132 
VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 
1820. circle touching the halo, which sometimes reached almost to the zenith, 
and changed the intensity of its light very frequently, not unlike the Aurora 
Borealis. 
I received this morning the first unpleasant report of the scurvy having 
made its appearance among us : Mr. Scallon, the gunner of the Hecla, 
had for some days past been complaining of pains in his legs, which 
Mr. Edwards at first took to be rheumatic, but which, together with the 
appearance of his gums, now left no doubt of the symptoms being scor- 
butic. It is so uncommon a thing for this disease to make its first ap- 
pearance among the officers, that Mr. Edwards was naturally curious to in- 
quire into the cause of it ; and at length discovered that Mr. Scallon’s bedding 
was in so damp a state, in consequence of the deposit of moisture in his 
bed-place, which I have before mentioned, as to leave no doubt that to this 
circumstance, as the immediate exciting cause, his illness might justly be 
attributed. The difficulty of preventing this deposit of moisture, and the 
consequent accumulation of ice, was much greater in the officers’ bed-places 
than in those of the men, in consequence of the former being necessarily 
placed in close contact with the ships’ sides, and forming an immediate com- 
munication, as it were, with the external atmosphere ; whereas, in the latter, 
there was a vacant interval of eighteen inches in width interposed between 
them. To prevent, as much as possible, therefore, the injurious effects of 
this evil upon the health of the officers, I appointed certain days for the 
airing of their bedding by the fires, as well as for that of the ships’ companies. 
Every attention was paid to Mr. Scallon’s case by the medical gentlemen, 
and all our anti-scorbutics were put in requisition for his recovery: these con- 
sisted prineipally of preserved vegetable soups, lemon-juice, and sugar, 
pickles, preserved currants and gooseberries, and spruce-beer. I began also 
about this time to raise a small quantity of mustard and cress in my cabin, in 
small shallow boxes filled with mould, and placed along the stove-pipe ; by 
these means, even in the severity of the winter, we could generally ensure 
a crop at the end of the sixth or seventh day after sowing the seed, which, 
by keeping several boxes at work, would give to two or three scorbutic 
patients nearly an ounce of salad each daily, even though the necessary 
economy in our coals did not allow of the fire being kept in at night. Had 
this been allowable, and a proper apparatus at hand for the purpose, there is 
no doubt that it might have been raised much more rapidly : and those who 
are aware how perfect a specific a very small quantity of fresh vegetable sub- 
