assistance. The priests which were embarked aboard them held to the honor, 

 even though their duties had never been exactly defined, of devoting themsel- 

 ves, body and soul, not only to the crew of their own vessel, but always and 

 everywhere, to the thousands of fishermen who, far from family and home 

 church, suffered a severe moral isolation. In the 18th century, the Order of 

 Saint-Francis supplied the Naval Station, as well as the royal navy, most of 

 the priests. Under the regime following the French Revolution, lay priests 

 succeeded the religious ones. Both were, in general, entirely devoted to 

 their duties; they were men of action, in whom a rough and ready exterior 

 did not conceal a high conscience in their mission of comfort and guidance. 

 They were an eminently beneficial influence among the fleet of the great fish- 

 ery. 



Medical aid played, from the origin of the Naval Station, a basic role in 

 its functions, for the surgeons of the royal navy, shipping on the guard boats 

 sent to Newfoundland, as well as the doctors of the national maritime, which 

 succeeded them, were true "doctors", on the banks and on the French Shore. 

 Doubtless it was beyond their power to treat all the sick in the enormous pop- 

 ulation of fishermen in Newfoundland. They more or less attempted to diag- 

 nose the case in order to enforce the necessary rest and to prescribe to the 

 captain the treatment to apply. In more serious cases, the man was taken 

 aboard the vessel and transferred to the colonial hospital at Saint-Pierre, on 

 condition that the case was not infectious. 



Besides this work, which they carry out as official functions, the doctors 

 shipping on the vessels of the Naval Station also inspect the quality and quan- 

 tity of food on the fishing vessels, as well as checking the hygienic measures 

 prescribed by law. 



The medical chest has been, since the beginning of this activity, one of 

 the principal objects of inspection. Until recently these were full of sur- 

 prises, for the captains considered as perfectly superfluous this chest of in- 

 struments and products the use of which escaped their meagre knowledge. 

 Besides fraudulent substitutes, which were common in the old days but which 

 had become practically impossible under the regime of inspection at depar- 

 ture, it happened that the medicine chest, emptied of its contents, was used 

 for all sorts of unforeseen purposes. One cites the relatively recent case of 

 a captain who was using the chest in his care as a box for his dog! One should 

 add that acts of this nature are exceptional today, most of the captains making 

 good use of the medical supplies with the aid of the manual of "Medical 



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