FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 335 
the lad would ever see his home again. In three days 
he was completely cured, by taking the pills prescribed 
for him ; he took them three times a day, two at each 
time. I watched the preparation of the pills used in this 
case, and the doctor showed me that the ingredients were 
bread and impure water. 
The surgeon or doctor, as he is commonly called on 
board ship, has often to prescribe for cases of intermittent 
or continuous attacks of laziness. In former years the 
cure for this complaint was of a rough and ready nature, 
and only effective to a slight degree. With the ad- 
vance of the science, a certain oil has been discovered, 
a few drops of which administered to the patient are 
warranted to keep him on the hop for a week. But 
on this ship there have been absolutely none of these 
patients, but quite the reverse. Men really ill, have kept 
struggling out of bed to work in the frost and cold even 
when dangerously ill, going in the boats in the snow and 
cold when they ought to have been lying wrapped up in 
their bunks, slaving at oars and flinching diseased skins 
witlj cut and festering hands, standing for days on the 
slushy deck in the wind and snow, 'making off* with 
every muscle cramped with rheumatism. All this work 
they do, and suffer all this pain and unspeakable discom- 
fort, not altogether because they are driven to it, but 
because they share an infinitesimal proportion of the pro- 
fits of the voyage. — So much for co-operation. 
I think it can be seen that the surgeon's duties on 
board a sealer are no sinecure. He has to work like 
the rest of the crew in the boats or at the wheel, for a 
* 
