Observations on the Diseases of Seamen

I shall here mention another unusual remedy in intermitting fevers; and though I can bring only one instance in proof of its efficacy, yet this is so strong as to make it deserve farther trial. A man, on board of the Sandwich, had an obstinate intermittent which had resisted the bark, and was stopped by applying to the stomach a plaster, composed of gum plaster, epispastic plaster, and opium, in proportions which I do not now recollect.

110

Sir John Pringle on the Diseases of the Army.

111

This is elegantly expressed as follows, in Sir George Baker’s learned Dissertation on this disease: – “Primo neglectus tractatu asperior occurrebat: etenim corpus extenuatum atque confectum ut morbo fervido impar erat, ita ipsi impar curationi. Itaque optimum erat occurrere ipsis principiis atque auxilia mature præripere. In hoc enim corporis affectu aliquod certe in medicina opus est, haud multum in naturæ beneficio.”

112

In Dr. Griffith’s form of his medicine for the piles, six drachms of fresh-drawn linseed oil are joined with two drachms and a half of the vinous tincture of rhubarb, and given twice a day in a draught. I commonly used oil of almonds at the hospital. This may be considered as another instance of those useful combinations of medicines, which experience alone sometimes discovers. I have found it of use also in other internal hæmorrahages.

113

See Diseases of the Army, p. 273. 6th Edit.

114

Since coming to England, I have been informed by Dr. Garden, a learned and ingenious practitioner from South Carolina, that this medicine, in order to produce its proper effect, should be given in a very weak decoction; for that after having almost abandoned it in consequence of its failure when he gave it in strong decoctions, and in substance, he was again convinced of its efficacy by using it in a very weak decoction, a scruple being boiled in a pint of water to half a pint.

115

See page 345. A fact mentioned in Capt. Cooke’s Voyage to the North Pacific Ocean, may be also alledged in favour of this opinion. He remarks, that the Kamschadales, who were habituated to hard labour, were free from scurvy, while the Russians and Cossacks, who were in garrison in their country, and led indolent lives, were subject to it.

116

I was informed of this fact by Mr. Cairncross, an ingenious surgeon belonging to one of the battalions that served there during the siege.

117

I imagined that this was a new practice; but I find, since the first edition of this work was printed, that it has been recommended by Pere Labat in his voyage to the Antilles.

118

There is a symptom which takes place when men are beginning to recover from scurvy, (particularly when the cure is rapidly effected by the use of lemon and orange juice) upon which I have frequently reflected, but for which I have never been able to account. This consists in acute pains, which are felt in the breast and limbs, resembling rheumatic pains. I once knew the crew of a ship which was much affected with scurvy, and had about ninety men under cure by lemons and oranges, who were most of them affected with this symptom in one night, and made such a noise by crying out as to alarm the officers who were upon duty.

119

See the Medical Essays of Edinburgh. Sennertus, lib. iii. part i. sect. ii. – Haller Elem. Physiolog. lib. xix. sect. ii.

120

In the Princessa, 1781, and the Nonsuch, Prince George, and Royal Oak, in 1782.

121

Since this was first written, the melancholy tidings have arrived of another case to be added to this fatal list. It is that of the amiable and gallant Lord Robert Manners, who commanded the Resolution on the 12th of April, and having lost his leg, besides receiving a wound in his arm and breast, died of this untractable symptom on his passage to England; and though he shared a fate to be envied by every lover of true glory, his loss can never be enough deplored by his country and friends, being formed by his great virtues and accomplishments, joined to the lustre of his rank, to hold out an example of all that was good and great as a man and an officer.

122

See Kaau Boerhaave’s account of this epilepsy in a school at Harlaem, in a book, entitled Impetum faciens dictum Hippocrate per corpus consentiens (page 355.) A fact of the same kind is also related in a pamphlet, entitled Rapport des Commissaires chargés par le Roi de l’examen du Magnetisme Animal.

123

London Medical Observations and Inquiries, Vol. VI.

124

Medical Commentaries, Vol. III., and a Thesis printed at Edinburgh, 1784.

125

See experiments on a heated room. Philosophical Transactions, 1775, Vol. LXV.

126

That species of locked jaw, called by authors the Trismus Infantium, to which children are liable the first week after birth, is probably owing to the contact of the external air upon the skin, which is accustomed in the womb to a moist and warm medium.

127

Aretæus Cappadox says, that tetanus in general is even more apt to occur in winter than in summer. De Cauf. & Sign. Morb. Acut. lib. i. cap. vi.

128

There are several valuable practical remarks on this complaint in some of the ancient authors, especially Aretæus. Their principal means of cure consisted in the application of warm oil to the whole surface of the body, particularly of the part affected. This author also recommends clysters of warm oil, occasionally combined with a medicine called hiera, which consisted of certain spices and gums, with some purgative, such as aloes or colocynth. Aretæus Cappad. de Curat. Morb. Acut. cap. vi. Celsus, lib. iv. cap. iii. Goræaus in vocabulum,ἱερα.

129

This is a fact which does not admit of doubt; but the manner in which the effect is here produced is a matter of conjecture. It is most probably owing to the compression and tremor of the air in consequence of its resistance to the motion of the ball. We can also conceive, that, with regard to an yielding part, such as the stomach or abdomen, a body flying with great velocity may even, for a moment, displace a portion of it by passing through the same space, without any other mechanical injury than contusion, in a manner similar to what happens to two balls in the act of collision in philosophical experiments made to illustrate the nature of elasticity; or the compressed air may even, in this case, act, as it were, like a cushion, preventing the sudden impulse and contact of the ball. This explanation furnishes a reason why the parts of the body above mentioned should be more liable to be affected by accidents of this kind than the head. Perhaps this difference may also, in part, arise from the principle laid down by Mr. Hunter, that the stomach is more essential to life, and more immediately the seat of it, than the head or any other member or organ of the body, and that an injury to this part is more immediately destructive of life than any other.

130

The honourable Captain Fitzroy.

131

Colonel Markham.

132

Animals are affected by these accidents as well as men. A cow in one of the ships was killed in one of the actions in April, by a double-headed shot passing close to the small of her back.

133

Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ excerpta est.

134

Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ deprompta est.

135

Vide pag. 408.

136

Vide pag. 409. Hæc formulæ ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti.Thomæ excerpta est. sed vice confectionis Damocratis hodie obsoletæ, adhibentur confectio aromatica & opium purificatum, ratione habitâ ad portionem fingulorum adeo ut parem edant effectum ac in vetere formulâ.

137

Vide pag. 456.

138

Ex auctoritate Cl. Huck Saunders.

139

Ex auctoritate Cl. Huck Saunders.

140

Ex auctoritate Cl. Lind.

141

Vide pag. 479.

142

Vide pag. 489.

143

Ex auctoritate Cl. Heberden apud Cl. Pringle in opere suo de morbis castrensibus.

144

Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœiâ Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ, excerpta est.

145

Vice olei ricini dare licet olei amygdalæ unciam unam cum tincturæ sennæ unciâ dimidiâ. Vide Pharm. Nosoc. Sti.Thomæ.

146

Hæc formula ex auctoritate Cl. Griffiths. In periculis a me ipso factis felicissimum successum ex hoc medicamento percepi.

147

Hoc medicamentum speciatim his hæmorrhagiis accommodatum quæ ex aliquo viscere læso vi externa exoriantur quales in nave sæpius quam alicubi accidere solent, ex præcipitiis & ex corpore colliso a molimine machinarum & tormentorum. – Prodest quoque in his casibus pulvis ipecacoanhæ compositus.

148

Hæc formula ex Pharmacopœia Nosocomii Sti. Thomæ deprompta est.

149

Hæc est quam proxime formula a Cl. Mead legata Nosocomio Sti. Thomæ ubi olim munere medici functus est, & ibi ex eo tempore usque hodie feliciter in hydrope adhibita est.

150

Cl°. Huck Saunders qui dyspnœâ hydropicâ laboravit ipse, auxilio notabili erat hoc medicamentum. In talibus malis interdum summopere prodest decoctum digitalis purpureæ, ut medicus supra memoratus in suo casu compertus est. – Vid. Medical Transactions, Vol. III.

151

Vide Cl. Pringle in opere suo de morbis castrensibus.

152

Hujus doctrinæ auctor est Hippocrates, quæ restaurata est auctaque a Cl. Milman in opusculo suo de hydrope.

153

Hæc methodus medendi quæ æque efficax ac simplex est, primo excogitata fuit a Cl. Georgio Fordyce medico nosocomii Sti. Thomæ, ubi & ipse felicissimo cum successu eandem expertus sum, in muneribus meis ibi fungendis.

154

Vide opus Cl. Johannis Hunter de morbo venereo.

155

Vires opii in isto morbo primo innotuerunt ex experientiâ Cl. Nooth, dum præfuit nosocomiis militaribus in America, & pro optimo remedio a peritissimis medicis & chirurgis jam habetur.

156

Non hic intelligitur ptyalismum veram esse causam quâ efficitur medela morbi, sed præcipitur ut pro argumento sit hydrargyrum in vasa minima permeasse adeo ut effectum edat in subigendo morbo. Vide Opus Hunteri.

157

Hunter’s Experiments.

158

Mr. Hunter’s Lectures.

159

See page 437-8.