Observations on the Diseases of Seamen. Sir Gilbert Blane
We shall hereafter see reason for supposing that fever and dysentery proceed from the same cause; and as both these ships arrived from England in a similar state with regard to health, fevers would probably have been the prevailing disease in both; but a part of the 87th regiment, then serving as marines in the fleet, was put on board of the Torbay at St. Christopher’s, and some of them being ill of the dysentery, gave this turn to the disease which afterwards prevailed on board. I have formed a Table to shew the fluctuating state of these two diseases, and this was one of my first and most imperfect attempts towards a medical history of the fleet in a methodical way. (Table III.)
There was but little sickness in the rest of this squadron, except in the Terrible, where the dysentery prevailed a good deal. None of the ships of the line which we found in the West Indies, upon our arrival there, were now in company, except the Yarmouth, and this was the most healthy of all the ships that went to North America.
The health of the fleet was very much recruited by its short stay in America; for the men were supplied with fresh meat and spruce beer, and they enjoyed the two finest months of the year in that temperate climate. The squadron left New York in the middle of November, and though dispersed by a violent storm, all the ships arrived safe in the West Indies before the middle of December.
In October the fleet had attained such a degree of health, that though the calculation in the Table is made from five of the most sickly ships, no death happened in this month on board of any of them. In November the mortality was also inconsiderable, though the ships left in the West Indies are included in the calculation; which, had it been made upon those only that went to North America, the deaths would have been no more than one in seven hundred and eleven in this month, which is rather less than that of any other month in the Table.
The amendment in health, in consequence of the change of climate, was most remarkable in the Terrible, which, by the time she left America, had entirely got rid of the violent dysentery that had prevailed for some time on board. This sudden change in the health of this ship was evidently owing to the great attention of the Captain to cleanliness and discipline, and no less to the assiduity and abilities of the Surgeon. The Alcide still continued sickly, though not so much so as the Torbay. The former had sailed on a cruise in October, and having met with very rough weather, the sick list was thereby increased. The dysentery now prevailed in that ship, as well as fevers, and those men chiefly were attacked with fevers who were ill of the scurvy, or recovering from it. This was not very common; and there were several other remarkable particulars with regard to the fevers in this ship; for her men were not only uncommonly subject to this disease, both in America and the West Indies, but to all the various forms of it; the low, infectious, ship fever of Europe, the bilious remitting, and the malignant yellow fever of hot climates. It would appear from this, as well as other instances, that a ship may assume, as it were, a particular constitution, or a tendency to some particular disease, for a length of time, and this depending on some lurking and adhering infection, or the manner in which she may have been victualled, watered, disciplined, or manned.
The great benefit derived to the health of the fleet, from the change of climate, as well as other reasons, justified the Admiral in going to North America; and there was the more merit in this measure, as it was undertaken without precedent, and without instruction. Upon our return we found there was great good fortune in it, as well as wisdom; for there had happened on the 10th of October a more violent hurricane than any in the memory of man, and the ravage it made both by sea and land is, perhaps, unparallelled in history. Several of the ships of the line were exposed to it; but though they suffered extremely, and were in the utmost danger, none were lost. Two of them happened to be at Antigua, which was out of the track of this hurricane, as it extended only from the 12th to the 15th degree of N. latitude; so that the only islands