Instruction", called "paper medicine", in which is especially written up 

 for their use the proper application of the medical and surgical materials 

 at their disposal. 



It was to combat these deplorable customs which constituted, aboard 

 the French sailing vessels, a flaunting of the most elementary principles of 

 hygiene that the commanders of the naval station and their delegated author- 

 ities had to constantly employ their powers of general surveillance. Many 

 reports have been written on this subject, such as that of a marine doctor 

 who, after numerous visits on the fishing vessels, wrote: 



"Hygiene is the least worry of the bank vessels. It is unknown. A com- 

 plete absence of cleanliness, neatness, clean air; in summary: foulness 

 pervades to an unimagineable degree. The cod is first; it alone receives the 

 most minute care. 



"As to the crew quarters: a dark hole, stinking walls, dirty floors, no 

 provision for light and air from the exterior, whence escapes an indescrib- 

 able odor which stops you in your tracks. 



"There are 15, 20, 25 men holed up in a space always too small for the 

 number. They wear their dirty clothes which soon give off an odor as thick 

 as the fog outside; here they take their meals, emptying on the floors the 

 dregs from the soup bowl or glass of wine, the bones of fish, doing even more, 

 perhaps, in order to avoid going up to the deck at certain hours of the night. 

 The bunks are dark holes, the mattresses never exposed to the air, reeking 

 with blankets perpetually damp. The floor is covered with a slimy layer 

 which is never cleaned. A cabin boy is officially assigned this duty; but, 

 once on the bank, he works on the cod like everyone else, and the men, re- 

 turning aboard from the dories, go to their bunks at once and learn quickly 

 to ignore the dirtyness everywhere. " 



Doubtless one must admit that the pursuit of the fishery on the bank, 

 with the work of preparing the fish, is hardly compatible with neatness on 

 the vessels. If one finds, sometimes that good conditions exist on the small- 

 er American and Canadian vessels which are subject to the same conditions 

 as the French, one can say that the brief trips of these vessels permit them 

 to be kept in proper condition.. But on the Portuguese vessels which have a 

 fishing season as long as the French vessels, and which are equally large in 



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