C *99 3 
X. Account of the remarkable Effects of a Shipwreck on the 
Mariners ; with Experiments and Observations on the Influ- 
ence of Immersion in fresh and salt Water , hot and cold, on 
the Powers of the living Body. By James Currie, of Liver- 
pool, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians at 
Edinburgh. Communicated by Thomas Percival, M. D. 
F.R.S. 
Read April 19, 1792. 
The following narrative is submitted to the Royal Society, 
as containing in itself some curious circumstances, and as hav- 
ing suggested the experiments afterwards to be recited. 
On the 13th of December, 1790, an American ship was cast 
away on a sand-bank that lies in the opening of the river 
Mersey into the Irish Channel. The crew got on a part of 
the wreck, where they passed the night ; and a signal which 
they made being discovered next day from Hillberry Island, 
a boat went off, though at a great risk, and took up the sur- 
vivors. The unfortunate men had remained twenty-three 
hours on the wreck ; and of fourteen, the original number, 
eleven were still alive, all of whom in the end recovered. Of 
the three that perished, one was the master of the vessel ; ano- 
ther was a passenger who had been a master, but had lost or 
sold his ship in America ; the third was the cook. The 'bodies 
of these unfortunate persons were also brought off by the men 
Irom Hillberry Island, and were afterwards interred in Saint 
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