NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
1031 
Diseases of the Digestive System. 
In this subdivision are included sixty-nine cases of diarrhoea, generally of a mild 
description, which were in nearly every instance due to excessive heat or to “leave” 
in places where the sanitary arrangements were bad. Bahia, Bermuda, Manila, Hong 
Kong, and Yokohama were the places where the majority of cases occurred. Three cases 
of dysentery also occurred, two at Sydney where the exciting cause was probably 
contaminated water, and one at Ascension where, notwithstanding the most careful 
attention to sanitary measures, the disease is endemic, being probably due to climatic 
influence. 
Poisoning. 
Two deaths arose from this cause, one from alcohol and the other (suicidal) from 
chloral hydrate. 
Wounds and Accidents. 
Two deaths were caused by drowning, and one by fatal injury of the head in a boy 
who was caught by the dredging rope, which broke as he was stepping across it and 
dashed him violently against the hammock nettings. He sustained a fracture of the 
skull and severe injury of the brain, and lived only a few hours afterwards. One 
dislocation of the shoulder, one fracture of the fore-arm, and one of the lower jaw complete 
the list of more serious injuries that occurred. 
Besides the diseases, &c., herein specified there were many cases of a trifling nature 
which it is unnecessary to particularise, the foregoing enumeration embracing all cases 
of any interest which occurred during the Commission. 
