Some account of the diseases that prevailed in two voyages to the East Indies, in the Carnatic East-Indiaman, during the years 1793-98; together with observations and medical remarks, in a series of letters to John Hunter / by John Milne.

  • Milne, John, 1775-1841.
Date:
1803
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the diseases that prevailed in two voyages to the East Indies, in the Carnatic East-Indiaman, during the years 1793-98; together with observations and medical remarks, in a series of letters to John Hunter / by John Milne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    18/178 (page 8)
    We enjoyed an uninterrupted ftate of good health until the fhip reached the Cape of Good Hope., which we pafled in the depth of winter. Here feveral men were again af- fe6led writh flight feverifh attacks,, which, how- ever, proved of little confequence. Our com- mander, ever fludious to preferve to his ut- mofi the health and comfort of his fliip’s company, now ordered a warm breakfaft for the people, compofed of flour boiled to the confidence of thick gruel, with the addition of molafles and fpirits, which to men who have been for four hours upon a cold, and fometimes wet deck, is not only a very ac- ceptable thing, but highly conducive to the prefervation of health, ftrength and vigour, and probably on that account one of the heft preventatives of fcurvy, and what, un- der fimilar circumftances, I would recommend never to be neglected. About three weeks before we arrived in India, after having been at fea nearly three months and a half, fymptoms of fcurvy began to make . their appearance. The recruits, who all flep upon the orlop-deck and had by this means efcaped fome fevere attacks of fever on a former occafion, were thofe that now principally fuffered from this difeafe. Two of them upon our arrival at Madras, on the 12th of September, were in a