1871.] 



Change of Climate on the Human 'Economy. 



309 



The passage to Cape York, however, again increased the general sym- 

 ptoms of an impaired physique (Table XII.), thus proving the existence of 

 a constant ebb and flow in the state of health during long voyages. 



Table XII. — To show the effect of a voyage of 230 days on the weight. 



Average temperature, England 50° F., Equator 88° F., Sydney G2° F.. 

 Cape York 80° F. 



1st weighing, Januarv 9, 1864. England, 1 .-> n f 50 in the tropics, 



2nd „ August 10, 1861, Gape York, j ' J ' JU aa ^ 3 \ 180 in temp. zone. 



Salt meat issued on 156 days 



(with 73 lime-juice daysf 

 Fresh meat issued on . . . 74 „ 



Food consumed per man daily. 



lb. oz. drs. 



Average of first week ... 1 12 13^ 

 last „ ... 2 8 7 | 



Age. 



Total 

 number 

 weighed. 



Number 

 and 

 percentage 

 unchanged. 



Number 

 and 

 percentage 

 who gained. 



Range 



of 

 gain. 



Ave- 

 rage 

 gain. 



Number 

 and 

 percentage 

 who lost. 



Range 

 of 

 loss. 



Ave- 

 rage 

 loss. 



15 to 25 

 25 „ 35 

 35 „ 45 

 45 „ 55 



61 



35 

 7 



per cent. 

 7=11-48 

 1-2-86 



per cent. 

 18 = 29-51 

 8 = 22-86 

 2=14-29 



lb. 

 1-19 

 1-16 



1-2 



lb. 

 7-11 



4-87 

 1-5 



per cent. 

 36 = 59-01 

 28 = 74-28 

 5 = 7143 



lb. 



1--32 

 1-22 

 6-23 



lb. 

 6-1 

 654 

 13-8 



















Totals 

 and per- 

 centages. 



103 



8=7'77 



28=27-18 



1-19 



536 



67=65*05 



1-32 



6-83 



Y 



36 = 35 per cent. 



Thus, though 55 days in all were spent at Madeira, Simons Bay, Sydney, 

 and Brisbane, on a health-giving fresh meat and vegetable diet (see Table 

 VI), and lime-juice freely given, the monotony and confinement of 175 days 

 at sea, with 156 salt-meat days, a double exposure to the tropics, and fre- 

 quent changes of temperature, had increased the number who had lost 

 weight since leaving England to 65 per cent. — a decided index of failing 

 health and near approach to disease, and perhaps the scorbutic climax. 



Similar fluctuations in weight, subsequently observed in the larger crew 

 of H.M.S. 'Bristol' during a voyage of 88 days from England to Bahia 

 (lat. 1 1° S.) and back, are equally interesting and instructive (Table XIII). 



Thus the warm weather and salt-meat diet of the first 57 days caused 

 85 per cent, to lose weight, which rose to 88 per cent, as the time lengthened 

 to 88 days. The return to the north temperate zone, however, speedily 

 reduced this to 47 per cent. As the diet w r as the same, the latter event 

 must have been purely climatic — an opinion confirmed by the subsequent 

 effect of 28 days' harbour-life in England, when the number wdio lost went 

 down to 10-7 per cent., no fewer than 89 per cent, regaining flesh and 

 more than making up for the previous loss. 



