangerous effects? means which were 

 probably the fruit of too long experience, and too long mis- 

 fortunes to these rude people*. 



By the assistance of the same instruments how often should Ordering uf 

 we be led to act with more cnulion in regard to expos-ing ^'a^'nc.cks, 

 the seamen to the weather, and the daily practice of ordering 

 up all the hammocks ! How often might we not introduce Regulaiioas cf 

 with equal advantage and facility some salutary variations '^'* 

 either in the distribution of the provision, or in the succession 

 of the various aliments, with which a ship is furnished ! On 

 aeing daily the thermometer sink instantaneously several de- Washing 

 grees, and the hygrometer indicate 8° or 10° of additional ^ ^* 

 moisture, precisely when, by order of the captain, the deck, 

 forecastle, quarterdeck, and great cabin, had just been slui- 

 ced with sea water for the purpose of cleaning them, what 

 commander, less opinionative than ours, but would have been 

 eager to put a stop to such a fatal practice ? what officer but 

 would have preferred simple dry scraping to those monstrous 

 ablutions with salt water, which daily filled the interior of 

 the ship with a damp and cold atmosphere, and in my opinion 

 contributed not a little to the rise of that terrible epidemic 

 scurvy, which destroyed our crew on the coasts of Napoleoa 

 Land, and Van Diemen's Land ? 



They who are unacquainted with the minutite of long Attention t» 



vova<jes may think most of these precautions useless : but if l'"^® circum- 

 . r. 1 ■ 11 111 Stances na- 



they reflect on the importance attached to them by the most portant. 



celebrated navigators, and particularly by the most successful, 



they will be convinced, that an attention to a multitude of 



little things, apparently indifferent, especially if considered 



singly, form the essential basis of that science of preserving 



the health of seamen, sanctioned by the valuable success of 



* For an explanation of this passage, see chap. XXX of the Nar- 

 rative of our Voyage, where I have described the singula: habitations 

 %f the people of £ndracht*s Land. 



Bougainville, 



