A report on the hygienic condition of the mercantile marine in the Port of London / by Harry Leach.

  • Leach, Harry.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on the hygienic condition of the mercantile marine in the Port of London / by Harry Leach. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    sanitary questions are brought to their notice, and there is much truth in their protestations that it is seldom possible to keep a clean forecastle. In many instances, indeed, it appeared impossible from personal inspection to say when the bunks, deck, and sides of the forecastle had been last washed, scrubbed, or swabbed. The men frequently turn in as they stand,, close any ventilators that may exist, and lie in a stifling atmosphere, and in many instances in wet clothes until their watch recommences. There is also great carelessness, often amounting to culpable negli- gence, in sending sick seamen from the ship when she arrives in port. The medical officers of the Seamen's- Hospital have much practical experience on this head. A man is frequently sent to that hospital, having spent- two days in his bunk after the vessel has come to moorings: and a case recently occurred in which three Swedes were admitted from a barque lying in the port, all of whom had been ill with fever for upwards of three days. A great many instances of tins kind of neglect were brought to light during the ship-to-shipj visitations of 1866, when men were found in their bunks unfit for duty on account of other diseases than diarrhoea and cholera, and induced by the visitors to go to the hospital. Prompt removal is in such cases the more necessary, as coasting vessels are not compelled bp law to carry medicines and medical stores, so that for the most part vessels are unprovided with any kind of so-called disinfectants, and thus the importation of a case of fever into a tier of vessels occurs under circum- stances specially favourable to the spread of disease. I am willing to concede all that can be urged by masters and mates as to the apathy of seamen, and