A few Remarks on the diseases of Seamen. 255 



1.7 per cent., and the absence of fatal cases in 1844, the 

 favourable results are attributable to the very sparing way in 

 which general blood-letting was practised, to the free use of 

 local bleeding and blistering, and to the early exhibition of 

 quinine.* In October and November there was a good deal 

 of gastric irritability, and the acuteness of pain in the loins 

 complained of by the patients was unusually great. In one 

 instance, after a slight attack of remittent fever, the spleen 

 was affected, but it was found that the patient had formerly 

 suffered from ague at Gravesend. Intermittent fever, as has 

 been remarked by others, appears to be unusual among the 

 seamen frequenting this port. 



Small-pox. — A few cases were admitted, when this disease 

 was so prevalent in the earlier part of the year : all the men 

 had been vaccinated when children, yet it will be seen that 

 the proportional mortality was very great. Though it did not 

 occur in a hospital patient, it may not be out of place to men- 

 tion here a curious fact which fell under my notice in a private 

 patient. There was a single well-marked small-pox pustule 

 fully developed on the hand, at the time when the premoni- 

 tory fever commenced, and before there was a trace of any 

 eruption elsewhere. 



Cholera. — It is a very rare thing to have an opportunity of 

 treating this disease in its earlier stage. A sailor usually lies 

 on the damp deck for some hours during the night, before his 

 comrades are aware of his illness ; and then a few more hours 

 are lost by the miserable system of sending for the doctor who 

 has contracted to attend the ship. When a man is really 

 dying, it is thought time to send him ashore. Of the ten 

 fatal cases, seven died within nine hours after admission. In 

 one instance, the exciting cause appeared to have been the 

 drinking two table spoonsful of cream of tartar in water ; in 

 another, the exhibition of an emetic on board ship. No satis- 



* The character of the fevers must have altered much, for the mortality for the 

 four years ending with 1840, averaged 8 per cent, per annum. 



2 L 



