in relation to Diet. 229 



From such information as I have been able to collect, I am 

 disposed to think that they are. It is well known that fish- 

 ermen and their families, living principally on fish, are com- 

 monly healthy, and may I not say above the average ; and I 

 think it is pretty certain, that they are less subject to the 

 diseases referred to than any other class, without exception. 

 At Plymouth, at the public dispensary, a good opportunity 

 is afforded of arriving at some positive conclusion, — some 

 exact knowledge of the comparative prevalency of these dis- 

 eases in the several classes of the community. The able 

 physician of that institution, my friend Dr Cookworthy, at 

 my request, has had the goodness to consult its records, and 

 from a communication with which he has favoured me, it ap- 

 pears that of 654 cases of " confirmed phthisis and of hae- 

 moptysis, the probable result of tuberculosis," entered in the 

 register of the dispensary, 234 males, 376 females, whose 

 ages and occupations are given individually, the small num- 

 ber of four only were of fishermen's families, — one male and 

 three females, — which is in the ratio of one to 163*2 ; and of 

 watermen " who fish with hook and line, when other work is 

 scarce, generally very poor, and of habits generally by no 

 means temperate or regular," the number, including their 

 families, did not exceed eleven, of whom ten were males, one 

 a female, which is in the ratio of one to 58*8. The entries 

 from which the 654 cases are extracted, Dr Cookworthy 

 states, exceed 20,000. He assures me, that had he taken 

 scrofula in all its forms, the result would, he believes, have 

 been more conclusive. 



Such a degree of exemption as this return indicates in the 

 instances of fishermen and boatmen, is certainly very re- 

 markable, and deserving of attention, especially considering 

 the prevalency of tubercular consumption, not only in the 

 working classes generally throughout the United Kingdom, 

 but also amongst the regular troops, whether serving at 

 home or abroad, and having an allowance of meat daily, but 

 rarely tasting fish.* 



* In 1205 fatal cases, not selected, in which the lungs were examined at the 

 General Hospital, Fort Pitt, Chatham, tubercles were found to exist in 734 

 (61 "7 per cent.) See the author's " Notes on the Ionian Islands and Malta," 

 vol. ii., p. 312 ; for details. 



