THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID NAVAL HYGIENE. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM DR. R. T. C. SCOTT, ASSISTANT MEDICAL DIRECTOR-GENERAL, R. N. " I cannot adequately express the great value I attach to the work of Dr. Wilson, on Xaval Hygiene, which you have been so kind as to send to me, for it completely supplies a M-ant which has been long felt, not less in our own service than in yours, and I sincerely trust that cither the original edition, or one re- printed in this country, may be supplied to every medical officer in our IS'aval and Mercantile Marine Servjow ^;-./;;:, ' ...' • " The representations of tropical fruits are no less faithful than beautiful." .. '' To Surgeon-General Wm. Maxwell; Wood, U. S. N. NAVAL HYGIENE. HUMAN HEALTH MEANS OF PREVENTING DISEASE. ILLUSTRATIVE INCIDENTS PRINCIPALLY DERIVED FROM NAVAL EXPERIENCE. BY ^^SffiPH WILSON, M.D., DIRECTOR U. S. NAVY, EDITION. WITH COLORED LITHOGRAPHS, ETC. PHILADELPHIA: LINDSAY & BLAKISTON. 1879- Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1879, By Joseph Wilson, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. ; all rights reserved. SHKKMAN A CO., PRINTKUS. 1^"^^ 8'c^^' PREFACE. The plan and object of this work have not materially changed. Not intended exclusively for the use of medical officers, it has been found very useful in imparting information to others, to whom, in many contingencies, questions of vital importance must eventually be referred. Thus the business of the medical officer is greatly facilitated. "A little knowledge" is found to be a very good thing, the more of it the better ; it is so very much better than mere ignorance. A few botanical illustrations have been added, selected partly from Pereira, some of the poisonous plants from Fonssagrives ; and their elegant appearance is principally due to the good taste of Mr. Hugo Siebold. Some important reforms, previously insisted on, have been so far accomplished, that it is thought convenient at present to be very brief in their discussion. This affords an opportunity to in- troduce important new matter, without too much increasing the size of the volume. HOLMESBURG, PHILADELPHIA, January, 1879. iVi35eG50 KXTllACT FROM THK PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The present work was prepared for publication, ^ith tlic hope of being useful to some of those who are so situated, that their conduct may have great influence in the preservation of human health. Such are the captains of ships on long voyages, who, without such information as we have attempted to give, are liable to destroy the health and consequent efficiency of their ship's com- pany, by ignorance or inattention to some apparently insignificant circumstance, which they may easily understand. As the work is not intended exclusively for the professional reader, it was necessary to keep within the compass of a moderate sized volume, and to avoid subjects too abstruse or too technical for the general reader. I have tried to discuss intelligibly, and as fully as consistent with the general plan, the leading principles of hygienic management. CONTENTS. PAGE iNTRODttCTORY, 13 Chapter 1. — The outfit — The ship, 17 II. — Drainage — Pumps — Bilge-water — Iron ships — Paint, . . 23 III. — Receiving the Crew — Man overboard, 31 IV.— The sea— Rolling and Pitching 39 V. — Seasickness 42 YI. — Social influence — Nostalgia, 46 VII.— Clothing— Small stores, 50 VIII.— Food— The ration, 55 IX. — Arrangement of meals — Nuti-ition in general, 66 X. — Drink: Rain water — River water — Spring water — Well water — Poisonous water, 71 XL — Purifying and preserving water, 78 XII. — Alcoholic and vinous drinks — Rum, 83 XIII. — Other drinks — Aromatic — Acidulous — Farinaceous, ... 89 XIV. — The preservation of food, 94 XV. — Zoology : Carnivorants — Pachyderms — Ruminants — Ceta- ceans — • Birds — Reptilians — Fish — MoUusks — Articu- lates—Radiates, 103 XVI. — Botany — Polypelatous Exogens : Ranunculacese, Magnoli- acese, Anonacea?, Sarraceniacese, Papaveraceje, Crucifera?, Capparidacetie, Malvaceae, Aurantiaceoe, Geraniaceae, Anacardiacese, Vitacese, Leguminosse, Rosacea^, Myrtaceae, Cactaceae, Passifloraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Umbellifera?, . .119 Monopelatous Exogens : Rubiaceae, Loganiaceae, Apo- cyneae and Asclepiadaceae, Compositse, Lobeliaceae, Ericaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Labiatae, Convolvulaceae, vSolanacefe, 131 Apetalous Exogens : Lauraceae, Euphorbiacefe, . . . 140 Gymnosperm Exogens : Coniferae, Cycadaceae, . . .145 Spadiceous Endogens : Palmaceas, Araceae, 145 Petaloid Endogens : Bromeliaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Liliaceae, Melanthaceae, 147 Glumaceous Endogens : Grasses, 149 Cryptogamia : Poisonous plants, 149 XVII. — Vera Cruz — Liberty on shore — Habits, 151 XVIII. — Ventilation — Cleaning, 155 XIX. — Quarantine — Homeward bound — Sudden changes of Climate, 165 X NAVAL iivr the influence of the forces of the universe upon the material Avorkl, by which we are surrounded. Heat, light, and electricitry are the principal forces constantly present to our thoughts. These are probably modes of motion in a material that pervades the universe, as far as the most distant visi- ble star, as incomjiressible as water, and many thousands of times lighter than hydrogen. We must wait for some future Newton or Ampere, to demonstrate and reduce to more simple formulae, more of the characters of these forces — the proj^erties of this all- pervading form of matter. Besides their controlling influence on climate, we are familiar with their controlling power over health and life in many ways. We may be injured or killed by lightning ; we may be burned or frozen, besides suffering other injuries from variations of temperature. In regard to the in- fluence of light, our information is not so precise. People living in dark places are pale, and are supposed to be sickly and weak, as jiotatoes growing in the cellar are pale and weak ; but Avork- nien in coal mines are not always weak, and if they are shorts lived, there are other circumstances to account for it. We are greatly in want of more precise information on the physiological action of light. The atmosphere is a very important and complicated subject of study. It is composed of mixed gases in nearly uniform pro- portions, and an infinity of minute particles of almost every XIV NAVAL hygiexp:. substance in natni-c. N'ai-iations in the proportions of gaseous constituents are important, and when excessive, occasionally fatal to life ; but slight variations, such as frequently occur, seem to be without serious influence on health. The chemical examina- tion of the leading constituents is easily enough made ; but the minute quantity of almost unknown matter, sometimes causing disease and death, is, for the most part, beyond the reach of chemical research. The contagion of variola may be smelled, but chemical analysis does not reveal its presence. The same mav be said of typhus. Other infectious matter is known to be present in tlie atmosphere, not by the smell, not by chemical analysis, but by the fact that persons inhaling the air of a certain locality, at a certain time, are subsequently affected by a specific disease; as in cases of scarlatina and rubeola, typhoid and cholera, yellow fever and the malarial fevers. Chemical analysis, how- ever, is of essential importance, for contamination ^vitll dangerous infectious material, under certain circumstances, goes on in pro- portion to the change in leading constituents. In ordinary respiration the air is deprived of oxygen, and contaminated by excass of carbon-dioxyde, very nearly if not exactly in the same proportion as it is contaminated hy pulmonary and cutaneous ex- halations. We are hoping for more information from the microscope. The air everywhere is full of floating particles, some of them, in the sunbeam, visible to the naked eye. They vary in size from the thousandth of a centimeter (M .00001) to objects infinitessimally minute. Some are mineral particles; some, fragments of all kinds of organic material, of wool and feathers and hair, of silk and grass and flax — the species and amount depending principally on the locality. But, besides these, there are an in- finity of distinct organic forms, — the pollen of flowers, the spores of fungi and other cryptogams, even entire plants, the grains of starch, and other objects much more minute, which have never been specifically recognized. It is suspected that some of these minute objects are the poison germs of variola, scarlatina, typhoid, typhus, malaria, yellow fcrer, and nearly all the other infectious diseases received through the atmosphere, ft has been objected INTRODUCTORY. XV that these poison germs have not been recognized, perhaps never seen; but the objection should not discourage hopeful inquiry, when we consider the vast amount of evidence pointing in this direction. For it is a constant miracle of our race, that stout men and women, by proper nourishment and proper surround- ings, are developed from an organism so minute as not to be seen bv the most powerful microscope. This particle of minuteness after some growth, is seen by a microscope magnifying a thousand diameters, as a mere speck. In a few days more it is big enough to show definite size and form under the microscope; and yet this minuteness is the potential man or woman of determined features, even to the color of the hair and size of the nose, the predisposition to drunkenness or epilepsy, phthisis or insanity. Who then shall say that specific poisons in the air are not definite organisms, merely because no one as yet has detected them? The spread of infectious diseases is in accordance with the theory of definite organisms, floating like thistle-down through the air. Such movement would capriciously plant them on the individual, the danger increasing very rapidly with the nearness of the source (inversely as the cube of the distance). If it were a case of the diffusion of poisonous gases, or other matter soluble in the atmos- phere, all should be poisoned, the severity of the disease being in proportion to the amount of the poison inhaled. It is thus with known poisons, as the fumes of arsenic and phospiiorus, lead and mercury, hydrogen-sulphide and zinc. Our most re- liable test at the present time, of the presence of poisons in the atmosphere, is the fact that persons visiting the suspected locality suffer from the sjjecific disease. How else do we know that cer- tain marshes are malarious ? How else do we know that variola and rubeola and typhus are contagious ? Sometimes we know that the atmosphere is impure, and even judge of the kind of impurity by the sense of smell. Sometimes we judge by chemical analysis. Sometimes we know that poisons are being thrown into the air from certain manufactories. Water comes next in phvsiological importance; it is a principal constituent of the human body, so that we constantly need it for nourishment. When water for domestic use is grosslv bad, we XVI NAVAT- HYGIEXE. are likely to be informed by tlie color, smell, or taste ; and our powers of discrimination in this respect, may be greatly increased by the careful cultivation of our senses, so that they often give us very precise information. The microscopic examination of water is fruitful in important results, not often of itself, but in connection with other circum- stances. The presence of a fibre of cotton or linen, silk or wool, is of itself unimportant, but it indicates, with great probability, that human filth from a leaky drain is mingled with the water. But nearly all water, good and bad, contains a multiplicity of visible objects — some unimportant, as the earthy particles con- stituting mud. jNIany living things are nearly always present and cannot indicate harm, but only that the water is not quite bad enough to kill them. Two or three species are present only in good water, as almost any kind of impure water destroys them. Some species are much more common in dirty or marsh water ; some are positively dangerous, such as the joints and eggs of tape- worm and other entozoa. JNIany are so small and so regularly rounded in form, as not to be easily distinguished from each other. Some, doubtlessly, are so minute as to escape observation altogether. The chemical examination of water is, perhaps, still more im- portant, and so far as possible, should always be quantitive. Chlorine is always present in small quantities without much sig- nificance, but any considerable increase of the quantity in water from any particular source, indicates probable contamination by sewage. The mineral constituents always present in varying minute quantities, are doubtless useful as mitriment; but varying proportions of these, so far as we know, are of no account. The greater or less pro]:)ortion of organic matter in solution, is an im- ])ortant matter to determine, though the importance is not always in proportion to the amount present, for water contaminated by peat is generally wholesome, while nuich less contamination by sewage is very dangerous. Thus in order to determine the char- acter of water, it is necessar}* to consider all these circiunstances — source, sensible ciiaracters, chemistry, and microscojn'. The rcidlv bjul rharncter oi' \\;tt(>r, sometimes, can onlv be determined IXTRODUCTORY. XVll by having persons drink of it. Sucli is water contaminated by tyjjhoid infection. Of course we do not propose this method of testing suspected water ; but people will perform this experiment on themselves, in spite of us, and we may have an opportunity to observe the result and to record it. The facts we possess, demon- strate that very small quantities of organic matter in water may produce terrifically fatal epidemics, while very much larger quantities of other organic material may do no appreciable harm. Food and clothing likewise require chemical and microscopic examinations, — sometimes with reference to crime, such as sus- pected poisoning, or more frequently mere swindling. Every board of health has employment for an expert chemist, with the conveniences of a small laboratory. Naval Hygiene is popularly considered as the art of preserving health on board ship, and thus we might have naval hygiene and city hygiene, a special hygiene of farmei"s and of merchants, of weavers and of tailors, of carpenters and of masons, of millers and of lapidaries. Popular treatises on this plan and on these several subjects have been found exceedingly useful. But human health is so nearly the same everywhere, that to the student of science there is no special hygiene. The hygiene of the weaver is merely a chapter of general hygiene, illustrated by the study of the effect of inhaling dust and working in a confined atmos- phere. The hygiene of the carpenter supplies opportunities to observe the effect of varied out-door exercise, with occasional ex- posure to dust in close apartments. The house-painter's hygiene is similar, with the addition that he handles and inhales more or less of his poisonous paints. But what condition of life is free from the occasional inhalation of dust, of poisonous fumes, of confined or otherwise impure atmosphere. And so of Naval Hygiene. It is but a contribution to general hygiene, with some of its illustrations drawn from incidents of naval experience. Since this work has been in press, I have visited some parts of the State of Colorado, and have had some curious experience in illustration of the above view of the case, and reminding me that the prophylaxis of hydrophobia belongs to naval hygiene. In the City of Pueblo, in the forenoon, I was walking on * * will XAVAL HYGIENE. the east side of the principal avenue, looking at objecte in the shop windows, when suddenly I felt something at my elbow, and there wfus a great black dog "which had seized me from be- hind. He pinched pretty hard and tore through three thick- nesses of cloth. The dog evidently belonged to a wagon, the horses of which were tied to an awning post, and he had probably been trained to defend his master's wagon in this manner, for in the course of a minute or two that I remained in the nearest store, he attacked several other persons in the same manner, always retreating under his wagon. The dog and his owner were taken care of by the witnesses and the bitten. The arm, on first examination, was thought not to be wounded at all, the only apparent harm being a little pinching and tear- ing of clothes. This, however, did not quite satisfy me, especially as I felt a smarting point on the surface, and l)y a closer inspec- tion with a pocket lens, it was evident that the cuticle was slightly abraded. Here are the characteristic particulars of the causation in the majority of the cases of hydrophobia ; if I should suifer, the dog is evidently mad ; if I should escape, the dog, of course? is a healthv dog — an unconnnonly good dog zealously defending his master's property. To avoid needlessly alarming friends I sought a tinsmith, in order that with a white-hot soldering-iron, this little speck of skin might be converted into smoke and ashes; but, so far as I could learn, there is no tin worker in the city, and a friend did me the favor to burn the spot with a cigar, which he puffed vigorously to make a glowing end, and he ap- plied it several times. The part Avas deeply burned, hardened, and blackened, but not removed. The next morning at Colorado Springs, the sight of a blacksmith shop reminded me that hot iron may be found even in Colorado ; and as fire insurance is considered reasonable prudence against a minor misfortune, I made up my mind to be reasonably prudent in regard to the hydrophobia risk, l^ut the hot-iron in the smith's shop seemed a little too dramatic, the smith might refuse, and I found a physician who did mo tlic favor to dissolve the injured tissue by means of strong nitric acid. If the others were not otherwise wounded than tliroiigli several thi<'knesses of ch)thing, and if INTRODUCTION. XlX they were as cautiou.s — we shall probably hear no more of this dog's doings. After this long digression, it may be well to continue the sub- ject a little longer. Docs the prevention of hydrophobia belong to the subject of naval hygiene ? Yes, or at any rate the emerg- ency has occurred in naval experience. In 1846, in California, by command of Commodore Robert Stockton, there was formed a regiment of mounted riflemen — an amphibious little army on horseback. While encamped v/ith this naval force at the Mission of San Juan Batisto, about midnight, I was aroused from sleep by my companion, who informed me that he had been bitten in the foot by a mad dog. Luckily he slept with his boots on, and the fangs did not penetrate the leather. But, notwithstanding a pretty general alarm of the camp, three men were actually wounded ; two in the face and one through the hand. I have to reproach myself Avith inefficiency in the care of these cases. T knew of the terrific death to be apprehended, and was aware of good authority for amputating the hand, but this seemed too strong a measure, and besides it left two aises unprovided for. The good spirit did not remind me of the hot-iron, which, with the help of the horse-shoer, I might readily have applied. The remedies actually used w^ere so much like nothing in this serious emergency, that they need not be mentioned at all. No further serious result occurred to the men, who remained under observa- tion for nearly a year. An account of these cases exists in the medical liLstory of a cruise of the U. S. Frigate Savannah, on file in the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. To complete the his- tory of my experience on this subject: — In 1840, Charles Baker, of Philadelphia, teased a pet dog till after much snapping it finally bit his finger. He gave it a cuff for its crossness, and thought no more of the matter. It afterwards bit two children that had been accustomed to play with it. Baker became my unhappy patient and died of hydrophobia. Am. Jour. Med. Set. In 1851, in the same neighborhood, Henry Bender found liis pet dog in the stable, very cross with his horse. It bit the horse and himself too, before he succeeded in driving it away. It likewise bit a child before he was able to give the alarm. Mr. B. soon XX NAVAI. HYGIENE. after died of hydrophobia. The oliild escaped, and is now a healthy Avoman more than thirty years old. Here we liave a record of (9) nine persons wounded by the bites of dogs ; (5 ) five of these were bitten by mad dogs, and one of the five died of liydropliobia ; (4) four, including myself, Avere bitten by dogs supposed to be healthy until the subsequent de- velopment of disease, and one of the four died of hydrophobia. These few numbers thus placed, suggest the possible fallacy of some of our statistical tables constructed without a proper analysis of the records from which the numbers are taken. Some of them are constructed without any record whatever of important inci- dents necessary to any useful analysis. This valuable modern method of study, from want of due consideration, has already imposed some fallacies upon the world. ITAVAL HYGIEITE. CHAPTER I. THE OUTFIT THE SHIP. (1.) In the summer of 1860, I reported at the Phihidelphia navy yard for sea-service. The first duty is to obtain a suitable outfit of medicines, surgical instruments, disinfectants and deodor- izers, and other needful appliances ; and this having been properly attended to, we leisurely survey the ship which is to be our home for a year or two or more. (2.) The form of the ship is controlled by the circumstance that it must be propelled through the water with the greatest facility. Every other consideration gives way to this ; and hence the form is the same in all ages and in all countries. There is less variety of internal arrangements than would readily be im- agined. Thus, in a very small vessel we have simply the hold, with a single deck over it. When the vessel is larger there are added one, two or more decks, like the stories of a house; the hold is divided into several parts by transverse partitions, and the space between decks into store-rooms, sleeping-rooms, and cabins. These we examine in detail. (3.) Beginning above, we have first the spar-deck, which in our ship carries the battery. This is the only place where we can be in the open air at sea. It is, hence, the place of a little daily exercise for the whole ship's company. The seamen get their exercise by their regular work, and the officers by walking back and forth as they find it convenient. (4.) The after part of the spar-deck, partitioned oft', is the cabin — the appropriate residence of the commanding officer. This 2 18 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 7. apartment being well ventilated, lighted by good-sized windows, and neatly kept, is all that can be desired in healthful arrange- ments, and being occupied by a single person, is relatively large. The forward part of the spar-deck, in most ships, is protected by the forecastle — a small triangular deck, which is exceedingly useful in stormy weather, aifording shelter to the men employed in this part of the ship. Our ship has no forecastle, but the hurricane-deck, over the engine and between the wheel-house, answers the same purpose. (5.) Next below the spar-deck, in a frigate or larger vessel, is the main gun-deck, appropriated to the accommodation of the bat- tery. It is the sleeping-place of a great part of the crew ; and havino- the large gun-ports at the sides, and hatches in the deck above, it is perfectly ventilated. The after part of this deck is partitioned off to afford apartments for a commanding officer — for the admiral, if there is one on board. This apartment is simi- lar to the spar-deck cabin in regard to light and ventilation. The line-of-battle ship has another gun-deck below the first, but it is so near the water-line that the side-ports must generally be closed at sea ; and having two decks above, the deficiency of air and light begins to be seriously felt. It is a region of poor air and comparative darkness. The after part of this deck is partitioned off to form the ward-room — the apartment of most of the com- missioned officers. But the ship that now interests us has no gun-decks. (6.) Next below the spar-deck of the smaller vessels is the berth-deck This is occupied by the crew. The arrangements for ventilation are good, much better than formerly. Instead of the large square gun-ports of the frigates, there are circular air- ports about seven inches in diameter, and so high from the water that they can generally be kept open, except in stormy weather. The after part is the ward-room. This apartment is quite neat, and has a range of small rooms on each side ; each room, about six feet square, is appropriated to an individual officer. These are the officers' staterooms, where each one, according to his in- dividual taste or fancy, accumulates a wonderful amount of con- veniences and comforts. (7.) Below the berth-deck is the orlop, below the water-line, so dark and so poorly ventilated as not to be habitable. It is used § 9. ] THE WINGS — THE HOLD. 19 for store-rooms, which are arranged on the sides of a narrow central passage. The forward part of this deck is the yeoman's store-room, used to store various small things frequently called for. It is occupied much of the time by the yeoman. No light penetrates here, even at noonday, except the light of lamps and candles. It has one small hatch, generally covered by a grating to prevent accident, and even by a tarpauling ; and there is no corresponding hatch in the spar-deck, lest rain should get down. The door is in part of open work, but this is mostly obstructed by a curtain — the curious inhabitant of the place holding ventila- tion in such contempt that he thus cuts off the very deficient sup- ply. This room is always neatly arranged, and with such atten- tion to ornament that it is one of the places of chief attraction to visitors ; but it cannot be otherwise than unhealthy, and its strange occupant is conspicuous for his pale, sickly look. He has so much attachment to his submarine abode that he is generally compelled to close it at a certain hour, and to pass a portion of his time on the spar-deck. We think it would be advantageous to have the hatch gratings of this apartment, and indeed all the gratings of the ship, except on the spar-deck, made of metal instead of wood, so that they might possess the necessary strength with the least possible obstruction to the circulation of air. (8.) There are likewise narrow passages — the wings of the orlop — leading batik of the store-room on each side, so as to separate the stores from the damp sides of the ship. The wings might be well ventilated by flues in the heated bulkhead, which separates them from the engine-room. Such an arrangement would give pretty good ventilation to the whole orlop forward, and would greatly contribute to the preservation of the stores. (9.) The hold is the lower part of the ship. It is damp, poorly ventilated, and it is used for general storage. It is divided by transverse partitions to suit various requirements. Commencing aft, there is first the powder-magazine. This is kept dry and neat for the preservation of powder, and calls for no special attention from us. The sail-room comes next, and to it the same remark is applicable. There are in many ships of war, in all large ones, an additional sail-room and magazine forward. Forward of the sail-room is the spirit-room, the most dangerous part of the whole ship. It is used for the storage of molasses, vinegar, cheese, and 20 NAVAL HYGIENE. [§11. Fig. 1. Spirit-room. various other articles of provisions. Heterogeneous fragments and leakage are likely to form an offensive mass of putrid mud at the bottom ; and this division of the hold being rather small, has but one hatch, which is generally closed, so that it is not much more ventilated than the interior of a well-corked bottle. It al- ways has a peculiar offensive odor, which can only be corrected by ventilation and good order in all the arrangements. (10.) The engine-room occupies a mid- dle section of the ship from the floor up- wards. A leading peculiarity of this part is its high tempera- ture. The eno;ineers are doino; whatever can be done to obviate this inconvenience, by abundant ventilation, and by covering the boilers and other heated parts of the engines with thick masses of felt and wood. A serious mistake has sometimes been made, by securing the machinery to the floor in such a way that the drainage was not sufficient, and there were spots which it was impossible to clean. Under these circumstances, pools of mud and grease from the engine have accumulated, and have been the cause of disease, especially of yellow fever, whenever the vessel has been a few weeks in a warm climate {La Roche). The diffi- FlQ. 2. Floor of Steamships. culty has been remedied only by removing the machinery and rearranging it in such a way that every spot underneath could be reached for the purpose of cleaning. (11.) The main-hold, forward of the spirit-room and the engine-room, is the great storehouse of the ship ; and the storage and care of it are of the first importance to health. Constant § 14. ] THE CHAIN-LOCKERS THE HOSPITAL. 21 attention is required to prevent fragments of packages, chips, barrel hoops, and miscellaneous dirt from getting beneath and out of retich. The iron water-tanks are very advantageous in this respect, as they can be so arranged as to form a nearly level floor, and the joints between them can be calked in such a way that dirt cannot possibly settle between them. With barrels and casks it is otherwise, for with them the dirt cannot be kept out. The hold is provided with two hatches, near the ends, for conve- nience of storage and access ; and the arrangement is really of great advantage for ventilation. The hold should always be stowed, with a passage on each side, reaching from the main to the fore-hatch, large enough for a man to pass through. With both hatches uncovered, there is then sure to be a little more pressure of the atmosphere at one hatch than at the other, and thus a good ventilation current is established without further attention. (12.) The chain-lockers are sometimes so constructed that mud brought up by the chains, reaches the bottom of the ship, to be a nuisance and to obstruct the pumps. These lockers should be made of plank, well fitted and calked, so that if the chains in- troduce any mud, it may be cleaned out and thrown overboard. (13.) We see nothing of prison or hospital, because, in fact, there are no such apartments on board. If it should be attempted to allot space to prisoners, such as is deemed necessary for the preservation of health elsewhere, they would be at least five times better off in this respect than the rest of the crew. The prison is an allotted place for the prisoner to sit, generally between two guns, in charge of a sentry. (14.) The sick on board ship, commonly occupy the same sleep- ing-place as when they are well. When they are unable to do this, a cot is provided and swung in the best place, the man dis- placed by the arrangement changing places with the sick man. In frigates and the larger vessels, there is a triangular space from the foremast forward, called the sick-bay or hospital, large enough to contain four or five cots. This answers a good purpose, as the worst cases are thus withdrawn from the noise and confusion of the berth-deck. But the place is poorly ventilated, and in cases of serious illness, it is usual, as a matter of necessity, to appro- priate a portion of the gun-deck, screened off for the purpose. 22 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 14. In cases of severe epidemics, the ship becomes a floating hospital altogether. In merchant ships there ls a three-cornered place in the bows, forward, partitioned off for the crew, and a cabin aft for the officers and passengers. The remainder of the ship is the hold, for the storage of cargo. The cabin, from its convenience with reference to air and light, is sometimes superior to the corres2)onding apartment of the ship- of-war. But those little sleeping-shelves, which we sometimes see in very fine ships, are none too good. The triangular place for- Avard which the crew inhabit, the forecastle, is for the most part really shocking. It is seldom visited by the officers, and is gener- ally filled with disgusting emanations from the untidy persons of those who occupy it. It may sometimes be difficult to assign more space to the crew, but the sleeping arrangements might be much improved by removing the shelves on which they lie, one above another, with the usual nuisance in the shape of vermin. The hammock, such as is used in men-of-war, costs little more, and Ls readily removed to the deck, aired and dried. The clothes, kept in canvas bags, would be much cleaner and in better order than with the present arrangement of chests. The partitions, espe- cially in vessels that carry offensive cargoes, as guano or hides, should be calked air-tight. But above all, there should be fre- quent attention to this part of the ship to keep it clean and neat, and there should be no sparing of whitewash. We sometimes hear complaints of the scarcity of sailors, but under present cir- cumstances we might as well complain that there are few suitable candidates for the penitentiary. Though such laborers may be ])rofitably used, it is to be hoped that the number of men who reach this degree of misery may not be increased. CHAPTEK 11. DRAINAGE — PUMPS — BILGE- WATER — IRON SHIPS — PAINT. (15.) One of the most important things influencing health on board, is certainly the free circulation towards the pumps of the water which collects in the lower parts of the ship. This water, driblets of which are constantly flowing from various points, certainly putrefies unless it flows freely to the pumps and is re- moved. Epidemics of dysentery, yellow fever, and typhus, have appeared to owe their existence on board to stagnant pools of muddy water. It is hence of the greatest importance in all the details of construction and outfit that this should be kept in mind. The pump, to be a good one, must reach the very lowest part, in order that it may remove nearly all the water. It should have the lower end guarded by a sieve, coarse enough to admit muddy water, and fine enough to exclude fragments of clothing and cotton waste ; for articles of this kind sometimes get into the pump-well, and their presence might seriously interfere with the working of the pump. The arrangements in our public vessels are commonly quite sufficient. (16.) The principal defect that I have noticed is that the pumps are sometimes too short, especially if the vessel is very dry. In these cases a small pool is formed about the pump-well, and the leakage being small, it may take a number of days for the pool to enlarge so as to make it appear necessary to work the pumps. It hence becomes stagnant, and small as it is, very offensive, and injurious to health as well as to white paint. Seamen have a maxim, in some degree true, that a leaky ship is free from bilge- water, and I have had the misfortune to be on board a vessel in which it was attempted to imitate the leaky ship in this particu- lar. Sea-water was introduced every day for about a week and pumped out again, and the evil was horribly aggravated, so that the nuisance was hardly removed afterwards during a cruise of 24 NAVAL HYGIENE. [§18. four years. On board two other vessels, the only other vessels on which I have sailed with perceptible bilge-water, it was readily removed l)y a small copper jiump, a bilge pump, extemporized for the occasion. This was made to reach the very bottom by withdrawing the valves from a large pump, and passing the bilge- pump down through its centre. We confidently recommend this expedient where there is bilge-water in a dry ship. Of course, if dirt is allowed to obstruct the limbers no pump can remove the nuisance. In steamers the pumps worked by the engine are most efficient. (17.) The pumps are inclosed in a small space called the pump-well, which is accessible for the purpose of cleaning and introducing disinfectants. To this place various drains bring the M'ater that leaks into the shi]). The principal of these drains are the limbers, channel-ways each side of the kelson, and extending the whole length of the ship. From negligence or poor manage- ment, they are liable to be stopped up by chips, mud, tar, oakum, rags, and fragments of all sorts. The consequences of such an accident are annoying and dangerous. Formerly it was the cus- tom to have a chain or a rope — the limber rope — passing from end Fig. 3. Floor of Ship. to end through the limbers, and so arranged that by acting on the ends it might be moved backward and forward, thus stirring up mud and moving obstructions. The better way is to omit the limber rope, which is itself an obstruction, and to take care of the hold in such a way that no mud or dirt shall ever enter the limbers. (18.) Naval constructors occasionally try the experiment of building the floor of a ship very flat, so that the water cannot § 20. ] LONG SHIPS — BILGE-WATER. 25 rendily flow from the wings — from the sides of the ship to the limbers. Fortunately for health, all vessels of this form have proved utterly deficient in sailing qualities. Fio. 4. Floor of Badly-foruied Ship. (19.) Ships are now built somewhat longer than was formerly the fashion. This form has such advantages in the way of speed, that we must do the best we can with it. The keel being straight, and the pump near the centre of the length, when the ship is on even keel, the water has but little fall from either end, and nmst flow very slowly to the pumps. When the ship is not on even keel — either by the head or by the stern — there is necessarily a pool of stagnant water at one end or the other. The remedy is simple enough, — a bilge-j)ump at each end in addition to the main pumps. (20.) Vegetable matter decaying in a pool of fresh water, gives 05" a large quantity of light carburetted hydrogen gas. This may be collected from almost any half-stagnant pool in a meadow, by inverting a tumbler in the pool and stirring the mud with a stick, and when set on fire it goes off with a light explosion. In a pool of sea- water the same process of decay takes place ; but, on account of the presence of sulphate of magnesia and other sulphates, by interchange of elements, the carbon of the gaseous product is replaced by sulphur, forming (HjS) hydrogen sulphide, sulphuretted hydrogen gas, a most deadly poison — the offensive material to which bilge-water owes all its important peculiarities. Possibly the poisonous properties of this substance may have been exaggerated. We know that it is nearly always present in the intestines without apparent harm ; and it may exist on board ship, to a very offensive amount, wdthout our being able to point out any resulting injury to health. But, on the other hand, we read of one man falling dead, and others made very ill, by un- bunofins: a cask of sea-water which had been used as ballast. We 26 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 23. liavc likewise the evidence of the chemists who htive occasionally inhaled it in experimenting. The identity of (H^S) hydrogen sulphide and the offensive matter of bilge-water is not doubted bv any person at all acquainted with it. It is easily obtained by keeping sea- water a few days in a bottle with a few bits of cork, or otlier vegetable matter. It may be made in dangerous quan- tities by allowing some sea-water to remain for some time in a wooden cask with the bung closed, as in the case above mentioned. On the whole, we infer that there is not much danger from hy- drogen sulphide, when sufficiently diluted to be tolerated by the senses. (21.) The only remedy for bilge-water is to keep the ship dry and clean. This is accomplished by frequent pumping, thorough cleaning, and constant care, to prevent dirt and fragments from getting into the lower parts of the ship and out of sight. The scouring of decks is of less importance, and does not make a clean ship in a sanitary point of view. The means of mitigating the nuisance of bilge-water, are the frequent use of hypochlorites, such as chlorinated lime or chlorinated soda (Labarraque solution), antiseptic salts, iron chloride, zinc chloride, iron sulphate, etc. ; and certain salts which have the property of decomposing (H^S) hydrogen sulphide, and leaving nothing but inoffensive material in its stead, such as lead nitrate. (22.) The commonly recommended way of using chlorinated lime, is to place it in saucers, or to sprinkle it about in places where it seems likely to be useful. It parts freely with its chlo- rine under these circumstances, which being diffused in contact with the hydrogen sulphide, perfect decomposition takes place promptly. A better way is to mix it with water, or put it in the common whitewash mixture, and apply it with a brush to the lower parts of the ship, and more particularly about the pumps. It thus presents a large surface for evaporation, and is very effec- tive. The chlorinated soda, Labarraque solution, may be used in the same way ; but, on tlie whole, is not, perhaps, quite so conve- nient. It has the advantage, however, that when thrown into the limbers or pump-well, it leaves no residuum likely to inter- fere in any way with the working of the pumps. (23.) Zinc chloride, Burnett solution, is probably the most ef- fective, and the most generally applica1)le of all chemical agents § 25. ] BURNETT SOLUTION — METALS. 27 for mitigating the effects of bilge-water. It is best a})])iied by placing it directly in contact with the organic matters which, by their decay, are giving offence. This is done by pouring it, prop- erly diluted, into the stagnant pools from which the offending emanations come. It is likewise useful sprinkled about in any place where the smell is perceived*. The iron sulphate, and vari- ous other substances, have similar properties, but in an inferior degree. In steamers, the coal-ashes wetted to prevent its bloAV- ing about, affords a large quantity of iron sulphate ; and if it be made very wet and allowed to drain into the limbers, it is a very important and a very convenient means of disinfection for this class of vessels. (24.) These applications give very satisfactory results for the time ; but, as the accumulation of sea- water goes on, any store of them which could be carried, would be speedily exhausted if they alone were depended upon. They are to be considered only as occasional means of mitigating the evil. The black color of bilge- water, generally observed in pumping out, seems to be of little importance; the water, having lain in contact with oak wood and iron ballast, has merely brought together the constitu- ents of writing ink. This color constantly belongs to offensive bilge-water, as the stagnation of sea-water in contact wdth these things must necessarily produce both hydrogen sulphide and the black color. (25.) The metals used in ship-building are in many ways bene- ficial to health. They are mostly innocent in themselves, and their great tenacity gives them great advantage in tightening joints. Every year they are used more extensively, and we may congratulate ourselves that health ls constantly improving through their influence. Iron is taking the place of wood in many parts of the ship, and some vessels are built almost exclusively of iron. Its gradual oxidation seems to be the only way in which it decays, and this has been prevented, in boats, and some parts of larger ves- sels, by coating the plates with zinc-galvanizing, as well as by paint- ing. The general use of iron water-tanks, instead of wooden casks, has been of very great benefit to health and comfort. Good spring water generally contains enough sulphates from the soil through which it has filtered to become exceedingly offensive wdien confined a short time in a wooden cask. But in iron tanks, if it con- 28 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 26. tains a portion of vegetable matter, this soon decomposes, and as the iron contains no new material for decomposition, the water quickly becomes good, and remains so ever afterwards. The iron like- wise, by its oxidation, decomposes the salts of brackish water — the best obtainable at some places, so that the water is greatly im- proved in quality by being kept for a time. An incidental dis- advantage of iron ships, is the rapidity with which the external temperature is communicated through the thin sides. A tropical sun shining on the side of a ship, especially if painted black, will sometimes make it hot enough to burn the hand. The metal, conducting heat perhaps a hundred times faster than wood, must become nearly as hot inside as externally ; and if there be a broad surface thus heated, the vessel can scarcely be inha])ited for the heat. In cold weather, it is not quite so bad, but in the navj, I once had occasion to make a report and recommendation to the following effect : U. S. Steamer M , Nov. 25th, . Sir : I have to report a long sick list, about five times the average, caused by the discomforts of the ship as at present situated. The hull being of iron, there are large surfaces of bare metal in the walls which inclose the berth-deck and hold. These surfaces of iron in mild weather trickle with condensed water, and in cold weather they become more or less thickly coated with ice. At pres- ent they become coated with ice during the night, and are wet with dribbling streams at all other times. In my opinion it will be found impossible to keep the crew on board in tolerable health without some additional provisions for their comfort. I would therefore recommend that such surfaces below deck of bare metal, as are accessible, be ceiled with wood without any delay, except such as may be rendered unavoidable by the exigencies of more urgent duty. Very respectfully, etc., Commander . (26.) Copper is much less used than iron. The sheathing which protects the bottom of the ship from various sea animals is its principal use. It is occasionally used where iron would be better, being both stronger and cheaper. Copper was formerly much used for cooking utensils, and occasional carelessness may have allowed its poisonous oxide to adhere to its surface, and thus it may have been the cause of accidental poisoning. It is used for many otlier piu'poses, especially alloyed as brass, for mere orna- ment. There is no great injury to health from this source ; but § 28. ] LEAD — PAINT. 29 too much of it involves useless labor and some annoyance from the greasy rags used in polishing. Lead is not much used in ship-building. Its easy malleability causes it to be used to a limited extent, but its cost and its poi- sonous properties are so well understood, that there appears to be no disposition among constructors to use it where it is capable of doing harm. (27.) The paint employed in various parts of the ship is an important subject for consideration. Designed principally for the preservation of the wood, we desire that as much of it may be used, at proper times, as is likely to contribute to this object. In so far as it is used for mere ornament, it should give way to certain considerations of health. Of this the medical officer may consider himself the best judge. Fashion has established great uniformity in the manner of painting the outside. This is always black, with a white, red, or gold streak ; and some variety in width, color, and situation of this streak is left to individual fancy. There is no material inconvenience in this fashion except in warm climates. The rays of the sun striking the side of a ship increases its temperature, the degree of increase depending much on the color. This increased temperature is communicated to the interior, and may seriously incommode those on board. In iron ships especially, the disadvantages of black paint are very great. There are many vessels, particularly small coasters, in which the interests of health and the preservation of the ship, should control the color, rather than any idea of taste or fashion. Any fancy color, or even varnish, is certainly better than black. Our river steamboats are generally painted white, the very best color ; and there are many good reasons to be pleased with it. Our public vessels, when laid up, are generally painted a dull yellow color, much better than black, where the only object is the preservation of the ship. (28.) There may be some military advantage in the black color of ships-of-war ; but probably various shades of lead color, in the form of zebra stripes, or leopard spots, would, under cer- tain circumstances, be better. We will, however, leave this for the discussion of others. Black, we think, should not be used for other parts of the ship. The interior of bulwarks, the comb- ings of hatches, and other parts about deck, are better in reality, 30 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 29. and neater and in better taste, of the natural color of clean wood, produced by scraping and scrubbing, or by painted imitations of the proper color. The best arrangement of colors — best for the preservation of the wood and for avoiding bad effects on the eye- sight — is to paint the broad surfaces white or nearly w^iite, with occasional stripes or mouldings of wood color, buff, or green. There is so little green on the broad ocean, that it always pro- duces a pleasant impression. The ship below deck should be painted white, and the only important consideration connected with it occurs when it becomes necessary to renew the paint in the course of a cruise. (29.) The effects of tar and pitch on the salubrity of the ves- sel are in every way advantageous. The vapor is sometimes offensive, but custom reconciles us to it, and under ordinary cir- cumstances it can do no harm. When pitch is cold and hard it gives off very little vapor. An important incidental advantage is that the vapor is very offensive to most insects, and it thus has much influence in limiting their numbers. CHAPTER III. RECEIVING THE CREW — MAX OYEEBOAED. (30.) August 25th. — The marines march on board from their barracks, the rest of the crew come from the receiving ship, the flag is hoisted, and the ship is regularly in commission. We have to study the character and condition of this crew — these sailors and these marines — so as to become somewhat acquainted with our shipmates. The employment of the sailor, or rather his surround- ings, have usually been such, so wretched and degrading, that not many, except the most miserable, could be induced to accept this occupation knowingly. The best recruits are the sons of fisher- men, who live in sight of the ocean, and are accustomed to it from their infancy. Such recruits are furnished by the islands and coasts of New England, and still more by the countries bor- dering on the Baltic. There are a few recruits brought forward by the reading of Robiixson Crusoe ; but these, and all others brought into the service by the romance of the ocean, are very glad to escape after a short experience. But not a few are out- casts from their families on account of worthlessness and crime, some of them escaping the hot pursuit of the officers of justice through the shipping rendezvous. There are many young men in every community, excellent in all other respects, who, from want of force of character, or even of opportunity, fail to estab- lish themselves in any employment, until they are willing to ac- cept almost anything which aifords a fair prospect of a constant means of livelihood. They often possess excellent abilities, and succeed well in whatever they happen ultimately to adopt as their vocation ; of these the navy gets a share. (31.) The number of good and reliable seamen for the pur- poses of modern commerce, and to supply recruits for the navy, is utterly insufficient. Hence it is necessary to do the best we can with such men as are to be obtained. With the discomforts 32 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 32. which necessarily belong to sea life, and the additional MTctched- ness occasionally added by caprice and cupidity and indifference, it is generally the case that the better sort of men, unleas they re- ceive promotion, or very good treatment, are apt to make an effort to escape the service at the end of the first cruise, or even sooner. Some of the best of them succeed ; but others, failing to establish themselves, get into the sailor boarding-houses. They are soon hopelessly in debt, without any resource but to ship again. They receive an advance of pay to discharge old debts, and if they find an opportunity are pretty sure to desert Avithout caring to return the money thus advanced. They are kept by placing them on board after the ship is removed from the wharf, and by guarding them to prevent the possibility of escape. The unhappy men thus detained, and without sufficient force of character to keep out of the situation, form the typical sailor ; they are subjected to such discipline as is necessary to obtain from them a fair amount of useful labor. But the worst of it is that the whole crew are subjected to nearly the same discipline, though they do not all need it. (32.) Much is now being done to improve the character of the sailor, and with very encouraging success. But the time is per- haps distant when young men will choose the sailor's profession as they do almost any other laborious employment. In the navy men have such inducements to re-enter that a large proportion come back before they are so reduced in money and reputation as to have no choice. The abolition of flogging has brought more thought and more common sense into the investigation and punish- ment of various petty offences ; and there have thus been intro- duced into the service many comforts and indulgences of which men may occasionally be deprived by way of punishment. The entire crew is no longer kept continuously on board by the year, not permitted to visit shore at all, merely because some of them would get drunk. There is evidently great improvement in this business, so that men have less repugnance to the employment on this account. The system of honorable discharges has conferred a very great benefit, as the drunkard and the escaped convict no longer hold as good a character at the naval rendezvous as the correct and well-behaved. They often find this resource closed against them, while tlie owner of the honorable discharge entere § 34. ] RECRUITS — RECRUITING. 33 as soon as he pleases, with the advantage of a gratuity 0(iual to three months' pay, and a very nuieh better chanee of promotion. Nearly every sailor, with these advantages before his eyes, makes some effort to gain this honorable discharge. Drunkenness, with its consequent disorders, and some others formerly in fashion, has ceased to be admired and imitated as heroism. Correct (!onduct has become the rule. The system of honorable discharges is gradually being extended so as to embrace marines, firemen and coalheavers ; it should include every enlisted man. (33.) The crew of our ship are mostly honorably discharged men, the rendezvous having for some months been closed against all others. The deficiency of landsmen required to make uj) the complement, was promptly made up after the arrival of the order to place the ship in commission. August 2,9th. — Some of our crew have already been to sea in other vessels since their enlistment, and among them are a number of invalids returned from the station to which we are probably destined. On the recommendation of a medical survey these invalids are returned to the receiving ship, to be sent to the naval hospital. • (34.) The physical fitness of recruits is determined by an in- spection which has reference to health, form, size, age, and mus- cular po^ver. The qualifications of naval recruits cliiFer some- what from those of the military service on land. Deficient strength of the foot, as exhibited in the deformity called " splay feet," may disqualify a soldier on a march, but it is no serious disqualification in a seaman, who has very little marching to do. Extreme youth is not so objectionable, as there are no fatiguing marches, in which fatigued and lame boys have to be left to perish by the roadsides ; but if the ordinary labors are too severe for them, they can be relieved from any excessive labor. In fact youth- fulness is rather an advantage in a new recruit, as life at sea is of such a character that an adult accommodates himself to it with extreme difficulty. Hence the limit in regard to age for naval recruits is (13) thirteen years, height (56) fifty-six inches. The limit of age in the other direction is, for landsmen, (33) thirty- three years, over which age they are not received except for special duties. 3 34 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 34. Many important thing's in this connection are stated in num- bers, so as to admit of tabular arrangement for easy reference and comparison. The ages and heights are so expressed in the de- scriptive lists. Some officers have a fancy for very tall men ; but when the men are not otherwise well developed this is not an ad- vantage. This height is often made up of a pair of long legs, which produces an awkward weakness, somewhat like marching on a pair of stilts. Any casual inspection gives sufficient evidence of the existence of this conformation when excessive ; but perhaps it would be useful to determine tendencies in this direction in inches. The recruit might be made to sit on a level bench with a straight back sufficiently high, graduated to inches and frac- tions. This would measure the length from the ischia to the vertex, which deducted from the height would give the lower ex- tremities with sufficient precision. In studying the development of children, this would be a very useful measurement, and very convenient. The measurements of the chest are very valuable, as evidence of the healthy working of lungs. The muscular power might be measured by acting on a spiral spring and stating the result in the number of pounds lifted. The following table embraces too small a number of subjects, perhaps, to affi^rd any general conclusion of value. The average height of seamen is probably somewhat less than that of men of the same age in .laborious occupations elsewhere. This, how- ever, is not certain, the average of this table, which includes youths of about (16) sixteen, being (67) sixty-seven inches, not much less than the average of adults elsewhere. The firemen and coalheavers are physically the best men. The marines show nearly the same average height ; but none are enlisted for this service who are less than (64) sixty-four inches. 35.] RECRUITING — MAN OVERBOARD. 35 Average Age and Height, according to Bates of V((rious Groups of Enlisted Men. Kates. a > Age. Height. ■a 5 be o 6 bo « a) 1 "3 1 o .a 'S a 6- < Years. Years. Yr. Mo. Inches. Inches. Inches. Petty officers, seamen, . 31 60 26 37 3 74 63 66.23 Petty officers, not seamen, 11 48 22 31 2 72 64| 66.34 Seamen, 23 42 23 30 7 70 61i 65.62 Ordinary seamen, . . . 50 42 20 25 5 72 61 66.23 Landsmen, 34 31 21 23 1 70J 60| 66.50 Boys, under 20 years, . 3 20 16 17 7 67i 60 64.47 Servants, negroes, . . . 4 30 19 25 68| 62 66.63 Servants, mulattoes, . . 10 50 17 25 9 67 J 58 63.03 Firemen, 23 40 23 29 5 70^ 63J 67.61 Coal-heavers, .... 21 28 19 23 7 72^ 63J 67.29 Marines, 43 46 21 26 73 64 67.50 Aggregate and general average, 253 60 16 27 6 74 58 67.05 (35.) August 2>lst. — We steam down the river to the powder magazine, and we have a startling incident — a man overboard. The ship moving under steam, is obliged to move too fast for the safety of two boats towing astern ; and the consequence is that they are both filled with water, one of them passing so far beneath the surface that the men in her are left swimming in the current. Others follow their impulses, and pursue the proper measures to rescue the men from the water, while we try to remember and ar- range the proper means to restore life, in case one of them should be brought on board in a state of suspended animation. We are greatly in want of evidence of the special efficacy of the measures usually adoj)ted for this purpose. We know that a person with- 36 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 37. drawn from tlie Avater within a minute, generally recover without any particular assistance. If he slioukl remain a little longer in the water, his chances of recovery are greatly diminished ; and if he should remain three or four minutes wholly immersed, the cliances are that he will not survive, with all the assistance which we may be able to give. But cases do occur of recovery after in- tervals of nearly an hour, without our being able to say which of the means adopted produce the result, or indeed whether they had anything to do with it. Our choice of remedies is, therefore, guided more by our ideas of physiological fitness than by any of the results of experience. (36.) The first, the only object is to re-establish respiration; so we remove promptly whatever we perceive to interfere with that process, and adopt measures to produce respiration artificially. As soon as the drowned man is removed from the water he should be placed on his side, and ])referably on the right side. One per- son should support the head, opening a little the jaws, removing anything which may be found to oppose the entrance of air, emptying water or mucus from the mouth by turning the face downwards, even holding the head lower than the rest of the body a moment for this purpose. Another person acts on the chest and abdomen in such a way as to imitate, as nearly as possi- blej the natural movements of respiration by pressing the lower part of the chest and stomach toM'ard the spine, and allowing them to return by natural elasticity at the rate of twelve or fifteen times a minute, as rapidly as a person would count five deliber- ately. During the minute occupied by these operations, others should })rovide, if possible, dry flannel clothing, or if nothing better can be had, dry hay or straw. The wet clothing is to be promptly and gently removed, and the body wrapped in dry, i\nd if convenient, warm flannel blankets. But it is not desirable to warm the body materially until there is some evidence of re-es- tablished respiration. (37.) The clearing of the mouth and the artilicMal respiration may jierhaps be accomplished by one person, as effectually by Dr. Marshall Hall's ready method as by any other means. The body is placed on the side as before, one hand of the patient against or partly under the forehead to prevent the face from coming too rudely in contact with the floor, the other hand is placed under the stomach with the arm across the l)odv, the bodv is then rolled § 38. ] ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION. 37 forward on the stonuich and back to the side alternately, about fifteen times in a minute. Nearly all who are to recover at all, will show some sign of re- turning life during the minute or two occupied by these first cares. The patient should now be carried gently on a board — not picked up by the feet and shoulders with the head hanging down — to a place of more convenience for any further measures that may be deemed advisable. The body should be wiped dry, clothed in flannel, placed on a mattress between two blankets. The move- ments of artificial respiration should be continued perseveringly, whatever else may appear necessary. The body should occasion- ally be placed on the side, and the head so inclined as to favor the discharge of water or mucus. If the discharge be tenacious, it may be assisted by the finger or other convenient instrument. If the teeth close, they may be kept apart by a piece of soft wood. If the tongue fall back into the throat, as it is pretty sure to do with the patient on his back, it must be seized, pulled forward and between the jaw teeth on one side or the other, and kept there ; even a piece of wire or a stout thread might be passed through the tongue to hold it from falling back and stopping uj) the fauces. Artificial respiration has been recommended by inflating the lungs by the use of a pipe or a bellows, or from mouth to mouth. But this is, perhaps, a more difficult operation than is generally imagined. It results sometimes, in inflating the stomach instead of the lungs ; which may be prevented by pressing the larynx down and back against the spine, so as to close the gullet. (38.) The Eoyal Medical and Chirurgical Society recommend the method of Dr. Sylvester, which, instead of compressing, ex- pands the chest, thus imitating deep inspiration, as follows : In cases of drowning the following plan may, in the first instance, be practiced : Place the body with the face do\vnward and hang- ing a little over the edge of the table, shutter, or board, raised to an angle of thirty degrees, so that the head may be lower than the feet. Open the mouth and draw the tongue forward. Keep the body in this posture a few seconds longer if fluid escapes. The escape of fluid may be assisted by pressing once or twice upon the back. All obstruction to the passage of air to and from the lungs should be at once, so far as practicable, removed ; the mouth and nostrils, for example, should be cleaned from all 38 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 39. foreig-n matters or adhering inueus. In the absence of natural respiration, artificial respiration, by Dr. Sylvester's plan, should ])e forthwith employed in the following manner : The body being laid on its back, either on a flat surface, or better, on a plane in- clined a little from the feet upwards, a firm cushion or some similar support should be placed under the shoulders, the head being kept in a line with the trunk. The tongue should be drawn forward so as to project a little from the side of the mouth; then the arms should be drawn upward till they nearly meet over the head, and at once lowered and replaced at the side. This should be followed immediately by moderate pressure with both hands on the lower part of the sternum. This process is to be repeated twelve or fourteen times in a minute. If no natural respiratory efforts supervene, a dash of hot water (120° F.) or cold water may excite respiratory efforts. The temperature of the body sliould be maintained by friction, warm blankets, dry clothing, etc. {Am. Journ. Med. Sc, xliv, 516). As soon as there is any appearance of re-established respiration, — gasping, sobbing, or catching breath — we may relinquish all measures in this direction. During the operations already de- scribed, preparations should be made for warming the body. Hot water, even boiling, may be poured into any convenient vessel — a bottle or tin cup would answer — and we should pass it gradu- ally over the flannel clothing, about the stomach, chest, and back, keeping it more particularly about the pit of the stomach. Other bottles, not too hot, may be applied to the feet. Many other means have been recommended with more or less confidence, among them an enema of tobacco-smoke, with complicated appa- ratus, not likely to be on hand when wanted. This enema may be administered if required, with a common clay pipe, wliich, when well charged with tobacco and lighted, may be introduced, and tlie smoke blown through by a common bellows, or by blow- ing through a second pipe inverted over the first. (39.) When animation is restored, the patient should be kept comfortable in his bed, and not disturbed by useless visits or con- versation. If he has been long in the water he will probably require further medical care. But happily our men returned on board pretty well exhausted by swinniiing. A¥e had no occasion for tiie various appliances of which we had been thinking. CHAPTER lY. THE SEA EOLLINCI AND PITCHING. (40.) September 1st. — Having received powder from the magazine near Fort Mifflin, we move slowly down the river and proceed to sea. We might be a little sentimental, we certainly feel so, over the tramping around with the capstan, the clinking of chains as link by link comes in, the departure of friends, the movement of the vessel on the smooth surface of the river, pass- ing the Breakwater, the departure of the pilot, and our perfect isolation from all but our small floating community. Entering the domains of the broad ocean, we are instantly conscious of a great change in the physical influences that surround us. The most characteristic of these is the oscillating movement in obedi- ence to the various impulses of the waves. This movement is in three directions, vertical, rolling, and pitching. The vertical movement is felt principally near the ends of the ship. Each end is alternately raised to the top of a wave and falls into the trough of the sea. It is not uncommon for waves six or eight feet high to succeed each other at intervals of about five seconds; and a ship frequently receives nearly this amount of vertical motion, with this degree of frequency, in fine weather. It is not rare for this movement up and down to be so sudden as to make us feel that we are about to be tossed into the air, the ship sub- siding so rapidly that the feet can scarcely be kept in contact with the deck. There is no doubt that occasionally in rough weather, there is actually vertical motion enough near the ends of the ship, to toss an object some distance into the air. But the feeling of discomfort and insecurity from the sudden sinking of the floor on which we stand, is sufficient to keep everybody from these parts of the ship, when there is much motion of this kind. The motion called roUing, is the rotation laterally of the ship, back and forth on its axis. This movement is very considerable,. 40 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 42. even in large ships, sometimes amounting to (20^) twenty degrees on each side. A considerable amount of muscular exertion is necessary to keep the body in anything like a vertical position under this constant change of inclination of the surface. Stand- ing on deck is a laborious occupation. Pitching is mainly due to irregularity of speed, as affected by the waves. The oscillations are not nearly so rapid as those of rolling. The ship gradually ascends the slope of a wave, reaches the summit, balances like a scale-beam, the forward end prepon- derates, and we descend an inclined plane to the trough of the sea, attaining great speed as we descend ; we strike, pei'haps, with great force, the next coming wave, slowly ascend to its crest, and thus we go on repeating the motion. The rapid descent to the trough of the sea, with the plunge of the forward part of the ship into the coming wave, suggests the expressive name of this motion. It goes on pretty smoothly with the sea aft and the wind on the quarter ; but Math a head sea, the waves and the bows of the ship come into such violent collision, that it is neces- sary to reduce sail in order to prevent the ship from being de- stroyed by the prodigious force of the concussion. (41.) It requires some little muscular exertion to stand on the substantial earth, but the case is very different on board ship, where the surface is ra])idly inclined first to the one side and then to the other, and is gliding rapidly forward and stopping with a sudden concussion, or is oscillating vertically with velocity nearly sufficient to toss us into the air. We think it not difficult to comprehend, that when all these motions are combined in an ex- • aggerated degree, as in great storms, it is exceedingly laborious exertion merely to stand up, and walking is quite out of the question. In ordinary states of -weather, men do walk, more or less ; but at first there is some difficulty in accommodating the movements of the body to the digadvantageous circumstances. This is overcome somewhat by time and practice, and then we have our sea-legs on. Being once practi(;ed in these movements, we practice them instinctively, even on shore, where there is no need of them. Hence the sailor is known by his walk, his wide straddling feet, the swaying to-and-fro of his body, and the bal- ancing with his arms. (42.) Even lying in bed, these irregular oscillations give us § 42. ] THE SLEEPING-BERTH. 41 troul)lo. In the ordinary xlccphuj-Jx'rth, the rolling is, ut times, sufficient to throw ns ont of bed, if it were not for the boards at the sides, converting the berth into a sort of trough. .Vs it is, we are rolled about in a most uncomfortable way, till we learn to grasp these boards in our liands and hold on during sleep. The rougher the weather, the more firmly we grasp — as the bird in windy weather grasps more firmly to the branch of the tree on which he is perched. Lying in a hammock or cot hung to the beams, so as to swing about and accommodate itself to the move- ments of the ship, is much less subject to these inconveniences. There are, no doubt, real modifications effected in all our organic functions by these peculiar movements, both directly and by the constant need of muscular exertion to maintain the equilibrium. But these, so fiir, have only been suspected, not distinctly indi- cated, except the singular violent perturbation known under the name of sea-sickness. CHAPTER \. SEA-SICKNESS. (43.) As soon as we meet the swell of the ocean, most of those who have not sailed before, and some of those who have, begin to feel unable to keep on their feet; they feel unaccountably help- less ; soon tlioy have vertigo and nausea ; and it is not very long before the impulse to empty the stomach becomes irresistible. This is the miserable beginning of the sailor's rough profession. The characteristic symptoms are headache, vertigo, nausea, pale, cool, moist skin, muscular relaxation, increased flow of saliva, sunken features, and disagreeable hallucinations of the senses of taste and smell. In fact, the symptoms are nearly the same that are caused by the operation of an ordinary emetic. In bad cases the vomitings are frequently repeated, and the muscular prostra- tion and the general feeling of wretchedness, are such as to ren- der the sufferer utterly indifferent to everything around him. (44.) Individual susceptibilities in this disease vary exceedingly. The relaxation of the oesophagus is sometimes incomplete, and then the spasmodic action of the stomach and diaphragm is ^'ery painful. Occasionally the nausea and vertigo arc distressing and persistent, lasting several weeks without any vomiting. Some- times the vomiting comes on suddenly, witliout much antecedent distress. Sometimes obstinate constipation is the only symptom ; and some of the captains between New York and Liverpool, are said never to have an alvine motion between the two ports. There are some rare cases of individuals who appear not to suffer at all. Most persons obtain comparative exemption from suffer- ing after a week or two. There are very few, however, who do not suffer more or less from vertigo and headache, and a feeling of discomfort at the epigastrium, if not nausea. Sometimes this feeling is compared to the sensation of hunger; and I liave known a conimtmdar, who had experienced this feeling very § 45. ] SEA-SICKNESS. 43 often, say tliat roiigli weather always made lihu feel hungry, even ininuHliately after his meals. He always feels hungry while the storm lasts. All that is distressing about this disease subsides soon after landing or getting into harbor. The hallucinations of sight and touch continue, in a degree, for some time; the trees and liouses seem to swing about, and our senses feil to assure us of the steadiness of the earth. (45.) The cause of this singular disease is certainly the irregu- lar motion of the ship ; but we are unable to say with any cer- tainty how this cause produces such effects. One of the oldest theories is that it is caused by fear ; but probably no one Avho has felt it refers it to this cause ; and besides we have never heard of anything like it caused by fear merely elsewhere. The reign of terror in France, and the Inquisition in Spain, afford no account of such a disease. Another explanation refers it to the muscular exertion necessary to maintain the body in equilibrium ; but we do not observe that anything like sea-sickness is ordinarily pro- duced by mere muscular exertion, however severe or long con- tinued. A third theory refers the disease to the agitation of the abdominal viscera, with the constant friction among themselves ; but running, and especially riding a hard-trotting horse, would shake the viscera quite as much without causing the least nausea. The disease has been attributed to the agitation of the brain it- self against its bony case ; and this theory has great plausi- bilit)'. The symptoms are analogous to those caused by simple concussion of the brain. Of course, as the violence of agitation is not sufficient to break down the tissue of the brain, such symp- toms as belong exclusively to the most violent cases of cerebral concussion are absent ; but the symptoms which belong to the milder forms of concussion are present, exaggerated in degree, as should be expected from the continuance of the cause. But this theor}^ will not stand the test of the trotting horse, which would agitate the brain quite as roughly against its bony case. And finally, sea-sickness has been attributed to nervous derangement produced through the senses by the irregular oscillatory move- ments of neighboring objects (Darwin). To this it can only be objected that the proof is not quite conclusive. Blind persons, it has been suggested, may be sea-sick, but they have the senses, ex- cept sight, active enough, and are certainly very conscious of 44 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 46. some of the movements about them. Swino:ing, walking, and riding backward in a carriage, liave been observed to pro- duce similar disturbance in a milder form. This last theory ex- plains the fact that riding backward is much more likely to pro- duce vertigo and nausea than riding with the face forward. I have known the symptoms in a mild degree to be produced by sitting on an elevated seat near the sea, and Avatching the rollers breaking over a bank at some distance from the beach. Merely closing the eyes sometimes produces considerable relief. Lying in a horizontal position with the eyes closed, in a well-balanced cot, renders the affection quite bearable in nearly all cases. Sitting on deck near the side of the ship, so that no swinging object in- terferes with a steady view of the horizon, is known to produce great relief, the horizon and the clouds near it being the only steady objects in sight. Altogether we must be nearly right in adopting this last theory. (46.) From what has already been said it may be inferred that there is no effectual remedy for sea-sickness, except to get on land. It, however, admits of some mitigations. Freely circulating air is a great advantage. It is important to keep as far as pos- sible from either end of the ship, so as to avoid the excessive vertical motion. It seems generally best to remain on deck as long as possible, avoiding much observation of the spars and rigging, but in preference directing the view to the distant land or horizon. The young, and those who are to be sailors by pro- fession, should continue this course, partaking moderately of food and continuing their exercises, if possible, in the intervals of vomiting. Some of the boys promptly find places in the tops, where the exaggerated motion soon excites vomiting, and by re- maining there a day or two they obtain immunity from suffering in other parts of the ship. For passengers it is useless to struggle much ill this way. When there is much motion and they find themselves unable to keej) up, they may as well seek the most com- fortable place to lie down, until a smooth sea enables them to get on their feet again. It is worse than useless to swallow drugs. It is disadvantageous to eat full meals in anticipation, and it is still worse to keep the stomach quite empty, l*ersons who have suffered much and are recovering, with some nausea and a dis- gusting flavor of soap alxmt the mouth, derive great comfort from § 47. ] SEA-VOYAGE AS A REMEDY. 45 the use of certain articles of food of very decided ilavor, siicli as smoked herring or other salt fish, broiled ham, ginger cakes, pre- served ginger, etc. Stimulating and aromatic diinks have their use here, such as tea, coffee, wine, rum, brandy, but excess even of tea or coffee may do harm. Tliese thing-s are likewase useful in preventing the disease when the predisposition is not very strong. Any aromatic or stimulant may be occasionally useful in this Avav, as well as any common article of food of very de- cided flavor, and not distasteful to the patient. If from excessive severity of the disease or peculiarity in the condition of the patient, serious accident be apprehended, some additional remedies may be used, as ice-water, lumps of ice, acidulated drinks, chloroform, chloral hydrate, opiates, endermi- cally if they cannot be retained in the stomach ; and also the remedies for any accident, as abortion, which may be particularly apprehended. (47.) Sea- voyages have always been more or less recommended as a remedy for diseases, and like other perturbations of the sys- tem and changes of habit, they may have occasionally broken up chronic diseases. We should, however, always prefer some more manageable remedy. The motion of a ship increases the diffi- culties of treating fractures, and thus sometimes render amputa- tion necessary to save life. CHAPTER YI. SOCIAL INFLUENCES NOSTALGIA. " When o'er the silent sea« alone, For days and nights we've cheerless gone, Oh they who've felt it know how sweet, Some sunny morn, a sail to meet ; Sparkling at once is every eye ; Ship, ahoy ! ship, ahoy ! the joyful cry. Then sails are backed, we nearer come. Kind words are said of friends and home, And soon, too soon, we part with pain. To sail o'er silent seas again." Thomas Moore. (48.) In the last two chapters ^ve have considered some of the material ups and downs of sea life, with their consequences. Let us now examine the social relations and moral influences. The crew have just collected from various parts of the world, and the great majority of them have no personal acquaintance, except such as thev have formed during the past week or two, on board the receiving ship. Each one has separated from his home, his relations, his associates, his friends, from every object of his affections on earth. The desolation of his affections appears com- plete, but hope gilds somewhat the future. Some of the men may have met previously, but the whole business of forming friendships and antipathies, and selecting companions, is, for the most ])art, among entire strangers, to be accomplished without any previous knowledge of each other. We wonder and find that human nature is capable of this. The officers even, for the most i^art, meet the fii-st time in their lives, at the na\w yard where the ^]u\) is fitting out, without any other introductictn than the order which each one has received to report for duty, on board the same ship. Conventionalities veil the awkwardness of this introduction, and a good understanding is established in the beginning. This we may reasonably hope will not be interrupted ; § 51. ] SOLITUDE OF THE OCEAN. 47 and some friendships and some agreeable soeial relations may eventually spring from it. (49.) This breaking up of old soeial relations and the estab- lishment of new, is accomplished under a forced intimacy, which is far from pleasant to a person of any refinement of feeling. The crowdino" together of so many and such diverse characters, and the life in common, which admits of no privacy, day or night, would seem perfectly intolerable ; sailors, however, are not very conscious of the social or moral hardship of this crowding. Of its physical inconveniences, the want of space for exercise or sleep, and the contamination of the atmosphere, they are well aware. The officers, whose sensibilities from education and asso- ciation, are more refined, are relieved in some degree from this annoyance. They have each, for the most part, a small room, about six feet square, to which the proprietor may retire when he will, to commune with his own thoughts and enjoy his individual tastes ; it is the place for his bed, his bureau, his library, his museum of curiosities. Prying curiosity and discipline very rarely interfere with his comfort in this little room. (50.) The first few days pass with some degree of constraint, but we converse, we form social circles, we cease to be strangers. The associations thus hastily formed have not always that con- geniality of tastes which perpetuates friendship, or those dispari- ties which render friendly social relations impossible. There is, hence, some variation from time to time ill the various circles, and soon something like social order grows up. This vagabond- ism, this breaking up of all social relations, every two or three years, is the great annoyance, the great hardship of naval life. (51.) Another peculiar influence, is the monotonous solitude of the ocean. The land with its dim outline being left behind, there is nothing in sight outside of the ship, except sky and sea ; none of the objects which ordinarily induce us to approach a window. A bird, a fish, or a bit of sea-weed is enough to excite a general commotion. A sail in sight, even so distant as to require a tele- scope to see it at all, is an object of universal interest. If it comes near enough to be })lainly seen, it is thought of and talked of for days. But should it approach near enough for the few usual inquiries — what ship? where from? whither bound? — it creates a scene of enthusiasm, of which any amount of poetic exaggera- 48 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 52. tion of incident fuils to convey a fnll impression. The increase of distance and tlie final disappearance of the stranger beliind the horizon is watched with the same interest, and some occasional damage to the eyesight. This breaking in on the monotony has a singularly beneficial influence in promoting cheerful conversa- tion, cheerful thoughts of home, and confidence in the future. It is full of cheerful and healthful influences. (52.) Nodalr/ia. — The confusion of moral and social relations, as just described, does not, of itself, cause any specific disease, but greatly complicates various diseases; and we may, hence, have occasion to allude to it again. We here design to treat only of home-sickness, nostalgia, a disease caused by this kind of in- fluence, though by no means peculiar to the ocean. This dis- tressing disease has its origin in affection for the mere locality of our childhood. It has been considered peculiar to the Swiss, and a celebrated national air has been found to awaken such mournful recollections in the young Swiss soldier or sailor, as to cause this pitiable disease. The playing of this tune has hence been pro- hibited, even under penalty of death. But there are abundant instances of nostalgia in all countries, so that it has its origin in the very constitution of human nature. There is no country in the world so wild or so savage as not to interest thus the affec- tions of the natives. " Dear is tlie shed to which his soul conforms, And dear the hill which lifts him to the storm." Goldsmith. The La])lander becomes despondent and enervated and dies, if kept from his snowy mountains and frozen lakes. Our Ameri- can Indians, after becoming accustomed to the comforts and con- veniences of civilized life, sigh for their native w41ds, and eventu- ally escape to their bark wigwams and endless deserts. INIany recently imported slaves in the West Indies, though changed from savage owners to others of comparatively gentle deportment, have become despondent and committed suicide or died of the sulks. The greatest amount of suffering from this disease of which we have any account, was probably among the young con- scripts of the French army in the beginning of the present cen- tury. The disease originates in the feeling of attachment for home which we all feel, and we all deeply sympathize with the § 54. ] NOSTALGIA. ' 49 siifterei". With most of us tlie feeling; of depression and even perhaps the thoughts of home are occasionally replaced by other thoughts, studies, or amusements — cheerful influences. But with some this thought of home becomes a fixed idea — the absorbing thought that occupies the whole soul to the exclusion of all other thoughts. They are shy, the countenance becomes stupid, sad, and pale, with dark shades about the lustreless eyes. There are jialpitations of the heart, with constant tendency to syncope — fainting. The patient conceals, however, the cause of his distress, or more probably is not really aware of it. There is frecpiently a presentiment of death without any consciousness of its cause, and this presentiment is sometimes realized. The disease is easily discovered by a question or suggestion about home. The rapid pulse, the blushing, and the fainting tell it all. Nostalgia, with these symptoms, is a serious disease, likely to end in death. Examinations after death have disclosed larsre quantities of purulent matter about the surface of the brain. {Lavreij.) (54.) The prevention of this disease and the cure of the milder cases is accomplished by the application of all available cheerful influences, pleasing occupation in accordance with the taste of the individual, visits to the shore, plays, music, and the whole cata- logue of amusements. If we can gently withdraw the sufferer from his isolation and interest him in some object, either amuse- ment or employment, for an hour or two each day, he is already nearly cured. Harshness and rough language only aggravate the evil. Among the slave-dealers on the coast of Africa, where the ravages of this disease were enormous, the remedy in vogue was music and dancing, in which all, but more particularly the quiet ones, were forced to take part by the use of a scourge in the hands of a leader of ceremonies. If the slaves made much noise of themselves, the dealers were happy, and had no fear of losing their property by the sulks. When nostalgia is really established there is but one remedy, — the patient must be sent home. AMiere delay is unavoidable, we must do the best we can with the influences above indicated, and we may use tonics and such other remedies as appear appropriate for the symptoms. In serious cases they are only temporary means of mitigation. 4 CHAPTER VI I. CLOTHINC -SMALL STORES. (55.) At length we are fairly afloat on the ocean and have leisure to examine the every-dav life, the dress, the food, and the occupation of the sailor. The dress of seamen is regulated with reference to convenience and comfort in their j^eculiar situation without much reference to absurd mutations of fashion. In the navy the articles of cloth- ing and small stores named in the following tables are usually kept on board every ship in suitable quantities. They are sup- plied at a very moderate cost and charged against the pay account of each man. Recruits must be supplied before coming on board with a complete suit, and enough additional articles to enable them to make the changes required by cleanliness. Clothing. o a 1) ^• S a> a « a C ^'13 3 .£ 2 a tM Names of Articles. as O 5| a-s. 2^ o O — k. eii 3 o £ J s t2 < ^"^ Blue cloth pea jackets, 1 $9 90 19 90 50 $4 95 Blue flannel jumpers, 1 40 50 70 Blue cloth round jackets 1 7 04 7 04 50 3 75 Blue cloth trowsers, . 1 3 80 3 80 88 3 12 Blue satinet trowsers. 1 2 57 2 57 88 2 13 Flannel overshirts, 2 1 60 3 20 150 2 40 Flannel undershirts, 2 1 28 2 46 133 1 64 Flannel drawers, . 2 1 18 2 26 133 1 50 Linen frocks, . . 2 1 18 2 36 133 1 57 Linen trowsers, . . 2 1 19 2 38 133 1 58 Blue satinet, yards. 76 100 76 Blue flannel, yards. 42 600 2 52 Canvas-duck, yards, 50 100 50 Sheetinji;, yards, . . 64 133 85 Blue nankeen, yards, 10 67 7 Calf-slsin sliocs, . . 1 1 65 1 65 83 1 37 Kijj-skin shoes, . . 1 56 50 78 Yarn socks, . . . 2 32 64 167 53 Caps, 1 1 00 1 00 100 1 00 Mattresses, . . . 1 5 15 5 15 100 5 15 Blankets, .... 1 2 00 2 00 100 2 00 Black silk handkerchiefs. 1 103 1 03 130 1 32 Total, .... $47 44 $40 19 §55.] CLOTHING AND SMALL STORES. 51 Small Stores. Names of Articles. Tobacco, pounds, Soap, pounds, Beeswax, in small cakes, pounds, White thread, pounds, . . . . Blue or black thread, pounds, . Eibbon, pieces, Tape, pieces, Cotton, spools, Sewing silk, pounds, . . . . Pocket handkerchiefs, . , , . Needles, papers, Thimbles, Scissors, Eazors, Razor strops, Shaving boxes, Shaving soap, cakes, . . . . Shaving brushes, Scrub brushes, Blacking brushes, Clothes bnishes, Eagle buttons, large, dozen, , . Eagle buttons, small, dozen, . . Eagle buttons, medium, dozen, . Pearl buttons, dozen, .... Fine comb, Coarse comb, Blacking, boxes, Grass, hands, Tobacco, pounds, Jack-knives, Mustard, bottles, Pepper, bottles, Total, =53 2400 2520 8 13 13 100 80 40 1 96 27 48 32 8 8 8 33 8 32 24 8 10 40 10 48 100 100 20 500 800 100 216 216 )31 6 64 96 96 67 3 5 13 2 1 19 22 13 13 3 13 19 20 16 30 17 30 2 16 22 4 3 31 25 13 10 $7 50 1 51 6 12 12 67 3 3 13 1 1 7 2 2 2 1 1 7 5 1 3 7 3 1 16 22 1 15 2 48 25 28 24 $14 40 52 NAVAL HYGIENE. [§57. (5G.) This supply of clothing enables the sailor to dress com- fortably, "with a little occasional dandyism. The blue cloth round jacket is only used in dressing up for exhibition on shore. The flannel undershirt is essential to comfort and health. It is merely a plain garment without collar or sleeves, Avorn under the linen frock or flannel overshirt, according to the weather. It is really important that this, or something equivalent, be constantly on liand to meet the sudden changes of weather. In very warm weather, where even this amount of flannel is sometimes excessive, great benefit results from the use of a flan- nel belt. This is a strip of fine flannel worn under the clothes, about four inches wide and forty inches long, with two or three buttons at one end, shortened a little at the upper side by two or three tucks to make it fit the better. Fig. 5. llauucl Bandage. The idea of this belt appears to have come from India. Per- haps some sufferers from dysentery at Calcutta noticed that the natives generally wear a sash — the cummerbund — and thus es- cape the dysentery that destroys the foreigners by scores and hun- dreds. At any rate, we are fully convinced of the great value of this article in the prevention and cure of the dysentery of warm climates; and we think there is no exaggeration in the statement that it has saved many thousands of lives. It appears to act by affording a gentle support to the walls of the abdomen at a time when they need such support on accomit of the ex- hausting eflects of climate, and by keeping up a zone of perspira- tion around the body through all the variations of temperature, and thus preventing the evils of suppressed perspiration. [" I have known this article, AVorn in temperate clinrates, to relieve effectually a dysentery contracted in the tropics." (T.)] (57.) If so dispose! we may possibly find some fault with the § 59. ] CLOTHING. 53 sailor's dress. We occasionally notice some little embroidery in red, yclloM', or brown silk, a childish taste for finery, not ])erhaps qnite in keeping with coarse, sunburnt features. What a pro- digious improvement there will be when no worse fault than this can be found in the fisliions of dress elsewhere ! The hands of grass among the small stores arc palm leaves for the fabrication of hats. These hats are commonly made much too heavy for com- fort, the object being to make them preserve the precise form deemed most elegant by the nautical milliners. There is no ne- cessity for this ; the preservation of the precise form of a hat is of no such importance as to render it necessary to sacrifice com- fort and health for this object. There is so little comfort in the straw hat at present in use that it is never worn except on dress occasions, the light cloth cap being universally preferred for common use in all climates. There was formerly in use a black hat, made of the straw one by covering with linen and saturating with beeswax and black paint. It weighed about two pounds, and was polished to shine like varnish. This absurdity is prob- ably quite obsolete, though a few specimens, like mummies, may be preserved in the cabinets of the curious. (58.) The officers of a ship are generally able to dress them- selves comfortably, with few restrictions other than those imposed by the conventional usages of society ; the regulations scarcely interferiug, except in matters of color and lace. The undress cap is very convenient covering for the head, except in warm weather, when the straw hat may be substituted. (59.) The small stores are principally such small articles as are required in repairing the clothes and keeping them in good order. This repairing is useful not only as a matter of economy, but the employment is one of the most valuable of the moral and social in- fluences, apparently of small account, but which in the aggregate make existence at sea tolerable. We should never object to see a sailor's working clothes patched to any extent, but no raggedness or other want of neatness should be permitted. There is gener- ally one afternoon of the week allowed for mending clothes; and probably the happiest moment of an old sailor's life is when he succeeds in threading a needle to sew the patch on his trowsers ; having spent about half an hour in selecting a proper patch, ar- ranging things around him, and adjusting his spectacles. It must 64 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 60. carry him back in memory to the innocent days of childhood, when he probably contemplated the featui'es of his grandmother similarly occupied. The sailor should never be deprived of his mending day without a very good and very urgent reason. (60.) But the leading article of small stores is tobacco — that solace of wretchedness, that exalter of happiness, that stultify- ino- luxury of indolence ! It is even introduced twice into the allowance table for fear it might be forgotten — " don't forget pig- tail." If there is any condition in life in which the use of tobacco should not be discouraged, it is certainly that of the sailor, whose life is nothing but labor and wretchedness, mitigated principally by contrast, and variet)', and tobacco. Whatever of consolation or comfort is to be had from it fairly belongs to him. CHAPTER YIII. FOOD THE RATION. (61.) The food of the sailor is much restricted in variety and deteriorated in quality by his situation at sea. It must consist necessarily of such articles as can be preserved for a long time in various climates. The ration as regulated by Act of Congress is abundant in quantity and of excellent quality. The laws have been changed from time to time so as to conform to improving intelligence. Experimental improvements not greatly increasing the cost and not objected to by the men are constantly being in- troduced. The weekly allowance is exhibited in the following table arranged to correspond with the usual issue at sea : Exhibit of Navy Ration for Each Day of the Week >. u. Commutation Articles. a a o 1 1 a 1 3 (X4 Saturday. Weekly " quantit; price. Rate per lb. Price. Biscuit, .... ounces, 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 98 $0 04 $0 24J Beef, .... pounds, 1 1 2 8 16 Pork,. . . . pounds, 1 1 1 3 10 30 Preserved meat. pounds. 4 f n 20 30 Flour, . . . pounds. 1 ^ 1 5 5 Eice, .... pounds. I J 6 3 Dried fruit, ounces. 2 2 4 12 3 Pickles, . . . ounces, 4 4 8 8 4 Sugar, . . . ounces, 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 14 16 14 Tea, or, . . . ounces. 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 i l- n 90 lOJ Coffee, or, . . ounces. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 24 Cocoa, . . . . ounces, 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 24 Butter, . . . ounces. 2 2 4 30 7i- Desiccated potato, ounces, 2 2 20 21 Desiccated vegetab's, ounces. 1 28 If Beans, .... pints, 1 2 1 1 J U 36 61 Molasses, ... - pints. i i 48 3 Vinegar, .... pints. i i 20 If Average (25), twenty-five cents per day. 56 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 63. (62.) This table allows important variation. For instance, the article dried fruit is usually raisins; on other stations it is drietl apples, and occasionally prunes, dates, and figs are issued. Tea, coffee, and chocolate are supplied, sometimes the one, some- times another, according to convenience, but not generally at the option of the men. The amount of the ration is so abundant that messes of fifteen men commonly di'ow but twelve or thirteen ra- tions. The value of the undrawn portion is received in money at the end of the month, and forms a small mess fund, which su]ipli(^ mustard, pepper, and other condiments, besides fruit and fresh vegetables in port. (63.) With our present knowledge of the subject we are not able to suggest much improvement in the ration. But without new legislation it would not seem difficult for the proper bureaus, with the concurrence of the officers of the nayj, to introduce very great improvement in the issue and manner of preparing some of the articles. Fourteen ounces of hard biscuit is a very poor sub- stitute for bread. It is so hard that the teeth are soon worn out in chewing it, and the older seamen can only manage it by soaking it in their tea or water. It is nearly impossible to pre- serve it in tropical climates free from insects and mouldiness. The bread rooms are lined w^ith tin and kept scrupulously clean and dry, but large quantities of biscuit are necessarily condemned and thrown overboard, spoiled. This might perhaps be obviated in a degree by having most of the biscuit j)ut up in air-tight tin packages. But the law alloM^s the substitution of soft bread when convenient for the hard biscuit. This substitution is commonly made Avhen the ship is in port, so that fresh bread can be pur- chased. But as it will conduce greatly to health, and probably to economy in other respects, we hope the time is not distant when it will be found convenient to bake on board at sea, and issue to each man a loaf of fresh bread nearly every morning. There is no real difficulty on board the larger ships in having a good baker and a good oven for the purpose. In sailing ships, and perhaps steamers, the oven for this purpose should be associated with a distilling apparatus of sufficient ca])acity to supply every man on board with an abundance of drinkin":-water. A number of ob- jections, which are still occasionally urged against these proposed innovations, Iiave been answered again and again by those who § 63. ] THE RATION. 57 have studied the subject during the past half century. First, it is objected that it would be difficult to carry the requisite amount of fuel. This is answered by the fact that one pound of fuel, economically used, is more thau sufficient to evaporate a gallon of Abater, and probably a pound of fuel can be as easily carried as eight pounds of water. Secondl}^, there is supposed to be some difficulty in carrying so much flour. But the barrel which holds nearly two hundred pounds of flour can be made to hold but one hundred pounds of bread, and it certainly takes no more space to carry one barrel of flour than two barrels of biscuit. Thirdly, it is objected that no place can be found on board for the oven ; it would be in the way. There is something in this objection ; but in small vessels the oven and distilling apparatus may be as- sociated with the cooking galley, a moderate increase of size and a little mechanical ingenuity being sufficient to accomplish the object. I inspected a contrivance of this kind in 1846, drank some of the water, and found it very good. The navy moves slow, very slow in some directions. Even if it be desirable to sep- arate the oven from the distilling apparatus and the cooking gal- ley in larger vessels, the difficulty we conceive to be by no means insurmountable, for we have seen a place found for a commodore's galley — a matter of some importance, certainly, as it saves vexa- tion in settling quarrels l)etween the cooks, but we think it quite as important to supply the ship's company with wholesome and palatable bread. Another objection is, that the sailor hates inno- vations and innovators of all sorts, and if the hard biscuit should be altogether rej)laced by soft bread, he would suspect it to be some new and cunning trick to cheat him out of his rights, and the grumbling complaints would be altogether intolerable. This may be true, and probably on other accounts a sudden change of this kind is not desirable. The change should be brought about gradually. By way of experiment, an oven of sufficient capacity to bake a hundred pounds of bread each day might be placed on board a ship with four or five hundred men, so as to supply a loaf of fresh bread once or twice a week to each man preferring it. Each man will be ready for his fresh bread as often as he can get it under this arrangement. The ovens can afterwards be grad- ually enlarged and adapted to every description of vessels, and thus the desired chano-e will be made without the confusion and 68 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 67. trouble which usually attend the sudden introduction of radical reforms. (64.) Beef that has been long salted becomes so hard and tough that the teeth and other digestive apparatus can hardly convert it into nutriment. On this account, freshly packed beef is very much better than that which has been packed two or three years. Salt pork is nuich better preserved, probably, because of the greater proportion of fat and its more thorough blending with the muscular tissue. This may prevent its so thorough saturation with salt, and consequent hardening. Both deteriorate by keep- ing, and so far as possible, it is best that meat should be used before it has been too long salted. (65.) Flour is used in comparatively small quantities, princi- pally for plum puddings, but we expect to see it used in much larger quantities, so as to supersede the necessity for so much hard biscuit. It is not always so well prepared and packed as it should be. To keep well in all climates it should be made of wheat at least one year old, or thoroughly kiln dried, and packed in tight casks, with four iron hoops in addition to the connnon wooden ones. ISIuch flour for want of this cure is spoiled and thrown over- board . Flour, as commonly prepared for the market in temper- ate climates, of new Avheat and packed in loose casks, is quite worthless when transported to the tropics. {()Q.) Rice keeps well in all climates when properly packed. Sailors formerly had a great prejudice against it, and fed most of their small allowance to the fishes. They said it contained no nourishment, had no more taste or substance than sawdust, and caused blindness. These nonsensical notions are giving way, and the small quantity of rice now allowed is properly used. Various small luxuries, by way of experiment, were occasionally offered as a substitute for the rice, till the men have come to think better of it. Most of them arc now unwilling to do without the rice ; and they are disposed to keep the substitutes, llice is probably the most useful of the smaller articles of the ration. (67.) Tlie raisins or other dried fruit are of great advantage. On the Mediterranean and some other distant stations raisins are commonly supplied, being more convenient and more easily jire- served than other dried fruits. They are connnonly cooked \\ ith § 69. ] THE RATIOX. 59 the small quantity of flour issued to make plum puddino-, a mass of not very good-looking material dotted with fruit. It is com- monly covered with molasses, and custom has made it attractive. It certainly possesses important good qualities not found in any other article of sea diet. On the home station, and occasionally elsewhere, dried apples are issued instead of raisins. They are made into pies and dumplings with flour, and seasoned with mo- lasses, so that they answer about the same purpose as the raisins ; some of the men even prefer them. They are not generally so well liked as the raisins and are more difficult of preservation. Prunes, pears, aud peaches are occasionally substituted, the regu- lations wisely permitting such substitution when convenient. We confess to a very strong partialit^^, wdiich may be only a strong prejudice, in favor of dried fruits as a part of the seaman's ration. It seems to us that various fruits and vegetables, and even flesh, lose less of the peculiar properties which belong to each of them as fresh food by simple desiccation than by any other process of pres- ervation yet imagined, not even excepting the use of air-tight cans. {(iS.) The pickles are various tender vegetables and fruits simply cured in vinegar, or with salt and vinegar ; but usually they are half-grown cucumbers prepared according to the do- mestic process, with occasional variation of the spices for the sake of variety- of flavor. They were introduced with a view to the continuous use of a small quantity of varied vegetable material, as little changed as possible from the fresh state, for the purpose of affording protection against scorbutus — ^sea scurvy. They form a pleasant condiment to the substantial meal, and are prob- ably quite as useful as the preserved lime-juice so much lauded for the same purpose. They are more pleasant and more convenient. (69.) Cranberries, which were formerly indicated as the sub- stitute for pickles, I have never seen issued as a j)art of the ration. This elegant little fruit, though highly appreciated and used in many ways, has not yet received among us anything like the at- tention to which it is entitled, or found half the applications to which it is destined. A few years ago it was an unimportant wild fruit, growing on land despised because it would produce nothing else. But the fruit picked from this wasted land was sold at a good price per quart. The price increased with the comparative scarcity of the fruit, till cranberry swamps came to 60 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 71. be valuable jiroperty ; and the growth of the fruit has been en- couraged on eontiguous land till the cultivation of cranberries has become a regular branch of agriculture. In cool weather, this fruit is easily kept perfectly fresh for several months by merely keeping it immersed in clear water. We are not aware of any real attempt to preserve it for sailors' use on long voyages. The Fig. 6. Cranberries. constantly increasing demand for it keeps up the price, so that it is only an article of occasional luxury, except among the wealthy, and so long as this continues to be the case it cannot be exten- sively used in the ration of seamen. For occasional use on long voyages, it might be slightly cooked with a little sugar in small air-tit^ht tin cans. If extensive cultivation should ever make the fruit sufficiently abundant and cheap, it w^ould probably be worth more dried than all the rest of our dried fruits put together. At present the cranberry crop is probably worth as much as any fruit crop in the United States, except only apples and peaches. (70.) Tea, coffee, and chocolate form by their aromatic infu- sions delicious beverages of great advantage to health and com- fort. The sugar is used mainly to soften the flavor of the tea and coffee, which without such addition are too pungent or bitter for our palates ; but the brow^n sugar commonly issued doubt- lessly contains in its coloring matter substances of much import- ance to nutrition. Refined sugar, though more pleasant generally to the taste, is on this account probably much less advantageous as an article of diet in the absence of fresh food. (71.) Tea and coffee are found, by appropriate chemical treat- ment, to contain a curious alkaloid, which bears a relation to the plant from which derived, similar to that of quinine to cinchona, § 72, ] COFFEE. 61 or morphine to opium. When procured from tea it is called theine ; when from coffee, caffeine ; but it is now generally agreed to consider these two preparations as identical, no sort of differ- ence in properties being observable. Several other plants, though of very different botanical characters, Ilex paraguayensis, PonUnia sorbilis, etc., whose infusions have come to be extensively used as beverages, are found to contain this same theine, which is hence supposed to possess the insinuating qualities which have brought most of them into use. Chocolate, too, has its thea- bromine, which is very like, if not identical with, theine. Tea is usually prepared by simple infusion in boiling w^ater, and is used almost immediately. The aroma is so delicate that it is quickly lost by standing or boiling, and the infusion is then bitter and it is thought to be spoiled. The fresh infusion with its aroma is certainly the most pleasant, and the Chinese are in the habit of adding fragrant flowers to some varieties of tea in order to increase and vary the aroma. But this fragrance is not the only or probably the most important prop- erty of the tea, and hence the tea is probably at least half wasted in our common j^rocess. The Chinese and the Japanese use tea much more economically. After the first fragrant in- fusion, which they fully appreciate, they add an equal quantity of boiling water for a second in- fusion, which is considered nearly equal to the first. They do not always stop at the second in- fusion, but have been seen every time a cup of tea was poured out to add a cup of boiling water, till evervthing soluble about the leaves ^ , . , ' .. o Teapot with strainer. must have been removed; the last drawing being nearly tasteless and colorless. We are able to state that even this last is a refreshing drink under some circumstances. The teapot should always be provided with a strainer in the upper part, as in the pharmaceutist's infusion cup. This arrangement, besides preventing the leaves from entering the spout, very much promotes the rapid and perfect drawing of the tea. (72.) Coffee, though probably no better than tea hygienically, or as an article of ordinary diet, is certainly much more highly esteemed by the portion of mankind vrith whom we more particularly con- 62 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 73. cern ourselves. This high appreciation of coffee is probably due to its more decided and more characteristic flavor, which is not so easily destroyed or lost as that of tea. But this preference actu- ally existing must be taken into the account in adapting diet to the wants of the individual. The late Prof. Chapman, of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, has been heard to express himself after this fashion : " The Yankee likes pork and molasses ; the Vir- ginian is fond of bacon and turnip tops, and the Pennsylvanian likes sourcrout and goose ; and these are good and wholesome food for those who like them, and greatly appreciated by con- valescents sometimes, though the very thought of them be really nauseating to nine-tenths of mankind." Another ounce of coffee has been added to the ration. May 23d, 1872, "An additional ration of coffee and sugar, to be provided at his first turning out." Coffee is the dried seed from the berry of a small tree which grows abundantly everywhere in the tropics, having probably been intro- duced into most of its present localities from Arabia. The seeds are parched and crushed so as to be more readily acted on by boil- ing water. The aroma of coffee is not so easily dissipated as that of tea, and it requires a more protracted application of hot water to extract the virtues of the seed. Coffee is, therefore, prepared by a short boiling instead of simple infusion. The roasting of the coffee seems necessary to develop the peculiar flavor which we require, and which is perhaps necessary to its M'holesomeness ; but this process is often carried too far by our cooks, who appro- priately enough call the process " burning " the coffee. It should be rapidly roasted over a good fire, and constantly stirred, and the operation should be continued till it attains a chestnut-brown €olor, or a little darker. If the roasting be continued much longer than this nearly everything that distinguishes coffee from other vegetable matter is decomposed, and there remains little but charcoal, creasote, and the like, which acorns, beans, or chic- cory woidd supply just as well. Coffee-grains which have been spoiled in this way have their black surfaces slightly tinged with iridescent purple. If it be desired to prepare a substitute for coffee, of Ijcans or acorns, it may be well to continue the roasting to nearly this point, and the decoction will have very nearly the ■flavor of tlie best Mocha prepared in the same way. (73.) Chocolate, though very similar to coffee and tea in nutri- § 75. ] BEANS. 63 live properties, is very inferior in fragrance, is full of fatty and starchy matters, and is not much estccnied. It seems necessary to mix it with spices in order to give it sufficient flavor to render it digestible among men who think so little of it as our seamen generally do. It is very liable to adulteration, and is sometimes made up of spices, starch, suet, and coloring matter. These frauds can only be detected by the microscope and the flavor ; and as the flavor depends mainly on the spices properly intro- duced, there is much annoyance in purchasing it, except in the entire seeds. On the whole, there is so much annoyance and so little advantage from the use of this article that it mig-ht with- out harm be omitted from the ration altogether. (74.) Butter is such a common article of diet that it is veiy disagreeable to attempt to do without it at sea. Its preservation is very difficult in tropical climates, and the navy is very for- tunate in having it packed in such a way that it keeps with com- J5aratively little deterioration or loss. It is valuable in helping to keep up the variety of customary articles of diet which habits and constitution seem to make necessary. It is probably of great importance as an antiscorbutic. Its nitrogen compounds being blended with fat, probably undergo less change from their fresh condition than similar material in most other kinds of preserved food. There is no sort of use in taking it to sea unless specially prepared and packed for the purpose, as it would soon decay and be worthless. (75.) The regular bean of the navy ration is the small white kidney bean, which seems to be universally preferred. Other varieties and even horsebeans have been sometimes used ^here the white bean could not be procured fresh. On foreign stations this substitution is often made advantageously, but where the regular bean is procurable in good condition, no other is com- parable to it. Beans are, in every situation, good food ; but their great excellence at sea is referable to the fact that they are seeds still possessing the germinating property. They hence contain the nitrogen compounds in the same state in which they exist in living plants, and therefore, probably, they possess the antiscor- butic virtues which appear to belong to all fresh vegetables, even grass and weeds. Beans are prepared for cooking by a prelim- inary soaking in fresh water for nearly twenty-four hours. 64 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 77. Daring this time, if of good qiiality, they imbibe moisture ; the process of germination commences, and they swell to about four times their previous bulk. This is a genuine process of vege- table growth, and hence we understand that good beans, properly " prepared, have valuable pro[)L"rties, which are to be found only in freshly grown vegetables. Bciuis which have been kept more than one season lose in some degree the germinating property, and though in good condition otherwise they should be rejected on the mere fact of age. The only real test of good betuis is to have a cook who understands his business to cook some of them. When the beans of the ship's stores, cither by age or decay, have in great degree lost the germinating property, any kind of blue or black beans procurable on the spot, in fresh condition, may be substituted very advantageously. Several varieties, occasion- ally used in this way, have gained temporary popularity on ac- count of their advantageous comparison with white beans that were old or spoiled. (76.) Molasses, used principally with plum-pudding, is im- portant, as it renders this article more palatable and wholesome. It is probably valuable also, from containing a large proportion of the nitrogen compounds (nitrogenous organic principles) of the cane, but little altered from their fresh condition. It is, perhaps, more rich in this respect ihan brown sugar. On this account, molasses should be preferred which is derived most directly from the cane. The best is made by merely evaporating the juice of the cane to a proper consistence ; the next best is the drainage from the crystallization of brown sugar; the worst in this respect, is sugar-house syrup, however excellent it may be in other re- spects. (77.) The vinegar of the rations is not all taken by the men ; the small quantity allowed is more than the seamen finds use for, in seasoning his food, mixing his mustard, and curing his pickles. Vinegar prepared from the juice of apples, is that contemplated by the law; and inspectors should particularly guard against deception in this article. The more gross adulterations, with sulphuric acid, etc., are easily enougli detected l)y chen\ical re- agenb:. But much of the vinegar of commerce is preptuvd from other material than the juice of fruits, — from whisky, rum, and molasses; from malt, sugar, and starch; and however good iu § 77. ] VINEGAR. 65 other respects, it is not suituble for the use of seamen on long voyages. There can be no reasonable doubt that good vinegar, from fresh fruits, contains much of the nitrogenous priiicij^les of the fruit from which it is derived, besides acetic acid, and malic, tartaric, or citric acid. It is probably not inferior as an anti- scorbutic to lime-juice, except when this latter is but recently expressed from the fresh fruit. The most reliable test of good vinegar is the aroma, when carefully examined by an experienced person. Preserved meats, desiccated potato, and desiccated mixed vege- tables, have recently been added to the ration. The value of these additions have not yet been determined. The quantity of pre- served meat is probably too great, as officers' messes are not often willing to have a dinner of such meat oftener than once a week. The desiccated potato is not much liked by the men, and as a substitute for fresh potatoes in preventing scorbutic troubles, we apprehend it will prove a failure. The desiccated mixed vege- tables have long been in use experimentally, and have been of great benefit in long voyages ; but with steamships, and short voyages, and abundance of fresh vegetables, they are not much used. CHAPTER IX. ARRANGEMEXT OF MEALS — XUTRITIOX IX GEXERAL. (78.) The common arrangement of meals, on shipboard, is to have lireakfast at eight o'clock, or immediately after the morn- ing work ; dinner at noon ; and supper at about five, varying a little for occasional convenience. Each meal occupies an hour, which is not interfered with or disturbed, unless by a call for very urgent duty. This supplies food at proper intervals, with- out unnecessary interruption. The only apparent objection to the arrangement is the long fast, from six o'clock in the evening till eight o'clock next morning — fourteen hours. Much of this time is occupied by sleep, and on that account the want of food is not so severely felt as otherwise it would be. But seamen are re- quired to keep their watches, and they are thus employed on deck nearlv half tlie night ; and they are commonly called at daylight for the mornino; work. This involves two or three hours of lal3or, whicli is performed in the morning before breakfast. Many men suffer greatly during this labor for want of a biscuit and a cup of coftee. Their suiferings are relieved, in some degree, by a traffic in cofifee with various cooks at the galley. But there are times, particularly in the beginning of the cruise, when the men have no money to spend in this Avay ; and it sometimes happens tliat the cooks dishonestly appropriate coffee for this business. It would be much better to supply the cup of cotfee constantly by regulation than to continue the present practice, which, though it meets a real want, by relieving tlie protracted fast at the right moment, still does it ineifectually, and leads to many annoying abuses. It may be objected that it would be inconvenient to light the galley-fires early enough to make this cup of coifee. This would sometimes be the case, but we see no more inconvenience in doing it regularly than in permitting it to be done for tlie private sale of coffee. The morning work is sometimes postponed till after a § 80. ] NUTRITION. 67 somewhat earlier breakfast, with great advantage. In times of extraordinary labor in cold weather, as in approaching our coast in a winter storm, it is customary to continue the galley-fire all night, with the privilege to the night watches of making coffee. There is great comfort and convenience in this arrangement. We should very much like to see the sailor regularly supplied with his cup of hot coffee in the morning watch, and in night watches of excessive fatigue and labor. (79.) The subject of food and nutrition is of such paramount importance, that we are not nearly done with it. The object of food is to supply, in a state capable of assimilation, the material needed for the growth of the body, and to supply the place of that which may be removed by the wear and tear of the system. We say capable of assimilation, because the proper elements may exist in such shape that we cannot use them as food. For in- stance, woody fibre has about the same ultimate chemical compo- sition as starch and sugar. The sugar and starch are available food ; but our teeth and our stomachs are unable to digest chips of wood. And again, the atmosphere by which we are sur- rounded contains in sufficient abundance nearly, if not quite, all the elementary substances wdiich enter into the constitution of living beings ; but these cannot all be appropriated directly from the atmosphere by the animal organism in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of the system. Of about sixty-four elemen- tary substances recognized in nature, more than one-fourth have been obtained from the human Ijody by chemical analysis. These are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, silicon, chlorine, fluorine, potassium, sodium, calcium, magne- sium, iron, manganese, aluminium, and copper. The first four, forming the bulk of the tissues, are called essential elenients. The others, being in much smaller proportions, and not entering universally into the constitution of all the tissues, are called in- cidental elements, though their presence, in due proportion, is quite essential — necessary to the existence of the tissues. (80.) These elements must all be supplied by the atmosphere, and by our food and drink. Let us examine in succession each of these sources of nutriment. The atmosphere is composed of about twenty-one per cent, of oxygen and seventy-nine per cent, of nitrogen, with three or four parts in ten thousand of carbonic 68 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 81. anhydride (carbonic acid gas), and a large but very irregular proportion of watery vapor. The other constituents of the at- mosphere are in very minute proportion, and their presence is sometimes apparently due to local circumstances. The air acts through the lungs and the skin. In the process of respiration it is warmed to about 37° Centigrade (99° F.) ; loses about five parts in one hundred of its volume of oxygen, gains about four parts of carbonic anhydride, and is nearly saturated with watery vapor (Dalton). Thus four-fifths of the oxygen which disappears goes to form the carbonic anhydride eliminated, and one-fifth must enter into the constitution of our tissues to be eliminated by other channels. It is not known in what way nitrogen is af- fected in ordinary respiration. In some experiments a small portion has appeared to be absorbed, in others the opposite result has been reported. It would seem that in cases of long fasting a small quantity of nitrogen always disappears from the respired air. In the case of herbivorous animals, it is difficult to imagine that the nitrogen of the grass and other food equals in quantity that eliminated by the kidneys, the intestines, and the skin ; and, hence, we may expect to see it definitely announced that these animals receive large quantities of nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. We hence infer that the office of the lungs is to receive oxygen for the use of the system, and occasionally nitrogen, and to eliminate carbonic anhydride, water, and eifete material, useless and noxious, from the system. Some substances incapable of as- similation when taken into the system, promptly find their way to the lungs for elimination, as alcohol, turpentine, etc. (81.) The skin, under ordinary circumstances, seems not to absorb anything from the atmosphere. It is capable, however, of absorbing many substances, medicinal and others, and much more readily when the cuticle is abraded or removed by a blister, or by friction. It is probable that Avater may be absorbed by this surface from a bath, or from a moist atmosphere, in cases where there is nuich need of this fluid, but it is difficult to de- termine the })oint by any direct experiment. Sailors, when un- able to procure drinking-water, have been able in some degree to assuage their thirst by wetting their flannel clothing with sea- water, but this is not conclusive evidence of absorption, as the § 81. ] NUTRITION. 69 damp clothing by checking evaporation must somewhat relieve thirst, whether there is absorption or not. The exhalations from the skin are constant and ai)preciable. The only substances exhaled in considerable bulk are water and carbonic anhydride, which under ordinary circumstances pass oif at insensible perspiration. But when the quantity is greatly in- creased by warm w'eather or exercise, and the evaporation is re- strained by a moist atmosphere, the perspiration collects in drops on the surfiice of the body. Still more important, probably, than the carbonic anhydride and the water are other materials exhaled in comparatively small quantities. We have the report of a boy wdio was varnished and gilded for the purpose of exhibition in a parade ; the perspiration from a large portion of his body being arrested, he promptly gave symptoms of suffocation, and he died before it was possible to remove his unfortunate finery. Xow, it is impossible to refer this and similar results to the retention of the carbonic anhydride and the water of the perspiration, for the elimination of the carbonic anhydride would impose on the lungs onlv two per cent, additional labor (Reignault and Reiset), and surelv the water could be eliminated by the kidneys. The case of this celebrated boy has lately been the subject of some doubt, as the varnish might have been composed of poisonous material, but the experiment has been often enough repeated on horses and rabbits, and it kills them — the more complete the coat the more quickly they die. It is to be hoped that no one will have the foolhardiness to try the experiment on himself; accident may some time repeat the experiment. The character, and especially the amount of this additional matter of perspiration, can only be guessed at. Thenard, in the perspiration from a well-worn flannel shirt, discovered the following substances: Chloride of sodium, acetic acid, phosphate of soda, phosphate of lime, oxide of iron, and animal substance. Berzelius, in sweat wdiich had run from the forehead, found lactic acid, chloride of sodium, and muriate of ammonia. It is difficult for us to conceive why all these substances cannot be eliminated by the lungs and by the kidneys and the other eliminating organs, but the evidence is sufficiently conclusive that they cannot. The offensive character of cutaneous perspiration is often very appreciable by the sense of smell. We have had occasion to experience this on visiting the 70 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 82. crowded bertli-deck of a man-of-war wlien it was necessary to close hatches in a storm, and the wearers of patent leather boots may have had such experience without going so far from home. (82.) So far as we know, the atmosphere containing nearly, perhaps quite all the elements of our bodies, supplies directly for nourishment oxygen only. But it is one of the great avenues by which worn-out, effete, useless, and poisonous materials are re- moved. These, when not freely diluted and removed by ven- tilation, are sometimes very poisonous, capable of exciting dan- gerous disease in those A\ho inhale them, and they always become poisonous by some process of decay if kept thus concentrated for any considerable time. In this way, by the decaying exhalations from the skin and the lungs, typhus fever was formerly caused very often in jails, emigrant ships, crowded tenements, etc. Terribly destructive epidemics have originated in this way. CHAPTER X. DRINK RAIN-WATER RIVER-WATER — SPRING-WATER WELL-WATER POISONOUS WATER. (83.) Though neither air nor water comes under the ordinary designation of food, they are quite as important as solid food for the maintenance of the body. Human life can be continued but a minute or two without a renewed supply of air, perhaps a day or two without water, and a week or two, possibly a month, with- out any nutriment except air and water. While on this subject we shall conclude what we have to say of water as nutritive ma- terial and hygienic agent. Water, with oxygen and hydrogen in the proportion necessary to form water, constitutes the bulk of the human organism. If the body be desiccated, the tissues, except the bones, fat, and skin, are reduced to a small fraction of what they were. This loss in size and weight is principally due to the removal of water, which partly existed as water in the system, and partly as oxygen and hydrogen in the constitution of the tissues. The desiccated re- mains are still composed, in large proportion, of oxygen and hy- drogen. Much of this water, and of these elements of water is derived from the water we drink, and, hence, it is scarcely possi- ble to overestimate the hygienic and therapeutic value of water. (84.) Besides forming more than two-thirds of the whole body (Blumenbach), water gives its necessary fluidity to the blood, without which it could not be distributed to the tissues and or- gans. The atmosphere, if deprived of its water, would be wholly unfit for respiration, as it would carry off the vapor from the lungs and air-passages so rapidly as to cause exhaustion and death. Water forms a large proportion of all the organic substances used as food. The common potato, for instance, is about three-fourths composed of water, which can be separated by mere drying ; and the starch particles remaining are still largely composed of oxygen and hydrogen in the proportion to form water. Animal matter, 72 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 85. such as muscular flesh (ordinary meat), is composed of ■water in much larger proportion. Digestion in the stomach cannot be carried on without a due proportion of water, and that is to say a very large proportion. Thirst can Ijc relieved only by water, or by food or drink composed mainly of water. Water abounds in nil liabitable regions of the globe; only the ocean and tlie desert are without abundant supplies of drinking-water. This universal beverage is placed by a bountiful Providence nearly everywhere. (85.) The most eminent physicians of all times hayo had a high appreciation of the great value of water. Pliny thought it a great absurdity for men to be at so much trouble and expense to make a variety of drinks, when nature has supplied them so abundantly with one of such excellence as water. Hoffman says that " no remedy can more effectually secure health and prevent disease than pure water." " Water proves agreeable to persons of all ages." He points out what we are sure are facts, that water-drinkers are more healthy and longer lived, have whiter and sounder teeth, and are more brisk and alert than those who habitually drink wine and malt liquors. Haller, the eminent physiologist, drank nothing but water. The classical Gregory, who lived in an age and country where alcoholic compotations were general, declares spring and river water to be the most wholesome drink, and the most grateful to those who arc thirsty, whether sick or well. We might increase to any extent the cata- logue of the praiscrs and drinkers of water without coming down to the times when people separated themselves into parties on this subject, and commenced calling each other fanatics and sots. . Dr. Miller, of New York, long before the temperance movement, pointed out the instructive fact that " in all the frequent attemjits to sustain the intense cold of winter in the Arctic regions, particu- larly in Hudson's Bay, Greenland, and Spitzbergen, those crews who had been well supplied with provisions and liquors have generally perished, while, at the same time, the greatest number of suryivors have been uniformly found among those who were accidentally thrown on inhospitable shores, destitute of food and liquors, and compelled to maintain an incessant struggle against the rigors of the climate in procuring food, and obliged to use § 86. ] RAIN-WATER. 73 "water alone for driiikiug." But the end of tlie gigantic breweries is not yet. {Bdl) (86.) There is much importance properly attached to the differ- ent varieties of water. Ships, on leaving home ports and on most foreign stations, obtain a supply of good water, the quality being ascertained by abundant experiment and traditional use. Under such circumstances there is no difficulty in making the proi)er selection ; but this is not always the case, and we may be called upon to determine the comparative salubrity of water from various sources. Rain-iraicr is the purest water found in nature. It is, indeed, water distilled principally by evaporation from the surface of the ocean and condensed by varying clianges of atmospheric temperature. The small quantity of iodine which it contains may be evaporated from the ocean, and in the act of precipita- tion it takes up atmospheric air with an additional portion of oxygen, carbonic anhydride, ammonium nitrate and carbonate, undetermined nitrogenous matter, and various impurities from dust and other sources of local contamination. Liebig tells us : " It is worthy of observation that the ammonia contained in rain and snow water has an offensive smell of perspiration and animal excrements ; a fact which leaves no doubt respecting its origin." The first rain of a shower is much more charged with this nitro- genous matter and dust, especially after a protracted period of dry weather, and, therefore, it should be allowed to run to waste in collecting rain-Avater for domestic uses. It has been suggested that the nitrates are formed by the discharge of electricity^ in thunderstorms. This, however, can hardly be the case exclu- sively, for there are places, in Peru, for instance, where rain and thunderstorms are unknown, and where the nitrates are con- stantly precipitating and incrusting the earth, so as to be profitably extracted by lixiviation. Rain-water is by some considered the very best drinking-water. It certainly answers the purpose per- fectly well, and is probably neither better nor worse for the ab- sence of the earthy salts usually found in river and spring water. When carefully collected, kept for a week or two in an iron or brickwork cistern, till its organic matters are decomposed and cooled to a proper temperature, there Ls probably no better drink- ing-water to be obtained. 74 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 87. Snow-7i'afcr contains less oxygon than rain-water, but differs from it api)arently in no other important particular. (87.) River-ivater contains all the impurities of rain-water, Avith the addition of such matters as it may collect from the soil ; except that in some instances it may lose more organic matters bv decomposition tlum it receives in its course. The impurities of river-water are as various as the constituents of the soil through wliich it flows. A large portion of these are neces- sary constituents of our bodies, and we may actually receive them partly from this source; but that they may be derived from other sources, and are not essential to the character of good drinking-water, is sufficiently proved by the excellence of rain- water, which does not contain them. River-water is often unpleasantly nuiddy, but this fault may be corrected by rest, with or without alum, or by filtering. Rivers flowing through flat countries are apt to have marshes and marshy pools in the hollows near their banks, and they are always in some degree contaminated by the un^^•holesorae water of these marshes. The water of such rivers has occasionally been found very unwholesome, causing epidemics of malarial fever (intermit- tent and remittent) and dysentery. These bad qualities may be obviated in some degree by boiling and cooling, as with marsh- water. Rivers as they approach the ocean become brackish, especially where there is much rise and fall of the tide. This seriously injures the water, but the fault is in some degree cor- rected if the water be kept for some time in iron tanks before using ; and even throwing a handful of nails into a cask of such water greatly improves its quality. Rivers afford the only adequate supply of water for large cities. The Thames, besides serving as an outlet for the sewers, formerly supplied the Avhole city of London with drinking-water by the various water-works built along its banks. " The Thames water has a smell of excrement even after the application of all usual means of purification." — {Normanchj) This disgusting and un- healthy arrangement is being gradually corrected. The Schuyl- kill, supplying the city of Philadelphia, passes by the manufac- turing town of Manayunk, and is, probably, not as i)ure as it might be, tliough it contains but about one-eighth as nuuli or- ganic matter as the Croton, and less than one-tenth as much as §89.] SrRING-AV'ATER. 75 the Thames. Detroit, Michigan, lias probably purer water than any other city in the world. TJie following are about the pro- portions of mineral and organic matter per thousand in some of the waters which supply large cities, varying much, of course, with seasons and freshets. — {Bell.) WATERS. MINERAL MATTER. ORGANIC MATTER. Schuylkill, .... Croton, Cochituate, .... Thames, Seine, 3.508 to 5.5 4.998 1.220 10.925 10.662 .037 .276 .500 .392 traces. (88.) Spring-water varies much in quality. It is rain-water filtered through the soil, in which process it loses a large portion of the organic matters which it had received from the air, and it dissolves various minerals which it meets in the earth. Hence its quality varies with the character of the soil through which it flows. When the spring comes from a sloping hill of primitive or transition rock, the water having lost its organic matter, and received nothing injurious, it aifords probably the very best natural drinking-water. But spring-water, according to the situa- tion, is liable to receive every soluble substance in nature ; and hence, the great variety of saline, sulphur, and chalybeate sj^rings. A spring may occasionally drain a marsh at no great distance, and be contaminated by the injurious decaying material which belongs to stagnant water. (89.) Well-water, or pump-water, may be considered as identi- cal with spring-water. If the well be in a well-drained slope, with a basis of primitive rock, there is no better water anywhere, but in limestone and marshy districts it is about the worst. Wells are much more liable than springs to dangerous contaminations from local causes, especially in and near cities. The following extract from a newspaper is a case in point : " Poisonous Wells. — Any one passing Eichmond Terrace, Clifton, during the last week or ten days, must have remarked the long string of doctors' carriages drawn up in the neighbor- hood. The reason for this formidable display was the existence 76 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 91. of illness in almost every second house, the inhal)itants of which were afflicted with giistric fever (typhoid). Nearly a whole school of young ladies were lying ill at the same time, and there was scarcely a family which had not some of its membei's sick. It was not, however, till one death had taken place, and several were in imminent danger, that the cause of this extensive illness was discovered. It turned out to be produced by the use of a spring which supplied the place, and whose Avaters had been im- perceptibly poisoned by a sewer breaking into it, and so vitiating their character as to cause gastric fever in every family using it. On being found out, of course the evil was remedied, but not before much mischief had been done. The necessity of a pure water supply and an improved system of sewerage were sho^vn." — Bristol Times. (90.) The loater of inarshes and stagnant pools is contaminated by the decaying organic matters collected in such places. If men should be constrained by necessity to use such water, they may get rid of much of the poisonous quality by boiling and cooling it, by which they stop the decay for the time, and drive off the poisonous gases held in solution. The air is expelled at the same time, so as to render the water unpleasantly insipid ; but this fault may be corrected by aeration, or infusing any pleasantly bitter or aromatic plant, making tea. (91.) On foreign stations, it frequently becomes an important matter to select the best place for obtaining a supply of whole- some water. In mountainous countries there is, as a rule, no diffi- cult}^, for every spring, unless possessing some evident mineral quality, affords such ^vater as we need ; and if it flow for some distance in a brook, it is none the worse. Before receiving water from a brook, it is desirable to follow it up for some distance to its source, in order to see that there are no stagnant 2:>ools or other source of contamination along its banks. If the bed of the brook is of pebbles or sand, and the banks sloping or al)rupt, and its course rapid, there need not be much further questioning about the good quality of the water. In fact, it may often be an ad- vantage to have the water flow some distance in a brook of this kind, as it affords excellent aeration, by which the proportion of atmospheric air and carbonic anhydride are brought to the ])roper average, and any mineral matter in excess may be precipitated. § 91. ] THE CHOICE OF WATER. 77 But wc liavc not always the advantage of such a situation. The water of marshy places is to be avoided, as well as that of slug- gish little streams flowing through a flat country. In case of necessity, M^atcr from the middle of a large river should be taken in preference, as from its longer course its organic matter has had more time for decomposition, and for the poisonous results of decay to be dissipated. Low sand islands, without nuich vegeta- tion, in the immediate vicinity of the ocean, generally furnish an abundance of excellent water, especially in seasons of nuich rain. The rain displaces the sea-water, and remains nearer the surface, so that it may be obtained perfectly good by digging shallow wells. Good water is sometimes obtained from wells of this kind, even so near the ocean that the rise and fall of water in them correspond with the movements of the tide. But with much rise and fall of tide, the water is liable to become brackish by infil- tration from the ocean. If this is merely perceptible to the taste, the water need not be absolutely rejected, especially if we have iron tanks in which to preserve it ; for it quickly loses its salts without other inconvenience than rusting somewhat the tanks. CHAPTER XI. 1>URIFYIXG AND PRESERVING WATEPw (92.) E.IVER-AVATER is generally charged with earthy impuri- ties. These may be principally removed by allowing it to re- main for a time at rest in a tank or reservoir, using the clear Avater from the top after the subsidence of the insoluble material. The organic matter is at the same time decomposed and removed by the atmosphere. This is the process most generally available for purification on a large scale, and is greatly accelerated by the addition of a very small quantity of alum, four or five grains to the barrel, not enough to be tasted or to injure the water in any way. (93.) A much more expeditious process, and more eifective on a small scale, is by filtration. There are several ways of eifect- ing this, but the most generally applicable is to pass the water through alternate layers of sand and gravel, with sometimes an addition of charcoal. Filters of various sizes thus arranged may be obtained almost everywhere, and can certainly be made by any common mechanic A\'ith but very little special instruc- tion or supervision. They are often a source of much comfort. In the margin we represent a sectional plan of a filter which may readily be made by a cooper. It consists of a vessel. A, to receive the muddy water, with gimlet-holes in the bottom which transmit it to B, the second compartment, packed with gravel, sand, and gravel in successive layers, through which the water filters to C, the third division, from wliieh it may be drawn for use. The sand, thus situated, seems capable of arrest- ing, not only mechanical impurities, but, in some degree, even soluble salts. This filter, being made up of separate pieces, may Fig. 8. Water Filter. § 95. ] WATER. 79 without trouble be tiikeu apart, cleaned, and re})airc!d. It has the disadvantage that being made of wood the water may be somewhat injured by the material. If made of iron or earthen- ware it would be nearly perfect. A very nice filter is made of soft sandstone by fsishioning it into a vessel of conical form, about two inches thick, and mounting it in a frame, so that a vessel placed underneath may receive the water as it drips through. A dripstone of this kind may very well supply drinking-water for thirty or forty persons, and has the additional advantage, that it cools the water considerably in dry weather ; but it has not suffi- cient capacity to filter water on a large scale. (94.) Boiling and cooling some varieties of water may occa- sionally be advantageous. It ])recipitates the excess of carbonate of lime, and some other impurities. It expels the gaseous re- mains of decaying organic matter, and decomposes the poisons most likely to be present in marsh-water. The water by this process is deprived in some degree, if not entirely, of its poison- ous properties ; but by the loss of its carbonic acid and atmos- pheric air, it becomes so flat as to be quite unpleasant to the taste, and barely drinkable. By filtering and exposure to the air this may be corrected, and the water thus treated, cocta et dein rcfrig- erata, becomes drinkable. (95.) The distillation of sea-water is a means of obtaining good water on shipboard, which is likely to become of great importance. In sailing ships, on long voyages, it greatly econo- mizes space, as it requires little more than a pound of coal to make a gallon of pure water, besides doing the cooking for the crew at the same time. In war steamers there is often much steam wasted by banked fires, etc., which might as well be con- densed and used. Distilled Avater is deprived of air and salts, and is hence insipid, and is rendered further unpleasant by a dis- agreeable flavor, probably derived from the decomposition by heat of small quantities of organic matter. These disadvan- tages have in some degree been obviated by churning and other devices for exposing it to the action of the air ; but the empyreu- matic flavor is hard to get rid of without the intervention of considerable time. AVe are inclined to think that distilled water preserved in iron tanks about half full, long enough to lose its burnt flavor, perhaps a week, would likewise be sufficiently aer- 80 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 96. ated, especially Avith the motion of the ship at sea. lu this time it would further approximate to the characters of the best drink- ino--watei*s ; it would receive its full portion of iron from the tank ; it would certiiinly get all the chloride of sodium required without any special care ; half an ounce of the carpenter's chalk to a hundred gallons would supply as much carbonate of lime as is usually present in the best cb'inking-water; and thus we may have about as good drinking-water as any in the world. If it be necessary to imitate more exactly any natural water, we have only to add, in proper proportions, a very small quantity of car- bonate of potash, magnesia, and ammonia, and a few drops of sulphuric acid. The best waters vary greatly in the proportion of these salts ; they are, however, ahvays present in small quan- tities, and an excess of any of them beyond a grain or two to the gallon is enough to spoil the water. The ammonia, repre- senting decaying organic matter, should be omitted altogether. Whatever is added in this way should be added as soon as possi- ble, in order to allow time for thorough incorporation, in accord- ance with the natural affinities. The fresh water condensed to form the vacuum of the steam-engine is so highly charged with empyreumatic material, derived from the oil of the cylinders, that it is quite offensive, and useless even for washing clothes. \ye read somewhere of a crcAV being cast away on a desolate island without water. They had, however, the carpenter's pitch- kettle and a gun-barrel, which were arranged into an effective distilling apparatus of sufficient capacity to save their lives. The call for water was probably so urgent in this case that there was not much objection to the flavor. At my suggestion, on board the flag-ship Lancaster, in 1870, the idea of aeration by a small pebbly brook was put in practice. A trough about ten feet long was arranged with transverse parti- tions to make little cascades, and half filled with pebbles. There was no filter about it, and no unpleasant flavor could be found in distilled water aerated in this way. It was worked on the spar-deck to insure pure air. The apjiaratus was afterwards changed to the form of a large funnel, as represented in the diagram (Fig. 9). A funnel of this kind, twenty inches square and twenty-five high, suffices for five thousand gallons in twenty- four hours. (96.) The general use of iron tanks on shipboard, for preserv- §97.] IRON TANKS. 81 iug and purifying water, is one of the great improvements of modern times. The small amount of iron dissolved in the water does no harm, but probably assists in jirecipitating the or- ganic matter which the wa- ter, as received, may happen to contain. The iron being acted on by the salts Avhich may be in excess, they are decomposed, especially the sulphates and chlorides, and brackish water thus becomes good and wholesome. When the organic matters have once decayed, nothing susceptible of decay can be derived from the iron, and water thus pre- served is no more subject to decay or change than rock crystal. Occasionally, in rough weather, some iron rust may make the water turbid ; but this is no great disadvan- tage, and may readily be re- moved by a filter, or a pro- vision of limpid water may easily be kept on hand by transferring limpid water from its sediment into clean tanks on proper occasions. Rain- water collected from roofs and kept in large iron or brickwork reservoirs is generally the best water obtainable in tropical seaports. (97.) Wooden casks were formerly in general use for keeping water on shipboard. But the wood is constantly decaying and supplying organic matter for offensive decomposition, as long as the water remains in contact with it. From this cause the water is always offensive, except during the first few hours after its in- 6 Aerator for Distilled Water. 82 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 98. troduction into tlic casks. The degree of oifensiveness is much varied by circumstances. It is much mitigated by leaving the bung out of the cask for a day or two before using, so as to per- mit the escape of the offensive gases into the atmosi)here. Scraps of iron, or a few nails, thrown into a cask, have great influence in preserving the water. The iron seems to prevent the solution of organic matter from the oaken casks, and, pro])ablv by com- l)ining with any sulphur ])resent, prevents the decomposition from becoming of so offensive a character. Charring the interior of the casks and scrupulous cleanliness are measures which have their use ; but wooden casks should never be used for preserving water, except for a very short time, as on boat excursions, or ' merely for transferring water from the beach to the ship. Custom can do much in the way of making this offensive water toleral)le, and some seafaring men have pretended even to prefer water a little tainted in this way ; but the number of them is very small, and such water is not wholesome. (98.) Leaden reservoirs, tanks, and pipes were formerly much in use for collecting and keeping water ; but lead has proved very dangerous, not only in this shape, l)ut when used in roofs from M'hich water is collected for domestic use. This material being much more expensive than iron, as well as unsafe, we suppose it will soon be superseded entirely for these purposes. The small leaden pipes, with their convenient flexibility, seem as yet to maintain a position among the water fixtures of large eities ; the absurd maxim that what is most costly must necessarily be best, seeming to be the principal reason that this dangerous and expen- sive material continues to be used even to this limited extent. No serious accidents, that we are aware of, have ever occurred either in Philadelphia or New York from this cause. This ex- emption appears due to the salts and organic matter in the water, forming promptly a solid coating like paint on the interior sur- face of the leaden tube, in such a way as to prevent further corro- sion. Another reason is, perha})S, the great abundance and con- sequent waste of ^\•atcr ; so that a person drawing a vessel of water for use generally allows a quantity to run to waste first, thus un- consciously rejecting all the water which has remained any time in contact with the pipes. Zinc and co])per, it should not be forgotten, are likewise cajiable of poisoning the water which remains long in contact with them. CHAPTER XII. ALCOHOLIC AND VINOUS DRINKS EUM — 13 1!*. The more ciirefully I have explored tlie question, the more I have become convinced that tlie undue use and uneontrolled employment of alcoliolic drinks is an enemy whicli the physician and the philosopher ought most to fear in its opposition to the progress of humanity. — Bouchakdat. (99.) We treat of alcoholic and vinous drinks together, not because they are identical, absolutely, but because tliey are of so little use as mere drinks, and because they are all liable to abuse in the same way, with the same pitiable results. Alcohol sepa- rated by distillation from the vinous liquors in which it is formed acquires new properties, and can never, by mixing, be restored to the same intimate association with the other material of the wine as it previously possessed. Mixed alcoholic drinks appear, for some reason, much more injurious than wines containing an equal proportion of alcohol. " Alcohol by itself may be stated, in relation to the human economy, to be nothing but an irritant poison. It cannot enter the system except in small quantities associated with comparatively large quantities of water ; and even then it produces poisonous eiFects, which are familiarly known from daily observation." — [Carpenter.) (100.) Some of the principal alcoholic and vinous liquors con- tain alcohol or its elements in about the proportions indicated in the followino; table : Liquors. Eectified spirits of wine (s. g. 835), Proof spirits (s.g. 935), Brandy, whisky, and rum, Port wine, Sherry, and INIadeira, mixed with brandy, for the English and American markets, Port, Sherry, and IMadeira, prepared for use in the countries where produced, WATER. ALCOHOL. 50 75 80 90 95 50 25 20 10 84 , NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 101. Various other ^vines contain still less alcohol associated with the acids and other material of the fruits. Cider is a vinous liquor prepared from a])ples ; perry, from pears ; currant wine, from currants ; beer, from barley, etc. They differ from wine only in containing the acids and salts of the fruits from which they are derived, instead of the acids of grapes. These liquors may all have their use medicinally. " Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish." — Prov. xxxi. "Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmi- ties." — 1 Tim. V, 23. But medical prescription is not now our object. Some of them, doubtless, had their hygienic value, being capable of aifording variety and a grateful change from mere water, Avhen tea and coffee were unknown. They have always been liable to abuse, and we may quote the most important hy- gienic maxims in regard to them from literature almost as old as the flood. Thus we read in Proverbs xxiii : 20. Be not among wine-bibbers ; among riotous eaters of flesh. 21. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 29. Who hath woe ? Who hath sorrow ? Who hath contentions ? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? 30. They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed wine. 32. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. (101.) Though very sure of the evils of any more habit of drinking, we would not be understood to say that there is no good use for any of these liquors. Brandy, whisky, and rum are precious cordials and stimulants in many emergencies ; they are capable of easy preservation, so that they can be carried, in good condition, to any part of the world. In pharmacy, alcohol is an important agent in obtaining the vegetalile alkaloids, which are among the most powerful and convenient of all medicines ; it is exceedingly useful in preserving the medicinal properties of many vegetable and mineral substances; and we need not omit that it is very useful in preserving anatomical preparations and natural history sjiecimeus. But for all this, the man is very unfortunate, a real object of pity, who has reduced his system to the necessity of receiving a cordial of this kind every day. We are much accustomed to hear the ill effects of alcoholic § 103. ] BRANDY. . 85 drinks attributed to their bad quality and adulteration. But the suli)huric acid added to give a pleasant ethereal odor, and the various peppers and spices added to give pungency, are very in- nocent articles as compared Avith the intoxicating alcohol which is a necessary and constant constituent. We do not entertain so good an opinion of strychnine, popularly known as an effective poison for dogs, or Cocculus indicus ; and these are said to be occasionally added for the purpose of increasing the intoxicating power of these liquors. (102.) Brandy and other alcoholic liquors lose much of their intoxicating property and improve in flavor with age. When preserved in oaken casks, as is the rule, there is considerable loss of alcohol by evaporation, and a still larger proportional loss of various poisonous empyreumatic oils; and what is still more characteristic, there is dissolved tannin, coloring matter, and whatever else is soluble about the oak. This gives to brandy the color which belongs to it, for it comes from the still limpid as water. The dealers have a way of giving age without this tedious and expensive process. They give the required color with a little burnt sugar. They supply the tannin and other oak material with extract of bark or parings of leather from the shoemaker's shops, and they may get rid of the empyreumatic oils by filtering through charcoal. So far we consider the adul- terations comparatively innocent — only swindling. Gross adul- terations may be detected by chemical reagents, but the only test of genuine liquors is the aroma. (103.) Since the general use of tea and coffee has superseded wine as the beverage of the morning and evening meals, it seems impossible, except where the grape culture forms a leading object of industry, to obtain wine of good quality without foreign admixture. The best generally obtainable with us are port, Madeira, and sherry, as usually prepared for the English market. These are mixed with brandy to the extent of about t^venty per cent., partly to give the degree of pungency which the palate of the liquor drinkers requires, and partly to preserve it from change. So that, as beverages, these wines are little better than brandy in disguise ; but for medicinal i)urposes these brandied wines are well adapted, and have the great advantage that without any special care they are preserved in a pretty uniform condition for 86 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 104. a long time. AVith genuine M'ines this is very far from being the case, for without special care the fermentation continues and breaks some of the bottles, and some of the Avine is partially con- verted to vinegar. The Avines arc found in the market in various stages of progressive acidity, and this condition is apt to be dis- p-uised bv acetate of lead and various other druw-s which it is most important to avOid. (104.) The first conspicuous result of alcoholic intoxication is feebleness of muscular power, a tendency to general ])aralysis. At first the ends of the fingers become enfeebled ; the person can but imperfectly close the hand, and permits objects which he has grasped to fall. This weakness extends to the arm and shoulder. It soon appears in the legs ; the gait is tottering and uncertain. In connection with this is a marked loss or diminution of sen- sation. This commences with a dulness of the sense of touch in the fingers and gradually extends over the whole body. The natural propensities are obliterated, but modesty and discretion being absent at the same time, the victims are frequently led to disgraceful acts which at other times they would avoid. Drunk- ards become subject to fits, generally ej^ileptic. AVith respect to the intellectual faculties, a settled stupidity overwhelms them. The memory is weakened. The countenance indicates stupidity and sloth. The effects on the digestive system call for particular attention. The effect of drams, not very much diluted, is to stimulate and thicken the lining of the mouth and other surfaces with which the liquor comes in contact. A fev,' drams may not produce any very appreciable effect in this way ; but the person addicted to the habit of a morning dram, who never gets drunk, does suffer in this way. The mouth is commonly dry, especially in the morning ; the tongue thick and cleft; there is uneasiness at the pit of the stomach, Avith distaste for solid food, and jierhaj^s vomiting. Diluted alcohol is readily absorbed by the stomach in this condition, and promptly relieves the feeling for the nionuMit. But this is not the case with solid food, which, not having a healthy stomach to digest it, putrefies, and the suf- ferer becomes saturated with the gases of putrefaction, readily perceived in his breath, and sometimes in his perspiration. He smells like carrion. The liver usually becomes diseased ; at first enlarged by f^itty degeneration, but later, the fat being absorbed. § 104. ] ALCOHOLIC INTOXICATION. 87 induration is produced — cirrhosis (l pet its grains — tlie true drunk- ard's liver. Tlic consequence of this is ineural)le abdominal dropsv, eventually fatal. The course of nutrition undcu" the use of alcohol, however, may be stated to be, in the first place, exag- geration; the individual addicted to drink becomes fuller in habit, with injection of the skin and redness of the face. As the organs become diseased with the deposit of fat in them, their functional actions become embarrassed, and tlien, with depraved digestion and the abstraction of the proper elements of repara- tion, the blood becomes watery, and with impeded circulation in the heart or liver, dropsical effusions, general or local, are inevit- able. The first augmentation of size is from the increase of fat in all the tissues ; the second is from serous effusions. This latter condition is known in common language as the " white bloat." The social use of alcoholic drinks, as a physiological question, is still under discussion in England. The consumption of these articles is so enormous that many men do not easily submit to Dr. Carpenter's opinions, and we have hence quite a number of elaborate arguments in defence of the custom. We quote from the London Lancet part of the conclusion of one of these articles : "Again, the teetotalers contend that in case of alcohol it is impossible to de- fine moderation and excess ; but this is equally true of tea, coflee, salt, sugar, pepper, and many other things The truth is, there is a certain recog- nized standard quantity of alcohol, salt, sugar, tea, coffee, etc., which all men agree to call moderate, and the difficulty is not greater in the case of alcohol than of any other article of daily consumption." "VYe are ready to admit the difficulty of defining with precision the quantity of sugar and pepper which each person should use, and even, for the sake of argument, that some persons use these articles rather freely ; but the journalist will hardly convince us that such deplorable consequences as we have described as com- monly resulting from indulgence in alcoholic intoxication ever result from excess in the use of salt, pepper, tea, coffee, sugar, etc. "We have never known the habit of using these things in excess to grow irresistibly on the individual to such a degree as to destroy or break up his family. 88 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 104. The rejoinder may as well be so stated, that even the drunk- ard will not be likely to misunderstand it. By the use of alco- holic drinks, men are so demented that it has been found neces- sary to establish special asylums and hospitals for tlfeir care — to restrain them in the use of liquor, to enforce bathing and clean clothes, with small hope of eventual cure. We know persons who use salt profusely, but they are not so demented as to need special asylums. They do not crowd the hospitals for insane, the jails, the almshouses. CHAPTER XIII. OTHER DRINKS — AROMATIC ACIDULOUS FARINACEOUS. (105.) Tea and coffee are very rapidly superseding the dan- gerous vinous and alcoholic drinks as ordinary beverages at meals. There is nothing but advantage in this change. Other aromatic infusions may occasionally replace these advantageously. Chocolate requires to be associated with spice as a rule ; it is otherwise too ftit and heavy for most persons. The Paraguay tea and Carolina tea are probably just as good, hygienically, as the China tea, if they could only be collected and prepared for mar- ket with the same degree of neatness and precision. The imita- tions of coffee, made of parched corn, rye, beans, chiccory, etc., are not to be despised when the genuine article is not to be ob- tained ; the parching being carried a little further than is proper wdth coifee, develops empyreumatic flavors which do not differ greatly from those found in the best coffee when parched too much. There must be something about these hot aromatic infu- sions very much in accordance with the wants of civilized man, which has caused the rapid spread of their use over the tem- perate regions of the globe in modern times. We have already alluded to the possible necessity of using the unwholesome water of marshes, and have recommended that it be boiled to deprive it of its poisonous properties. But mere boiling rendei's it insipid, and unwholesome from want of flavor. It hence becomes desir- able to give such water flavor, and this may be done by infusing tea or any aromatic substance at hand Avhich may be found ^ agreeable. We would recommend the use of almost any aro- matic or bitter weed of the forest, not actually poisonous, rather than the drinking of crude marsh- water. The infusion of sassa- fras, used in some parts of our country, furnishes, in some cases, , no doubt, an agreeable variety ; but it has not much to recom- mend it unless it be medicinally or in exceptional cases. Its flavor is rather unpleasant to most persons. 90 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 108. (106.) Tlie vegetable acids form a constant and probaljly essen- tial part in every good system of alimentation, especially in the tropics. We know so little of the manner of their action that we really have nothing to say on the subject, except that experi- ence appears to have demonstrated their necessity, and that there are physiological necessities in the animal economy to which chemical analyses and formula3 aiford us no clue. These acids are ordinarily supplied by the fruits and fresh vegetables which form part of our daily food ; but at sea this is no longer the case, and the pickles and dried fruits of the ration seem not to be al- ways a sufficient substitute. There is hence a necessity for these acids in some other shape, and we have some of them, in various forms, preserved for sea use, as vinegar, lemon-juice, citric acid, tartaric acid, bitartrate of potassa, and claret and other acid wines. These, besides their use as condiments, are variously mixed with water, sugar and aromatics to form drinks, which, used with moderation and discretion, are very advantageous in warm weather. (107.) Vinegar is generally allowed at discretion for this pur- pose, and when mixed with a proper portion of Avater, sugar, or molasses and nutmeg, makes a very refreshing drink for a thirsty man, as he rests from active labor, in warm weather. Vinegar, besides acetic acid, contains a good portion of malic, tartaric, and other acids of the fruits from which it is derived, as well as some other material (nitrogenous?) of the fruit. It certainly serves an excellent purpose in the prevention of scorbutus, sea scurvy. But vinegar for this purpose should be made only from the juice of fruits. (108.) Lime or lemon juice is perhaps even better than vinegar. It is not regularly furnished in our naval service, except medici- nally ; but with the English the greatest reliance is placed in it, and their comparative immunity from scorbutus in modern times is generally attributed to the use of this article. It is issued daily, after the first fourteen days at sea, in the quantity of half an ounce to each man. This is imbibed in the shape of lemon- ade at dinner, and adds prodigiously to the health and efficiency of the crew. The lime-juice for this purpose, after being j)ressed from the fruit, is simmered so as to coagulate most of the albu- men, strained and mixed with a sufficient quantity of proof spirit § 108. ] LIGHT ACID WINES. 91 to preserve it t'rom fcrnK'ntation, covered Avith olive oil, corked and sealed. Besides citric acid, it contains, especially when freshly prepared, other vegetable matter inijjortant to healthy nu- trition. When long kept it undergoes further changes, and in the instances in which we have had occasion to use it after being thus kept, it appeared in no way superior to a solution of crystals of citric acid. It is common to attribute the disappearance of scor- butus in modern times to the use of this substance, but we must take into the account the general improvement of the seamen's rations in other respects, introduced at the same time. There is no more of this disease in our service or the French than in the English, though preserved lime-juice forms no part of the ration with us. The English have a great advantage in the svstematic perseverance with M'hich it is issuwl as soon as the prescribed four- teen days have elapsed. Citric acid dissolved in water in the proper proportion, with a little oil of lemon, makes a more pleas- ant lemonade and is jjerhaps nearly as useful as the lemon-juice, and it possesses one certain advantage, as its crystals may be pre- served for any length of time without change. Tartaric acid may be used in the same way Avith the same beneficial results, and may be given advantageously in alternation with citric acid. Bitartrate of potassa, cream of tartar, is likewise useful on some occasions, but its sparing solubility is a decided inconvenience, and it probably possesses in a much less degree the useful prop- erties which belong to all these substances. Lif/ht acid icine.'^, such as the wines of Bordeaux — vin de cam- pagne of the French ration — must be classed here. They are saturated with the vegetable acids, — tartaric, citric, and malic, together with their salts, and they contain very little alcohol, just enough to preserve them from decomposition — about as much as is added in the English preparation of lime-juice. This wine is certainly an excellent antiscorbutic, not at all inferior to lime-juice. But I would not encourage its introduction into the ration, simply because it is wine, of an austere acid flavor, that our sailors do not like, and if we encourage among them the idea that there is any good property in wine, they will surely seek occasionally for ^^•ine more to their liking. The drunkard's craving " is not dead." These acid drinks are liable to abuse. In warm weather there is such a pleasant feeling of refreshment as the immediate result 92 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 109. of a driuk that the habit is readily formed of taking it too fre- quently. The result is pain and cramp of the bowels, with some- times a little diarrhcBa. These unpleasant symptoms promptly disappear when the acid drinks are discontinued. It is in the absence of fruits at sea that they are really useful. (109.) Farinaceous Drinks. — On board steamships the firemen employed about the furnaces are sometimes greatly exhausted by heat. Their profuse perspiration renders a large quantity of water necessary to supply the waste. The ingestion of clear water under these circumstances appears to answer very imperfectly the wants of the system. It seems to pass through the circulation to the skin, percolate as through a sieve, and flow over the surfoce of the body in streams. A large drink of cold or even cool water, under these circumstances, on an empty stomach, is very danger- ous, and liable to produce death with almost the suddenness of an electric shock. Great practical advantage has been obtained by mixing farinaceous substances, particularly oatmeal, with the water to be used by the men employed at this kind of labor. The oatmeal is mixed in the proportion of three or four ounces to the gallon of water, and used according to inclination by the firemen and coal-heavers. It might be difficult to determine why oatmeal, for this purpose, should be better than cornmeal, or buck- wheat, or rye, wlieat, millet, etc., but the firemen themselves seem to think it has the effect of making them as strong as horses. We may safely alloAV something for this sort of prejudice, which we know to be very potent among the influences on health and dis- ease. The peculiar aroma of the oats is probably associated with a pleasant degree of stimulation of the alimentary mucous surfaces in such a way as to promote its complete digestion. It seems to fill the bloodvessels without increasing the amount of cutaneous exhalations. The men occasionally try acid, saccharine, and al- coholic drinks as substitutes for the oats, but always with unsatis- factory results, except that they find molasses and Avater better than clear water, and they who are disposed to insist on the ex- cellence of rum and whisky, luider all circumstances, petition for these, and experience after each ingestion a momentary relief, fol- lowed by additional profusencss of perspiration and additional ex- haustion. The atiolnj of our Indians is a mitritive beverage of this kind. § 109. ] FARINACEOUS DRINKS. 93 used principally at the South and tlirono-hout IMcxico. It is made by parchino; their corn (maize) or other grain, pounding it to meal in a suitable cavity of a rock, A\ith a smooth stone, and mixing it with a little sugar if they have it. About a tablesjioou- ful of this is stirred with a pint of water from the spring, and swallowed at two or three drinks, according to inclination. An Indian, provided with about two pounds of attoley in a little l)ag, is prepared to perform the most fatiguing and dangerous journey of two or three weeks, without expecting any assistance or supplies by the way except water from the spring or brook twice a day. He appropriates, of course, any little food which comes in his way, but when this amounts to next to nothing he comes out of such an expedition without much apparent suifering or inconvenience. Nearly any other grain or grass seed seems to answer the purpose, though the Indian corn is generally preferred. The California Indians make a similar preparation by parching and pounding the seeds of a species of pine. This they call pinoley, and seem to think it nearly as good as the atole de mais, Indian corn atto- ley. The parching has the effect of bursting the grains of starch and rendering the meal thus prepared more readily miscible with water; it likewise develops a peculiar aroma, due to resulting empyreumatic substances, which is probably advantageous, by affording a comfortable stimulus to the stomach and thus promot- ing digestion. The use of these preparations may be considered as demonstrating that a very small quantity of food, when fully digested and assimilated, is capable of supplying the waste of the system even through extraordinary labor and fatigue. CHAPTER XIY THE PRESERVATION OF FOOD. (110.) The solid food required by the human organism is prin- cipally supplied by three or four species of animals, which, on account of their peculiar adaptation, have been domesticated for this special purpose, and by such fruits and vegetables as are neither poisonous nor inconveniently hard and fibrous. The preservation of these substances in such a way as to make them available as nutriment at sea, is of vast importance. The pro- cesses which are most effective in preventing ordinary decay or putrefaction, destroy, at the same time, in various degrees, the nutritive properties of the substance preserved. (111.) Salting, packing in salt, seems ^\ath us to be the most generally available method of preserving the flesh of animals in a condition to be used for food. Muscular flesh, as beef, when fully subjected to the action of salt for a length of time, becomes unsuitably hard and probably undergoes other changes which render it nearly incapable of digestion by the human organism. The other animal tissues, especially fat, probably undergo less change. Hence fat beef, when salted, remains good much longer than lean, and the muscular tissue of pork, being much more thoroughly imbued with ftit, is comparatively indestructible when packed in salt. Pork seems never to degenerate, as beef does, into a maliogany-like substance, beyond the powei-s of the teeth to masticate. (112.) Drying seems to be the most generally available means of preserving alimentary substances. Nature furnishes us many dry vegetable substances, especially small seeds, capable in this state of almost indefinite preservation. If the seed be once broken, as grain is in the i>reparation of flour, and its vitality thus destroyed, its preservation is much more difficult and i)re- cturious. Very many fruits and vegetables — ^apples, pears, peaches , § 113. ] PRESERVATION OF FOOD. 95 plums, chcrriGS, etc., — are capable of a useful degree of ]>reser- vatiou by merely drying them in the open air. Meat in some countries is more generally preseryed by drying than by any other process. The muscular flesh is cut from the ])ones in long thin strips, and these are hung in the open air to dry ; the dry- ing is somewhat promoted and the flies kept off or annoyed in their operations by a yery smoky fire. The flesh of the l)unock, by this operation, is converted into hard strings and knots of no very pleasant fragrance, called jerked beef. It is so hard and intractable after this kind of preparation, that soaking, boiling, and stewing are scarcely sufficient to bring it within ordinary powers of mastication without a preliminary beating with a hammer, so as to separate somewhat the fibres. This kind of meat is the resort of hunters across the desert plains, and on all occasions when their hunting does not supply them sufliciently with fresh game. Likewise on the grazing farms of Spanish America it is the universal manner of curing meat for their own use during the season of poor cattle. As we have never tasted this meat and have had very little o])portunity of observing its use, we may not be able to estimate its value correctly ; but we have never heard anything about it to induce us to believe that it can be advantageously used much more extensively than at present. Its comparatively small bulk, light weight, and easy transportation, render it valuable to the hunter as a precaution against starvation in the various emergencies of forest life. Eapid desiccation, at a moderate temperature, as it may be effected in a vacuum, is one of the valuable processes of recent invention for the preservation of vegetable food. Almost every variety of vegetables may be preserved in this v.aY with nuicli of their original flavor. They are not injured by heat, as is apt to be the case with vegetables dried in an oven, or by decay, as occurs by drying by long exposure to the air. Vegetables dried in this way and packed in air-tight tin cans, are preserved in any climate for a very long time without much apparent change, and by immersion for an hour or two in fresh, cold water, before cooking, they acquire much of the bulk and fragrance which be- long to them as fresh vegetables. (113.) Smoking is, under certain circumstances, a valuable method, in conjunction with those already mentioned, of prcserv- 96 ^'AVAL HYGIENE. [ § 114. ing' moat. The smoke gives its antiseptic creasote to the meat, imparting a pleasant flavor at the same time that it assists in its jM-escrvation. It gives to the surface of the meat a crust so highly cliarged with creasote as to be very offensive, perhaps even destructive, to insects whicli iiiiuht be otherwise injurious. But mere smoking is not sufficient to cure meat. Hams, moderately salted and considerably dried during the process of smoking, are well preserved and universally liked ; and other parts of the hog treated in the same way are pretty generally appreciated. Some pieces of beef, particularly the rounds, are occasionally preserved in the same way, but it is liable to become mouldy in a short time unless pretty thoroughly dried, and if too much dried it is so hard as not to be of much use. Neither hams nor bacon seem to be generally available for long voyages, except as an occasional luxury or relief from the monotonous diet necessarily connected with them. In this limited degree they are very useful in im- proving the diet and thus preserving the health of those who go to sea. (114.) Immersion in oil, so as to prevent the direct action of the atmosphere, is found greatly to retard though not altogether to prevent putrefaction. Sardines thus preserved are now com- mon in most seaport towns. The oil and the necessary labor of packing them neatly for preservation, render them too expensive for very general use ; but they are very useful occasionally to vary the monotony of sea diet. It is in connection with other preservative processes that immersion in fat or oil may become valnaljle, and is probably capable of great extension. The best preserved fish we have ever seen on shipboard were herrings, which had been salted a little, just as much as is required to give fresh fish a proper flavor ; smoked a little, just enough to be per- ceptible; dried a little, probably in the process of smoking; trimmed of superfluous parts, heads, tails, and fins, and packed in small tin boxes, with oil, in the maimer of sardines. We think this process of preserving herrings for use at sea should become common. Properly prepared lard-oil answers the pur- pose perfectly. Other species of fish and other meats may doubt- less be preserved in the same way. It is a common thing in families to preserve sausages in this way. The sausages are sea- soned as usual with salt, herbs, and spices, varying with the fancy § 115. ] PRESERVATION OF FOOD. 97 of the different hoiisekecper.s, paeked in eartlienwure, or prefer- ably metallic vessels, and covered by pouring over them melted lard. They are preserved in this way for a very long time. W^e have eaten good sausages preserved in this way, which had crossed the equator and been carried more than half round the world. The Indians of the Northwest preserve the flesh of the bison somewhat in this way. In the season when the animals are in good order whole villages start on himting expeditions. As soon as an animal is slain the muscles are cut into strips and hung up to dry as in preparing jerked beef; but before it is thoroughly hardened it is beaten into shreds, packed in suitable vessels, and the melted fat of the animal poured over it. Bison beef, thus prepared, is called pemmican, and is the winter food of several tribes. Of its properties as food we know little, except that these people are fond of it and enjoy health while using it. (115.) Immersion in vinegar is a process occasionally available for the preservation of both animal and vegetable food. It de- prives the food thus treated of all natural flavor, and substitutes its own, which is greatly esteemed in some of the articles thus preserved. They are exceedingly pleasant for occasional use. There is generally some spice added to improve the flavor. Pigs' feet and other parts of the animal rich in gelatin, boiled and pickled in this way, are an occasional luxury everywhere ; and other meats are sometimes preserved in the same way. There is no valid objection, that ^\Q are aware of, against preserving meat in tliLs way for the purpose of affording additional varieties of diet. It has never been tried to any extent on shipboard. From Dr. Beaumont's observations, we learn that meat thus pre- pared was the most rapidly digested of all the alimentary sub- stances subjected to experiment. We feel confident that great advantage would result, in long voyages, from having a few jars of meat thus preserved, to issue to the seamen, as a relief from the monotony of the usual ration. Whether the nutritive prop- erties of the meat are impaired by this process, as by salting, we believe has never been directly determined ; but whatever the change, it is probably so different in character from the change produced by salt, that an occasional meal of it may reasonably be expected to correct, in some degree, the bad effects of a long- 7 98 NAVAL HYGIEXE. [ § 116. continued salt diet. The vegetable substances preserved in vinegar are principally unripe cucumbers and cauliflowers. They are now a regular and very important article of the seaman's ration. It would seem that the refreshing properties of fresh vegetables are more perfectly preserved in this way than any other; hence the value of these pickles as antiscorbutics. In case of deficiency of the regular pickles, any obtainable vegetable, not too ripe, or almost any herb, not too tough and fibrous, sliould be jiickled for this purpose. Immersion in molasses appears to be an available process for preserving potatoes, with a good portion of their antiscorbutic properties. The potatoes are pared, sliced, and placed in a barrel, which is then filled with molasses. They become quite black and pretty hard, but our whaling ships find advantage in the use of them. (116.) Heating and seclusion from tJie atmosphere is another val- uable device for preserving food for a time. But there are some important prevalent errors on this subject. We often see it stated that putrefaction cannot take place without the presence of the atmosphere, and it is hence inferred that animal food may be indefinitely preserved by perfectly excluding the atmosphere. This is a serious mistake. A slow putrefaction goes on, as any one will discover who undertakes to eat meat preserved by this process, after it has been kept four or five months in the tropics. Roast beef, roast mutton, turkeys, fowls, venison, etc., undergo a degree of decomposition, become soft and flavorless or disgusting ; not in the way of flesh freely exposed to the air, but in a way peculiar to themselves. Soups, rich in gelatin, and seasoned wdth a fair portion of spice, retain their natural flavor and useful prop- erties much longer. We have seen some fruits and vegetables — peaches, pears, asparagus, and tomatoes, which had been preserved for years by this process. They retained much of their natural flavor, and this we take to be the best available test of their useful properties. On the whole this must be included among the useful means of preserving a variety of vegetables for a long time in a state fit for food. We must guard against too strong a reaction against this method, and probably the best way to do this is to state freely § 117. ] PRESERVATION OF FOOD. 99 its defects and difficulties as soon as they are recognized. It ap- pears that the heat, in this case, acts by killing some organic germs, or changing tlie condition of some nitrogenous material, which, existing both in the meat and in the atmosphere, act the part of a ferment under ordinary circumstances. It would seem that the absolute exclusion of air is not necessary, but that any in- cluded air must be heated, for we have seen this process success- fully conducted by persons who were so ignorant as to suppose the air all excluded, simply because no more would escape, with the boxes exposed to the heat of a water-bath, though there was considerable space in the vessels not occupied either by fruit or liquid. Fruits are constantly preserved in this way in glass, in which the liquid shaken up exhibits air-bubbles. It is necessary that the inclosed air, as well as the fruit, should be heated to about the temperature of boiling water ; if the least portion of fresh air be admitted, ordinary putrefaction is established without delay. (117.) Constant cold seems capable of preserving fresh meat for a very long time. A few years ago, in Siberia, a carcass of an elephant was found frozen in the ice, with wolves, foxes, and bears feeding on it, though there is no evidence of such an animal having lived anywhere since the invention of letters. It was common to preserve fresh fish for transportation to market, by packing them in ice, long before ice became a common summer luxury. It has become the custom to pack considerable quanti- ties of fresh meat in the cargoes of ice which are shipped to tropi- cal countries. The meat with the ice is transferred to ice-houses, and sold as called for, to persons who would otherwise be unable to appreciate the diiference between Boston beef and the beef of tropical climates. Ocean steamers, by carrying large quantities of ice for the purpose, are enabled to supply their passengers, dur- ing a passage across the Atlantic, with all the luxuries in the way of fresh food which they can purchase in New York, and this without being incommoded by cages and pens of live stock. Un- fortunately this method requires too much space and too many precautions to be generally available for the crew of a ship of war, which may be obliged to keep at sea constantly for months, and requires the space for other purposes. 100 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 118. (118.) Aiiotlicr important means of preserving fresh food on board ship is to keep the object, animal or vegetable, alive. Ani- mals, such as beeves, pigs, sheep, and poultry, are often em- barked alive with this view. But since it has become possible to obtain ice nearly everywhere, the live stock on shipboard has become of comparatively small importance. It is easy to pre- serve beef in ice much longer than any animal of this kind can be kept on board in condition tit to serve the purpose of food. Pigs and poultry stand rough usage better, and may accommodate themselves to the circumstances, but it is impossible to accommo- date enough on board for general use. They are generally used by the officers on short passages, and a few are kept for the pur- pose of varying occasionally the monotonous diet of long pas- sages, and to afford some savory food for the sick and conva- lescent. In speaking of beans as an article of the ration, we have already suggested the importance of preserving them in such a way as not to destroy their vitality. This is effected by having them thoroughly dried in a dry atmosphere, and afterward protecting them from moisture and atmospheric vicissitudes. If a bean be once broken, and its vitality thus destroyed, its preservation is much more precarious ; and for this, among other reasons, we object to the use of bean flour and such things. They undergo decay more or less rapidly, no matter how prepared or how well packed. Other small grains, wheat, oats, barley, etc., may be preserved as well as beans. Various nuts, as walnuts and al- monds, are thus preserved in small quantities, as a dessert, and answer a useful purpose. Many fresh fruits are preserved for a short time by processes which have their continued vitality in view. Thus oranges and lemons, from tropical countries, are abundantly supplied in all our large towns. They are picked before they are quite ripe, with as little bruising or other injury as possible, wrapped separately in paper, and packed in rough boxes. The fruit thus packed continues to ripen, if not to grow, not so rapidly or so well as on the tree ; but by the time it reaches us it is nearly ri})e ; and as this is gen- erally so arranged as tolia])pen during the cold weather of winter, the fruit remains for some time in good condition. Apples are § 119. ] SMALL GARDEN. 101 sometimes packed in the same way and shipped to tropical cli- mates. Cranberries are bronjjht to us in barrels filled with water, which prevents them from being injured by bruising or the evaporation of tlieir juices. While thus immersed in fresh clean water, they keep a long time in cool weather, without ap- parent deterioration. Currants, gooseberries, and other small fruits, not quite ri])e, placed in a bottle of Avater and corked, are often kept for a whole year in good condition. Their preserva- tion seems to depend on the same circumstances, the continuance of their vitality, though in a modified state, which may be com- pared to the winter torpor of the bear and the hibernation of various other animals. The preservation of potatoes, yams, and other tubei-s, is of the utmost importance to navigation. It is effected bv exposing them, with adherent earth, to a dry atmos- phere, tili their surface appears quite dry. They are afterward guarded from injury, such as bruising, as well as from wet or a too dry atmosphere. They are best preserved on shipboard packed in old flour barrels with a little straw, some holes being bored in different parts of the barrels, so as to afford the proper degree of ventilation. The layer of dry earth attached to the potatoes, answers the same purpose as the paper in the case of the orano-es ; it guards them from bruising, and absorbs the moisture which may result from any little speck of decay. The potatoes kept in this way are found particularly advantageous by our whalers on the Pacific. Yams, we are inclined to think, they will find still more useful. They certainly keep much better than potatoes, and the best varieties, properly cooked, are not to be distinguished from them in flavor. The most fastidious con- noisseurs in these matters may be easily deceived in them, if the yams be mashed or cut up by the cook, so as to destroy the form ; and those who imagine the yam to be coarse and quite detestable, are very easily fooled in this way. The people of Norfolk, Vir- ginia, are very fond of yams ; but their yams are not yams at all, but a variety of sweet potato. (119.) The idea of some sort of small garden for fresh vegeta- bles on shipboard has not been altogether neglected. Thus we read of a tank of water being advantageously kept on deck for the cultivation of cresses. We would suggest something nuich more productive of fresh vegetables, without so much interference 102 NAVAL HYGIENE. [§119. Fig. 10. with the deck of the ship. There are many small seeds — beans, peas, mustard, lettuce, parsley, horseradish, turnip, etc., which may be kept on Ijoard for a very loner time, and by means of a suit- able a]>paratus they may readily be made to groM-, till they develop two or three leaves to each seed. They are thus capa- ble of furnishing, in abundance, the fresh material for a nice salad, under circum- stances which would otherwise render this quite impossible. I have used the apparatus represented in the margin for this purpose. It con- sists of a series of earthen vessels, fitting on top of each other, perforated like colan- ders, except the lower one, and provided with a loose lid. Each of these vessels, except the lower one, is supplied with a layer of seeds, previously washed and soaked ; the whole is adjusted in position, and a cupful of ^vater poured into the upper part, whence gradually percolating it moistens the seeds in the whole series ; any superfluity of water collecting in the lower jar. Every two or three days, the Avater is poured from the bottom into the top of the series, and in the course of a week or more, varying with temperature, condition of the seed, etc., the whole ap})aratus is found to be packed full of tender sprouts. Salad Garden. CHAPTER XY ZOOLOGY. (120.) Septp]MBER 10th. — We are approaching the coast of Mexico, about to enter a foreign port where nature furnishes many articles useful for food with which we are unacquainted. Nearly everything except the domestic animals l)eing new to us, we may advantageously recall some of our zoological and botan- ical studies, for the purpose of a better appreciation of them. It is a good and safe rule to appro])riate as food whatever we find the natives of a country to use habitually and safely. CAENIVORAIS^TS. (121.) The flesh-eating animals, as a rule, are not good for food. We are quite unable to say why this should be so ; but, like many other facts of nature, we are obliged to receive it as a fact — a conclusion of universal experience. Cats and other flesh- eating animals, even on the point of starvation, if offered flesh of this kind, will generally smell it and walk away in disgust. Though food of this kind is doubtless unwholesome, it is not directly poisonous, and might be used in small quantities afi a re- source against starvation. The repulsive flavor of the flesh of these animals seems due to the nature of their food, and under peculiar circumstances their flesh is esteemed as meat. (122.) The bear, in the fall of the year, when nuts are abun- dant in the forest, ceases to be carnivorous ; feeding and becoming fat on acorns, chestnuts, etc. He is then hunted for his flesh and fat, which form a principal winter supply of our frontier settlements, and of the inhabitants of the borders of forests nearly everywhere. — ( Godman.) (123.) The dog. — A variety of domestic dog, on some of the islands of the Pacific, before the general introduction of pigs, was raised for use as food, and fatted exclusively on vegetables. 104 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 127. Europeans, avIio have oeeasionally tasted the flesh of these dogs at feasts, concur in the statement that this kind of meat is not distinguishable by the flavor from pork. (124.) The northern lynx {Frlis bar ealis.)—'' The flesh of this lynx is considered good food l)y the hunters, being fat, white, and flavored like the hare, on which it principally feeds." — (Go(hna)i.) (125.) The other orders of animals, nearly allied to the carniv- orants by their predaceous habits, living principally on insects and small animals, are almost universally rejected as food, partly, no doubt, on account of their generally insignificant size. They are capable of conversion into food in cases of emergency. (126.) The amphibious carnivorants, the seal and the valrus, are regarded as the very best of meat by the inhaliitants of the countries where they abound ; though, with our habits, and in our climate, such food would probably be absolutely disgusting. The Arctic regions would perhaps be quite uninhabitable l)y man Avithout the flesh, the fat, and the hides of these creatures. The men of Dr. Kane's party, with all the appliances which they were able to carry from New York, found walrus flesh their only efiectual relief from scorbutus — sea-scurvy. PACHYDERMS AND RUMINANTS. (127.) The animals of these two orders, living almost exclu- sively on grass and seeds, supply the great bulk of animal food to the inhabitants of the world. The flesh of any and all of them forms good, wholesome food, generally esteemed ; differing much in delicacy of flav^or, according to species, age, sex, climate, soil, food, etc. The flesh of the hog rivals that of the ox in general importance, though much less esteemed by us. Some of the Asiatics who use the ox for agricultural labor, never think of eating his flesh, and regard beef with the same sort of repugnance as with us attaches to horseflesh ; while they use pork to the exclusion of nearly all other animal food. The domestic hog, not being very fastidious in his diet, is liable to become unfit for food if improperly fed. Many persons among us, besides a very extensive religious sect, decline the use of pork altogether, prob- ably for tiiis reason. This, as well as the Asiatic prejudice against § 128. ] BEEF. 105 beef, and our own against the use of horseflesh, may be very unreasonable and absurd ; but wc all have such i)reju(li('es, and perhaps would not be benefited by being reasoned out of them. In case of the real want of animal food we shoidd not hesitate to recommend the slaughter of horse, if one in suitable condition be obtainable. "Three disgusting and dangerous diseases in man owe their origin to the ingestion of the flesh of the pig,— tapeworm, hydat- ids, and trichinosis. Professor Leidy, of Philadelphia, was, I believe, the first who observed the Trichina spiralis in the pig, the meat of which animal has always been, so far as we know, the cause of tliis dangerous disease, — trichinosis. It ought always to be examined before being used as food, and in case it i)resents a suspicious appearance, it ought to be subjected to a microscopic examination. A thorough boiling or roasting, as also intense salting and smoking, will kill the trichina, though imperfect preparation by these methods will not." — {Keller.) (128.) iJee/is with us the most esteemed of all animal food. But in tropical countries we have always found this meat tough and tasteless, and not so good as mutton, or even goatflesh. The flesh and milk of these animals are liable to become poisonous by their feeding on poisonous weeds. Thus the cow and the deer have been known to feed on the Bhus toxicodendron, poison oak, their flesh and milk becoming poisonous, so as to give rise to a curious epidemic of the Western States, known by the name of staggers or milk sickness. — [Chase.) The goat, likewise, when nearly starved, feeding on rubbish lots about our cities, has been known to eat the Stramonium, Jamestown weed, which generally grows in such places. The flesh and milk of the animal, in these cases, have in some degree the poisonous properties of the weed. The flesh of diseased animals is generally poisonous. The fol- lowing cases, from the London Lancet, February, 1864, are to the point, and show the danger of slaughtering such animals : " On tlie 22d of October, 1863, a bull was taken ill on a farm and in a county which I decline to name. My reasons for not mentioning the place are, that every effort has been made to keep the secret, as in a host of similar cases, and it will serve no purpose whatever to expose those who, in ignorance, and in consequence of the lax state of the laws on the subject, acted as their neighbors 106 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 129. would have done. A laborer on the farm, who had formerly been a butcher, volunteered to slaughter the sick bull, that its carcass might be saved for the butcher's stall. Unfortunately, the poor man had previously injured his liand with a spade. It was said tiiatthe bull was dying from pleuro-pneumonia, but others declare that the disease was of too rapid a type to be the very prevalent hnig complaint. Certain it is that four pigs died after eating a part of the vis- cera of the bull, and two dogs nearly lost tlieir lives in the same way. The bull was disposed of to a butcher for the .sum of £5, and after this, not only was it seen that tlie pigs and dogs had been injured by eating the flesh, but the laborer suffered inten!,'e pain in his hand, was seized with severe sj-mptoms, and died on the fourth day after dressing the bull. " Many readei-s of the Lancet may suppose that this is a solitary case, or at all events a rare one To my own knowledge, four otlier men have died, presenting symptoms such as the above, under similar circumstances, in the same county, during the last four years. Another man, a Initcher, nearly lost his life, and the surgeon who attended him asked him what had been done with the diseased cattle he had dressed. This question was asked, as the sur- geon feared that the carcasses were at that time being cut up in the town where they had been slaughtered ; but he was somewhat consoled by the usual replv, ' They had been sent to London.' " "A landed proprietor wrote me concerning an instance of serious illness in East Lothian. An animal was slaughtered and sent either to Edinburgh or London. After the carcass had been dispatched the pigs were taken ill, and several died ; they had eaten of the animal's entrails. The man who dressed the bullock nearly lost his life, and only recovered after nearly losing liis eye- sight. His vision has only been restored in one eye. " In the Edinburgh slaughter-houses similar accidents have been witnessed, though every effort is made to conceal the truth. During the outbreak of ma- lignant anthrax in Lincolnshire last autumn, a shepherd scratched his arm while dressing a sheep, and he very nearly lost his life. ir * * ***** "My opinion, based on a careful consideration of the wliole subject, is, that the public health is materially affected by the wholesale slaughter of diseased animals as human food. Several years ago I declared that it was imjiossible that human beings were not fre<|uently injured by eating the flesh of cattle that had died of splenic apoplexy in the country ; and the reason why cases have not been published, is that the carcasses have been sent to large cities, where they would not be distinguished from the carcasses of perfectly healthy animals, and the evil results of eating the poisonous flesh could not be distinguished from any ordinary case of dysentery or typhus." — {Gamyee.) (1 29.) It would appetir that the flesh of iuiinials is cle.sirablc for food nearly in proportion as they are exclusively fed on vege- tjibles. Thus the ruminants, the ox, the sheep and deer, which eat nothing but vegetables and a few grasshoppers and s})iders to season tlunr diet, are universally esteemed as food ; or, if there is an exception, it is to be accountal for bv the animal being es- § 131. ] BIRDS. 107 teemed as a laborer and companion. And tlio pachydcrnis, the hog;, elephant, camel, and horse, naturally usinj^ similar diet, are similarly esteemed. The rodents, likewise, the hare, squirrel, muskrat, etc., such of them as are taken wild in the fields and forests, are often used as food. But there are animals of this class which frequent human habitations, very indifferent what they eat, and therefore very disgusting. Under peculiar circum- stances perhaps even these animals might be eaten. The flesh of animals varies much in flavor according to the quality of their food, and acquires therefrom much of its peculiar flavor and aroma. CETACEANS. (130.) Most of the cetaceous animals — whales, porpoises, etc., — feeding on fish, are rejected as food. They are, however, ad- vantageonslv used sometimes on long voyages. But the sirenians, herbivorous cetaceans, — siren, lamantin, dugong, and sea-cow — feeding exclusively on sea-plants, are esteemed as most exquisite meat, and being nearly enough allied to fish to be eaten on fast days, they are pursued with a degree of active enterprise which threatens their entire extinction. BIRDS. (131.) The raj)acious birds, feeding almost exclusively on the flesh of other animals, are nearly unfit for food, and are univer- sally rejected ; in these respects resembling the carnivorous mam- mals. Their flesh is likewise greatly modified by the nature of their food. The entire body of the vulture has in a strong de- gree the smell and doubtless the taste of the putrid flesh on which it feeds. Some hawks are very nice about their food, living mostly on small birds, and we have known the flesh of such haAvks, when fat and tender, to be eaten, and its flavor compared to that of the chickens on which they were supposed to have fed. But this is the rare exception. The nearly allied orders, pa.s.ser/ije.s and scanmres, feeding to some extent on animal food, principally insects Avith their grubs and effffs, are of small account as food. But their food, beintr less exclusively of the animal kind, and of lower animal or- 108 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 134. ganisiiis, they are niiflonbtedly l)etter meat. Some of them fat- ten on partieular kuids of gruh.s, as the woodcock, and withal being difficult to obtain in quantities, are esteemed as great deli- cacies. The r()])in [TurfJi(f< m!f/raforius), in the autumn, feeding partly on berries, and migrating in large flocks, is greatly perse- cuted by idle boys, who seem delighted to eat almost any small bird which they can manage to shoot. AVith these insignificant exceptions, these birds are not used for- food, but in case of great scarcity we should not hesitate to recommend almost any of them. (132.) Poultry. — The most extensive order of birds, the gaUinaceans, subsist largely on vegetable seeds and fruits, espe- cially during the autumn and early winter ; and their flesh sup- plies a large amount of excellent meat. The domestic foiol is found throughout the habitable globe, civilized and savage. Even they who from religious feeling abstain from killing ani- mals for their flesh, raise and keep these birds, in large numbers, for their eggs. The turkey of America was found by the early settlers in a state of domestication among the Indians. This mag- nificent l)ird has been transferred to nearly all parts of the civi- lized world ; but it is not so prolific as the common domestic po«/f/-i/, and as yet not very abundant beyond the limits of the United States. There are already several distinctly marked varieties of this bird as the consequences of its domestication. (133.) The flesh of birds, as well as of mammals, is liable to become poisonsous. From disease, no doubt, it may become poi- sonous, but of this we are unable to mention an instance. The pheasant, partridge-pheasant of Audubon, has occasionally been found poisonous. This has only been noticed in the winter sea- son, with the earth generally covered with snow, so that the bird has been unable to get at his usual food. Under these circum- stances, he eats both the leaves and the berries of the Kalmkt, sheep-] aurol. The flesh of any of the gallinaceous birds might possibly become poisonous under such influences. (134.) Ducks. — The water birds, waders and swimmers, vary much in their forms, habits, and food. Some of them, as the rails, snipes, and plovers, living principally on earthworms, wliich do not impart any unpleasant flavor, are very delicate food in their season. But thev are so small and scarce as to be of § 136. ] SEA-BIRDS. 109 little account. Most .species of dacks and gecHC prefer grass and seeds to any other food, and when they are in ji'ood condition, feedino' on their favorite food, tlieir Hcsli is mucli esteemed. Several species have been domesticated and they are everywhere found in the markets. The mnvas-baoh duck [FuJifjula valis- neria), is justly considered most exquisite meat. Its favorite food is the root of the Valisneria sjjiralis, a fresh-water grass, which it obtains by diving. The exquisite flavor of the bird is, no doubt, due to this grass, as when taken in other situations and out of season the meat is tough, fishy, and worthless. The red- head {Fuligula erythroccphain), sometimes accompanies the canvas- back, helping to eat the valisneria after he has pulled it. In this case, it is not easy to distinguish between the flavor of the two sjiecies. The ducks generally, if unable to get their favorite food, readily take to insects, worms, and small fish about the margins of streams ; in which case their flesh is scarcely fit to be eaten, excei)t by some unfortunate who may be as nearly starved as the poor ducks themselves. (135.) The question has often been presented, in the course of long voyages, of the propriety of using various species of sea- birds for food. This question may readily be answered, in any special case, by reference to the following rule : All birds and mammals are wholesome for meat, except such as by their tough- ness defy the powers of mastication and digestion, and such as by their disgusting flavor or smell eftectually repel the hungry. The flesh of the adult males, as a general rule, possesses more of these repulsive properties than the young and the females. Sea-birds feed almost exclusively on fish, and their flesh has a repulsive fishy flavor. By removing, with the skin, the layers of fat with which the bodies of these birds are loaded, and parboiling, this disgusting flavor may be in some degree removed. The albatross has been advantageously used (La Perouse), and likewise the penguin. (Dumont d'Urville). (136.) The eggs of all these birds seem to be edible; varying much in delicacy of flavor, but having none of the fishy flavor which sometimes belongs to their flesh. Some markets are regu- larly supplied, from neighboring islands, with the eggs of sea- birds, which are scarcely to be distinguished from the eggs of domestic fowls. The collectors are careful to procure fresh eggs 110 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 139. of about the riglit size, with perfect indifference as to tlie species of bird which may have deposited them. A supply of fresh eggs, from a bird island, might frequently be of immense advan- tage to the crew of a ship. REPTILIANS. (137.) AYe have heretofore treated of animals whose flesh va- ries much in quality according to their species, age, sex, and con- dition ; but there is not one of them which can be considered in any degree poisonous. As we descend in the scale of created beings, however, we find species which are more or less poisonous ; and the further we descend in the scale, the greater the proportion of species which cannot be safely eaten. (138.) The sea-turtles, which are by far the most important animals of this class, include some poisonous, or at least unwhole- some species. The hawks-bill [Chelonia imbncata), the turtle which furnishes the tortoise-shell of commerce, is one of the poi- sonous species. It has caused dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea, with great prostration. But we are not aware that it has actually caused death. — [Dampicr.) The loggerhead ( Chelonia caretta) is the largest of these animals, sometimes weighing one thousand pounds. It is worthless, on account of its repulsive odor ; the eggs even have a disagreeable musky smell. The same may be said of the leathery turtle [Sphargis coreacea), which is an enormous creature, nearly as large as the loggerhead. (139.) The green turtle [Chelonia riiidas), the most abundant of all, is most excellent eating. In S(ime seaports it is so abundant as to be constantly in the market like beef. At the Island of Ascension, shi})s regularly receive this turtle in lieu of beef. They are secured by turning them on their backs when they come in to deposit their eggs ; and afterwards they are kept in a pen, sufficiently large to inclose a pool of sea-water for their use. By this arrangement they are supplied at all seasons. This is very advantageous, as a ship may embark a number of turtles, and keep them alive on board, months if necessary, till actually needed ; whereas beef cannot be kept in a good condition on board but a f(nv days. There are, doubtless, other species of sea- turtle which are good, and at various ports we chance to visit, we § 142. ] , REPTILIANS. Ill iimv safelv adopt the experience and opinions of the natives in refereni'e to their <:;ood or bad (pialities. (140.) The fresh-water ehelonians, tcrrapiuAi, arc generally nnieh esteemed, and arc excellent food. The snappmrj-turtle {Chelonki sopenfina), is much liked by some, though the old ones are sometimes rather musky. But the Emys palustris, Emy.s ter- rapin, Emys rubriventris, and probably twenty more, the most common species, are universally considered among the best of meats. The species which are not good are generally called mud turtles, and have a disgusting musky flavor. (141.) There is one species of land tortoise, of great import- ance to navigators on the Paciiic, the GaU'qxigos turtle {Testudo planiceps). This animal is found only on a small group of islands nearly under the equator. It thrives perfectly on shipboard, apparently requiring neither food nor water. A large one can carry a man on his back, and gives about Uvo hundred pounds of meat, which makes a most excellent gelatinous soup. It is said that settlers there have lately introduced (tattle, and that the tortoises are becoming scarce on account of the tramping down of their nests and consequent destruction of the eggs. If tliis be so, we hope that the mistake will be promptly connected by de- stroying the cattle ; for the tortoise being capable of long preser- vation, is infinitely more valuable than beef as a supply for ships. There is a still larger land tortoise, the Testudo indica, found in Asia, but it is so rare that we do not know much about it, (142.) The {guana of tropical America feeds mostly on fruits and vegetables, and is considered by the Indians as a delicious morsel. Of the rest of the reptiles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, salamanders, etc., many are eaten by the inhabitants of various countries. But the poisonous character of somCj, with their re- pulsive forms and habits, and the fact that they are only pro- curable when things more to our liking may be had, renders it unnecessary for us to think of them as food. Many of these reptiles are to be avoided on account of the poison infused into tlieir bite. Bibron^s antidote, composed of alcohol, bromine, and iodine, saves life in cases of wounds from these animals ; and we should freely use, internally and exter- nally, either of these substances, which first comes to hand. There are many ugly-looking sea-serpents floating on the surface 112 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 143. of the China Sea. They are often caught by sailors in their draw buckets. They are said to be exceedingly venomous, and it is well to be shy of them ; and if any accident should happen from them, it should be thoroughly published in the papers of the principal seaports, especially of China and India, for our sailors are somewhat incredulous about the venomous properties of these animals. FISH. (143.) A very large proportion of all created beings are fish. When we reflect that three-fourths of the earth's surfoce is cov- ered by water, everywhere inhabited by them ; each species adapted to some particular location — the river, the brook, the lake, the bay, and the ocean ; the surface, the shoal, and the deep water ; the sand-bank, the rocky reef, and the muddy bottom — we begin to comprehend something of this immensity. This vast number, probably millions of millions of objects, of thou- sands of species, are alike in so many respects that we need not say much about them except in common. They are all predace- ous, the stronger feeding on the weaker throughout the whole class; but varying somewhat in the degree of their voracity. They all have a peculiar flavor, which is nearly the same in all of them, some being more delicate in flavor than others, and some so strong: as to be considered unfit for use. It is curious that this fishy taste, so generally liked where it belongs, is exceed- ingly disgusting when by careless cookery it is imparted to other meat. Fish, though less substantial than most other meat, is an invaluable resource in varying the food, not only of sailors but of men everywhere. The quality of fish seems to vary more with the condition of individual animals than with the species. Thus almost any fish is good in its best condition, when cooked and eaten soon after its removal from the water ; and all of them, even the best, de- teriorate very rapidly if kept a short time, and become even poi- sonous. This deterioration is progressive, and the shorter the interval of time between the water and the gridiron the better. In warm climates this deterioration is sometimes so rapid that fish is quite unfit for use, unless cooked within an hour or two after it is caught. For a time after depositing their spawn flsh are § 144. ] FISH POISON. 113 unfit for use, disgusting; in flavor, and unwliolosome if not poi- sonous. This is the case with sahnon, shad, herring, and all other fish which it has been ])ossil)le to observe in this respect, and the inference seems reasonable that the rule is universal. This accounts for the fact that the same kind of fish, at the same place, is sometimes good during one week and poisonous the next. Some species of fish are, perhaps, always poisonous, independently of any peculiarity of condition. (144.) Many accidents occur from fish-poisoning. One of our ships approaching the Straits of Gibraltar, the crew, in a calm, caught a great number of Spanish mackerel (Scomber colia.^), a much-esteemed and very common European fish ; and some thirty of the crew were poisoned, though none fatally, before the fish was suspected. — {Homer.) During the first Japan expedition, our ships at Simoda were supplied with a very excellent small fish, the Clupea thryssa, which abounds there. After a week or so it was observed that the fish were not so good as usual, and several persons who ate them were attacked with fish-poisoning. At Cape Town, South Africa, the authorities warn strangers against a poisonous fish, Tetrodon capensis, which abounds there. " A fatal accident from this fish occurred recently on board a Dutch ship at St. Simon's Bay. Her Britannic Majesty's ship Winchester being near, her surgeon, Mr. Jameson, was called to assist the sufferers. He found that the boatswain's mate and purser's steward had been suddenly taken ill after eating part of a well-known deleterious fish common there, called toad-fish, or bladder-fish, the Tetrodon. They had been warned that the fish was poisonous, but were resolved to try the experiment, the boat- swain declaring that the liver was not poisonous, but a great delicacy. They had partaken of dinner at 12 o'clock; imme- diately afterward they partook of the fish, and scarcely ten min- utes had elapsed when the boatswain became so ill that he was unable to raise himself without the greatest difficulty ; his face was flushed, his eyes glistened, pupils ratiier contracted, his mouth was open, lips livid, somewhat blue ; his forehead covered with perspiration; the pulse weak, quick, and intermittent. The patient w^as extremely uneasy and in great distress, but still con- scious ; he complained of pain from constriction of the throat, 114 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 145. and appeared inclined to vomit. His state soon assumed a para- lytic- form ; his eyes became fixed in one direction ; his breathing ■was difficult, and acconi})anied with dilatation of the nostrils ; his face was pale and covered with cold perspiration ; his lips livid, and in scarcely seventeen minutes after partaking of the fish he was dead. The symptoms of the purser's steward were similar. He died within twenty minutes after partaking of the fish. The quantity eaten by the two men was the liver of one fish, which might have weighed four drachms." [15.55 grams.] — {Jameson.) A species of Sparus, porgie, has been noticed as poisonous at the Hawaiian Islands. Several species of Clupea, herring, have been observed to be poisonous : Clupea thn/ssa, of the China Sea and Indian Ocean; Clupea tropica, of the AVest Indies; and Clupea meletta, of the Pacific ; so that every small herring or sardine-like fish should be suspected, in fact avoided, till positive information is gained of its properties. There is a large species of perch in the West India waters {^phyrcena hecuna), which has often been the occasion of accidental poisoning. (145.) Though it has not been certainly determined that any species of fish is always or essentially poisonous, yet accidents have so frequently occurred with some of them, that they should always be rejected. The genera D'wdon and Tetrodon — sea- porcupine, toad-fish, blower, puffer, etc. — being puffed up with air and covered with spines, are generally, if not always, poison- ous, and their appearance one would think enough to excite dis- gust at the mere idea of eating them. The only available means of testing the poisonous properties of fish is to cause a small animal, as a cat, to eat some of it. Its poor flavor may excite suspicion. The following list comprises all the fish which have proved iwisonous of which I have l>een able to find an account : Scomber ceruleus, Spanish mackerel. Tdrodon ocellatus, spotted blower. Scomber maximus, king-fish. Tdrodon scelerntus, puffer. Scomber thynnus, bonito. Tetrodon pennatii, Pennant's toad-tish. Clupea meletta, tropic sardine. Perca major, baracuta. Clupea thryssa, yellow-bill sprat. Perca venenata, rock-fish. Clupea tropica, tropic herring. Perca venenosa, grooi)er. Coracinus fu»cus, gray snapper. Sphyro'nn pecuna, Jamaica perch. Coracinus minor, small snapper. Balisfes monoccrm, old wife. Coryphona splendens, sailor's dolphin. Sparus chrysops, gilt-head. Tetrodon capemis, cape toad-fish. Sparus pagrus, porgie. MurerM minor, conger eel. § 148. ] MOLLUSKS. 115 MOLLUSKS. (14().) This division of animals supplies comparatively very little food. Many species of squids form the principal food of whales, and, therefore, probably are not poisonous. Some of them are eaten by people where they abound, and are considered good meat, which has been compared in flavor to the claw of the lobster. At Simoda, Japan, during the first expedition, the common calamar}' [LoUgo vulgaris) was noticed in considerable quantities, preserved by slightly salting and drying it. When broiled and eaten hot, the flavor was good. But most of the mollusks are to be avoided rather than sousfht after. There is so little that is appetizing in the appearance of most of them, that comparatively few experiments have been made with a view to their conversion into food ; so that here is a large field which may be cultivated when the human race in- creases so as to make the use of such food necessary. AVe do not know whether any of them are essentially poisonous, but it is believed that any and all of them are very liable to become so under very ordinary circumstances, as happens with fish. (147.) Snails, which are eaten by some people, feed on plants and have appeared to be poisonous when collected from poison- ous plants. The caution which this fact suggests cannot prob- ably be of much value to any American. (148.) The acephala, including oysters, clams, date-fish (Pho- las), muscles, and cockles, are the most valuable of the mollusks. Nearly all of us appreciate the good varieties of the oyster in its season. The others are less savory, and some of them pretty tough ; but good cooking and seasoning make good soup and other good dishes of almost any of them, if the animal itself be in good condition. In temperate climates, during warm weather, these animals have an appearance of white opacity, and the liquid inclosed in the shell has the same appearance, indicated by the term milkv. This condition continues four or five months. Durino- this sea- son they are ill-flavored and very unwholesome, a moderate meal of them frequently causing a severe attack of cholera morbus. In warm climates this condition continues much long-er, and in suck 116 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 150. situations it is always dangerous to use them, except with the utmost caution in regard to quantity as well as quality. The remaining mollusks are so little capable of conversion into food, and so likely to be poisonous in the localities where they are found, that we should deem it unnecessary to particularize, even if we possessed sufficient knowledge of their properties. ARTICULATES. (149.) In regard to the insects, spiders, and worms which form the bulk of the animals of this division, we have but little to say. They are eaten largely by birds. People in a low con- dition of civilization have eaten roasted grasshoppers, etc., mingled with other food, as a resource against starvation. The bodies of many insects are imbued with acrid poison, suf- ficiently powerful to produce a blister if the animal be crushed and allowed to remain a certain time in contact with the skin. The Cantharis vitatta (potato fly), has such properties. Any in- sect of this kind would produce worse results if introduced into the stomach. They are probably rather peppery food even for birds. Other insects have poisonous fangs, wdiich cause their bites to be dreaded ; and some have a special sting in the tail no less terrible. The poison in these cases seems to be acid in its nature, and may be promptly neutralized by ammonia. Spirits or water of ammonia instantly applied is, therefore, the appro- priate remedy. This remedy may cause as severe smarting as the sting for which it is applied, but this promptly subsides. It is doubtful whether a healthy adult man has ever been killed by the wound of one of these animals. There have been persons who liave died of malignant erysipelas, excited by the bite of a spider ; but we are not quite certain but tliat these Avere cases of ill-health, similar to those rare cases in which a like result has followed the scratch of a clean cambric needle. (150.) The scorpion, often seen on board ship, in hot climates, is noted for the severity of the wound which he inflicts with the hook at the end of his tail; and the centipede, in similar locali- ties, makes about as severe a wound with his jaws ; but I have never known a serious accident from either of these animals. Men and even horses have been killed by the attack of an entire § 152. ] RADIATES. 117 swarm of bees, though a single one of them makes a much less severe wound than some of the less gregarious insects. Their honey compensates us in some degree for this, as it is about the only generally esteemed article of food derived from the whole class of insects. (151.) The principal crusfdccans — lobsters, shrimps, and crabs — are generally used for food ; but they have their times and seasons, like the mollusks and fish. They are never good or wholesome unless cooked while quite fresh, and, in fact, they are so tenacious of life that it is scarcely possible to kill them before they are spoiled by decay, except by casting the living animals into boiling water. It is probable that the flesh of these animals is sometimes poisonous on account of some peculiarity of their food. If stale they certainly are unwholesome. The sickness which they occasion is cholera, similar to that caused by poisonous oysters. There are other and rarer crustaceans, which in cases of emergency might be used with the same precautions required with crabs and lobsters. RADIATES. (152.) The whole radiate division, so far as known, scarcely affords either food or poison. Many of the animals are armed with lono- threads covered with an acrid secretion, with which they are able to inflict great pain and numbness if they come m contact with a prett}' large surface of the body, and on this ac- count they should be carefully avoided in bathing. Even the little floating bladder, Portuguese man-of-war [Fhysalia atkmtlca), makes a verj- sharp stinging, as of nettles, if one of its threads comes in contact with the hand. One species of sea-egg or sea- urchin has been named Echinus escukntus, from which we may infer that it has been eaten. " These are distinguished into three sorts, the black, the gray, and the shooting sea-egg The inside of the shell is lined with about five lobes of a granulated yellow substance resembling the roe of a fish. These lobes are in length about three inches ; .... however, their bulk depends much on the time of their being taken, for these lobes are larger and even better tasted in the full than in the wane of the moon ; but if not quickly eaten 118 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 152. or put into stronsj vinegar to harden, they very soon dissolve into a reddish liquid." — (Hughes.) As these animals feed on each other, the probabilities are that they are not essentially poisonous, but that they may become so from adventitious circumstances, as the ingestion of poisonous food, peculiar conditions of the animal at particular seasons, and various degrees of putrid decomposition. It is pretty sure that some of the Protozoa influence our health, either beneficially or otherwise. It would seem that almost every drop of water in the world is inhabited by animals, mostly infu- sorians. With every glass of water we swallow hundreds, per- haps thousands, unconscious of harm ; perhaps they are even necessary for our comfortable existence. Some of the parasites which infest the human body may be derived from this source. The Guinea worm [Filaria guineensis), the Trichina sjiiralis, Lum- bricus, etc. These minute objects may be the eggs, chrysalids, or larvse of unknown animals, capable of transformation into dan- gerous parasites in our bodies, and hence the propriety of the Japanese custom of boiling water, especially of doubtful character, before drinking it, and of thus avoiding the necessity of swallow- ing drugs to poison these creatures. CHAPTER XVL BOTANY. (153.) Vegetables and fruits vary so much in their physio- logical effects, that a fair comprehension of the subject requires more detail than we have given to the subjects embraced in the preceding chapter. Besides considering the fitness of the various classes of plants for food, and their dangers as poisons, we feel called upon to notice their physiological action on the system in a general way, and in some instances their properties as medicines. This subject is not without its difficulties, which appear to have been nearly overlooked by one party, and needlessly exaggerated by another. By one party we are told that with a competent knowledge of botany we may, in a strange country, among plants which are new to us and unknown in the pharmacopoeias, select with confidence appropriate remedies for diseases, point out the dangerous poisons, and select wholesome food. The other party tells us that plants very nearly allied botanically are quite differ- ent in properties, and that hence this sort of knowledge is of no use except as it enables us to recognize known species. The truth is found between these extremes of opinion. We find that the plants nearly enough allied to be included in the same genus, are almost universally so nearly identical in properties that they are used indiscriminately for the same purposes ; and that the plants even of the larger subdivisions or orders, mostly have a general resemblance in properties. But we do occasionally find, on the other hand, that plants nearly allied are very different in their effects. Thus the plants producing the edible potato, tomato, and egg-plant, are nearly allied with those producing the deadly nightshade, the poisonous henbane, the fire-red pepper, and the disgusting tobacco ; hence it is not always quite safe to infer that a strange plant has precisely the same properties as its botiuiical relation with which we may happen to be acquainted. 120 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 156, POLYPELATOrS EXOGENS, (154.) Eanunculace^. — The Buttercup Family of Plants. — The plants of this family have a colorless acrid juice, generally more or less narcotic. Some of them are dangerous acro-narcotic poisons. Their active properties are mostly dissipated by drying, or the temperature of boiling water. The numerous species of ranunculus, buttercups, which grow all over our country, are, so far as known, identical in their action on the system. These herbs bruised and applied to the skin are (!a]xible of raising a blister. Children have been killed by swal- lowing the flowers. The Clematis, virgin's bower, in all its cultivated varieties, has irritating properties, not excelled in virulence by those of the but- tercups themselves. The various species of Hepatica, liverAs^ort; CopAis, goldthread ; Helleborus ; Aconitum, wolfsbane; and Cimicifiiga, bugbane, have well-known medical properties. Hellebore and aconite are dan- gerous poisons. (155.) Helleborus niger, black hellebore, M^as much used bv the ancient physicians, especially in the treatment of insanity. It is an active emeto-cathartic in appropriate doses, but in excessive doses, an acro-narcotic poison. (156.) Aconitum ■napellus, wolfsbane, monkshood, is an active and dangerous acro-narcotic poison. It has no smell, but when chewed it occasions a strange tingling sensation about the mouth, particularly in the tongue and throat. In large doses it produces symptoms of gastric irritation, accompanied or followed by great muscular rigidity, convulsions, stupor, coma, and death. Dr. Mull, of Birmingham, England, took tincture of aconite for four days, beginning with five drops, two or three times a day, increasing the dose to six, eight, and ten drops, so that on the evening of the fourth day he took ten drops. On the morning of the fifth day the symptoms of nervous derangement attributed to the use of the medicine appeared, and he died on the morning of the seventh day. — [Dunc/lison.) There are other species of aconite, of similar properties, from which the leaves in the shops are probably in part (l(>rived. It § 160. ] BOTANY. 121 is roniarkablc that this ])oison, called wolfsbane, should produce symptoms somewhat resembling- hydrophobia. (157.) Cimicifuffa /Y«r»)osrt, bugbane,blacksnake-root, appears to be a nervous sedative, without any very decided action on the secretions. In excessive doses it may possibly act as an acro- narcotic, but it certainly is not at all dangerous in tliis way. It ^\ould appear, from some of the cases cited, to have been used very advantageously in chorea and other diseases of irregular nervous action. There are several other species of cimicifuga, less common, but of similar properties. Delphinium staphisaf/ria, stavesacre of Southern Europe, is a dangerous acro-narcotic poison, used in ointments to destroy ver- min. At least seven species of Delphinium, larkspur, are found in our country, and are probably as poisonous as the European species. Coptis, goldthread, is a simple bitter, comparable to quassia. (158.) 'Magnoliace^. — The Magnolia Family. — This order comprises the most magniiicent of our flowering forest trees. The bark, leaves, and fruit are more or less aromatic, and they are strongly bitter and tonic. There is no dangerous poisonous prop- erty in any tree of this order. The fruit of the Illicium anisafum, star anise-seed, has, in a strong degree, the aromatic and pleasantly stimulating properties which belong to the spices generally. (159.) The Lirioclendron tulipifem, tulip poplar, Is less aro- matic than the preceding, though its flowers have a delightful fragrance, which perfumes the breeze. Its bark, being less un- pleasantly bitter than cinchona, and an excellent tonic, was rap- idly coming into general use in the treatment of intermittents, when the discovery of quinine superseded both. (160.) Anoxace^. — Custard Apples. — This order of plants consists of small trees and shrubs, which produce some of the most delicious fruits known. All parts of these trees are somewhat aromatic and tonic, without any very decided properties worthy of notice, except in their delicious fruits. The rind of these fruits is of a dark-green color, rather thick and coarse, and marked off* somewhat in the manner of the pineapple. There is no dangerous property in any fruit of this form that we are 122 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 163. aware of, except in tlie pineapple itself, which belongs to a very different order. (161.) The custard apples {Anona squamosa), and other spe- cies, are the most common of these fruits in the West Indies. We have never known any harm to result from eating these de- licious fruits, even among men just in from long voyages, and Fig. 11. Anona Squamosa. liable on this account greatly to exceed the bounds of prudence. There are many varieties, varying much in quality, but they are all good. The subdivisions of the rind of the custard apples are rounded and prominent, lying over each other in the manner of scales. Each fruit of the best varieties weighs about four ounces. (162.) The sour sop {Porcelia ?) is abundant in the same local- ities. It is pleasantly acid, with a mixture of rather tough fibres in its pulp, but it is by no means to be despised in warm weather, especially if other fruit be scarce. It is quite wholesome. It is a much larger fruit than the custard apples, and not so regular in form. The subdivisions of the rind are not so distinctly marked, being merely indicated by little black spines. (163.) The cherimoya of Peru {Anona tripetala, Tschudi), is perhaps the mo.'^t delicious fruit known, rivalling the mangostecn of India. We have never heard of any one impairing his liealth, or subjecting himself to discomfort, by eating cherimoyas. This fruit is about as large as the preceding ; it weighs one or two a v* w ^^f § 162. SOURSOP Thos Sinclair* Son, LitVi, § 164. ] BOTANY. 123 pounds. Tlie subdivisions of tlic rind are distinctly nmrkod, hut in tliis fruit the dividing lines arc ridges, the lobes of the fruit being indicated by shallow pits. (1(34.) The Cincinnati custard apple (Asiminn irilobd, Dunal ; Uvaria, Torrcy and Gray ; Anona, Linnceus), grows on a small and beautiful tree, fifteen or twenty feet high, in Pennsylvania, and the States south and west. The fruit is regularly sold in the Anoua Tripetala, Cherimoya. Cincinnati market during its season, October. It is symmetrical in form, about the size of the custard apple, but more like the cherimoya in structure. This fruit is highly esteemed by some, its flavor being compared to that of ripe persimmons. When we reflect what cultivation and selection of varieties have done for the apple, the pear, the grape, the plum, and the peach, we may reasonably hope that by similar influences this may eventually become more delicious than any fruit which now exists in this part of the world, especially as it now has a regular market, so that such influences are at work. There are six other species in the United States, but they are all shrubs, and their fruits are not so large and are less pleasant to the taste. 124 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 167. (165.) Sa RRACENTACEiE. — American Pitcher Plants. — These plants have no very active properties. One of them, the Sarra- cenia purpurea, has lately obtained a reputation as a prophylactic, and even cure, for small-pox. This credit, not being supported by any sufficient evidence, is probably without good foundation. (166.) PAPAVERACEiE. — The Poppy Family. — Tlie plants of this order are partly characterized by a milky or opaque-colored juice. Among them is the most important known medicinal plant, the Papaver somniferum, the ojnum poppy. Most of the plants of this order, jierhaps all of them, possess somewhat similar properties, and hence must be used with due caution. Chelidouium majus, celandine, is said to possess cathartic prop- erties, and its juice has been used to cure warts and other cuta- neous diseases. Sanguinaria canadensis, blood-root, is an acrid emetic, all 2)arts of the plant possessing active properties. It is not much used. In large doses it is an acro-narcotic poison. The other plants of this order, Argemone, Glaucium, Meconop- sis, Eschscholtzia, etc., probably possess in a less degree the ano- dyne and soporific properties of opium, and require caution in their use. (167.) Crucifee^. — The Ilustard Family. — This extensive family of plants, containing about two hundred genera, and probably two thousand species, is one of exceeding importance ; l)ut, as there is a uniformity of properties throughout, we can afford to be brief. These plants contain an acrid oil, diffused through every part, which contains sulphur as one of its con- stituents. They are entirely devoid of starchy or saccharine matter. Though some of them, as mustard, are pretty active, and might l)e ap})licd to the body in such a way as to do harm, there is not one which can be considered jjoisonous. They do no harm beyond the local irritation. We may likewise admit the possibility that a person might hurt himself by eating too many uncooked turnips or radishes. Some of the plants belonging to this extensive order are to be found in all parts of the world, and are very valuable to those persons whose long-continued sea diet has made a salad of such articles a great luxury. They arc known as scurvy grass, cresses, etc. In our temperate climate some of them, as cabbages, turnips, horse-radishes, nasturtiums, § 171. ] BOTANY. 125 etc., are preserved for use thronoh tlie winter, and liave caused scorbutus, the sea-scurvy, the old winter plague, to disappear. (168.) Capparidace^. — The Caper Family. — These plants resemble very closely the cruciferous, both in form and ju'operties. The leaves and bark are bitter and nauseous, some of them, per- haps, poisonous. One of them, the Capparis spinosa, supplies the essential ingredient of caper sauce, so much approved of with boiled mutton. (169.) Malvaceae. — The Mallow Family. — The plants of this order abound in mucilage, and the softer parts, leaves, etc., form excellent emollient poultices. They possess no active properties. The Abchnoschus esculentm, okra, affords the ugly-looking pods which enter extensively into the composition of gumbo soup. They are likewise used as pickles, and perhaps in other ways. The important plants of this order are two or three species of Gossyjnum, cotton. (170.) AuEANTiACEuE. — The Lemon Family. — This order is composed of beautiful trees and shrubs. The flowers, leaves, and the rind of the fruits are abundantly charged with volatile oil, of delightful fragrance. These oils are much used in perfumery. The great importance of these plants is in their fruits, the pulp of which, containing much free citric acid, is much sought for in w^arm climates. Some of them, as the orange. Citrus aumntium, abound so much in sugar, and are so moderately charged with acid, that we eat them as they come from the tree, without other preparation than the removal of the rind. Some varieties are so bitter as to be unfit for use, except medicinally, or as a prophylactic against malarial fevers. Other species, Citrus limonum, Citrus medico, etc., are too acid to be eaten as fruits. But they are invaluable on account of their cooling acid juice; wdiich, duly mixed Avith sugar and water, forms lemonade, which, wdien used in moderation in warm weather, is the most pleasant and most wholesome of drinks. Lemon-juice, derived from these fruits, and properly prepared, is the great dependence of the British navy against that terrific pes- tilence, the sea-scur^T. (171.) Geeaniace.^. — Geraniums. — The beautiful plants which constitute this order are cultivated for ornament through- 126 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 1 74. out the civilized world. Their leaves are fragrant with volatile oil, varying in character with the species. The roots are simply astringent, without bitterness or other unpleasant flavor. One species, Geranium maculatmn, is officinal. (172.) Anacardiace^. — Sumachs. — This order of plants is composed of trees and shrubs, with a resinous or milky juice, very irritant, and even caustic, but of great value as a material for varnish. The celebrated Japan varnish, which becomes so exceedingly hard and durable, is composed largely of the juice of a species of Bhus. The exhalations of this varnish are so irri- tating as to produce a troublesome inflammation of any exposed surface of the skin. The workmen are ol>liged to apply it in the open air, and to keep themselves in such a position that the wind shall carry the exhalations away from them while the varnish is drying. The exhalations from the growing plants of this order produce a similar result ; but we have observed in regard to this, that a young, vigorously growing poison vine, may be approached in any direction, and even handled with impunity ; whereas an old plant, with a few withering, half-dead branches, is very apt to aifect those who go anywhere near it. The young plants, when cut down and drying, are equally dangerous ; and worst of all is the smoke of these weeds when burning. JRhus toxicodendron, one of the plants of this order, has been used medicinally. It is a dangerous, acro-narcotic poison, similar in its operation to strychnine, and it was used in similar cases. This is the plant which has been recognized as producing staggers, the milk sickness of the Western country ; the poison being trans- mitted through the cow to those using her milk or aiting her flesh. — [Chase.) (173.) The cashew of the tropics, Cnssuvium pomifcruni and Cassuvium jjyrtferum, is derived from a plant of this order, Ana- cardium occidentale, and is said to contain a delicious oily pulp ; but its rind has a caustic juice, which blisters the skin and cures warts. This fruit is often seen in the markets, but it requires care in handling. (174.) The celebrated mangosteen of Southern Asia, Garcenia man(/ostana, is said to belong to this order, all parts of the ]ilant except its fruit being poisonous. In this case it would seem that § 176. ] BOTANY. 127 the most delicious fruit is associated in the same plant with the most deadly poison. (175.) ViTACE^. — Gropcvines. — These plants mostly pro- duce grapes, generally delicious acid fruits ; some of them, too Cassuviuni poniiferum. acid to be eaten without sugar and cooking. The leaves are likewise acid. The juice of grapes, more or less fermented, had been the ordinary drink at meals till tea and coffee took its place. The ill-effects of excess in wine were about as well understood anciently as at present. " Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging ; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." — (Prov^ XX, 1.) (176.) Leguminos^. — Beans. — This veiy extensive order of plants possesses considerable variety of properties, perhaps with- out embracing a single poisonous plant. But the calabar bean, one of the most virulent of known poisons, is referred by our authorities to this order (r. Loganiacece, § 192). The seeds of 128 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 180. most of them are beans and peas, which are edible and of great vahie for food. (177.) Some species afford gummy or mucilaginous extracts or exudations, which are merely nutritive or demulcent. Such are the Acacia vera, Acacia arabica, etc., which supply the gum arabic of commerce; and the Glycyrrhiza glabra, the source of licorice. Many species afford simple astringent extracts. The Ptero- carpus erinaceus is said to be the source of kino ; and Hematoxy- lum campeachianum, logwood, furnishes a similar extract. Other species afford balsamic exudations. The Myroxylon peruiferum, is the source of balsam of Peru ; Myroxylon tolui- ferum, of balsam of tolu ; and Copaifcr officinalis, of balsam of copaiva. (178.) Still other species are among the most valuable of ca- thartic medicines. Cassia senna and several other species supply the senna leaves of the shops. Cassia marilandica has similar properties, but is less active. The Cassia fistula and other species are likewise cultivated and used for this purpose. (179.) The pods of one species, 3Incuna pruriens, cowhage, are covered with prickly down, easily detached, which, coming into contact with the face or hands, causes a most intolerable itching. The plant is on this account to be avoided. This prickly mate- rial, mixed with molasses, is administered as a vermifuge ; and Avithout appearing to injure the stomach or bowels, it is very effective in stinging the worms to death. Mncuna tuberosa bears tubers in some respects comparable to the potato ; its starch-granules are very large and symmetrical. (180.) Indigo, a product of the Indigo/era tinctoria and other species, has been said, I do not know on what evidence, to be a " violent poison." This is probably a mistake. A few years ago I was called to see immediately a child poisoned with indigo. The child, about a year old, while his mother was too busy Avash- ing clotlies to see what he was about, got possession of a new blue- bag and did as children are a})t to do with such things. A\ hen the blue-bag was wanted it was found with the baby, but its con- tents had mostly disappeared. I found the child apparently quite well, only wondering a little, })crliaps, at the unusual hubbub. A moderate dose of ipecacuanha caused the ejection of a large (pian- § 184. ] BOTANY. 129 tity of blue matter from the stomnch ; but I ^^';ls imable to per- ceive any symptom of pain, or distress, or derangement of health about the child, except what was fairly referable to the operation of the emetic. This child had at least one-fourth of an ounce of indigo in his stomach for more than an hour. (181.) Rosacea. — This extensive order supplies many of our most delicious fruits and most beautiful flowere, and not one dan- gerous poison. It is not necessary to particularize the properties of apples, pears, and quinces ; plums, peaches, and almonds ; cherries, apricots and nectarines; dcAvberries, raspberries, and strawberries. The bark and roots of many of the plants furnishing these fruits are bitter astringents, more or less used in medicine. The kernels of the bitter almond, Amygdcdus amara, and other fruits of this form, are capable of furnishing prussic acid, a deadly poison. The taste of these kernels, however, is such as to obviate all danger from them. (182.) Indian physic, GUIenia frifoUafa and GiUenla stipidacea, appears to be a safe and efficient emetic, Avhich may be substituted, without nuieh inconvenience, for ipecacuanha. (183.) MYRTACE.E. — Nearly if not quite all the thirteen hun- dred plants belonging to the myrtle family are supplied with an aromatic volatile oil, chiefly residing in the pellucid dotting of the leaves. They furnish many of the common spices. These plants, as well as the Rosacece, belong to the class Icoscmdria of Linnreus, and are not j^oisonous. The fruits belonging here are the Punica r/mnatum, pomegranate ; Pisidium pyriferinn, white guava ; and Pkidlum jjomifenivi, red guava. A curious property of the guavas is that the green fruit is astringent, causing consti- pation, while the ripe fruit has an opposite effect. The most im- portant spices of this order are the Caryophyllus aromaticus, cloves ; and Myrtus pimcnta, allspice. (184.) Cactace^ — Prickly Pears. — These curious plants are found to possess very valuable properties in the dry deserts, where they mostly grow. They are in no way poisonous, and their slightly acid, watery juice is available for drink in situations where water is not obtainable. It is said that asses and mules can very well manage to remove the prickles, and possess themselves of 9 130 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 188. this precious material. They produce fruits which vary much in size, form, and flavor, according to the species. (185.) The OpuTitia vulgaris bears a beautiful, smooth, scarlet, pear-shaped fruit. Other species bear a green and prickly fruit. (186.) There is a climbing triangular vine of this family, which bears a very fine red fruit, weighing about a pound. In Mexico this fruit is called pitaya. (187.) Passiflorace^ — Passion Flowers. — There are several species of passion flower which bear edible fruits, called granadil- las, maypops, etc. These fruits are not generally very attractive ; but there is a delicious fruit of this kind, which flourishes at the Island of St. Thomas, and doubtless elsewhere. (188.) CucuRBiTACE^ — The Melon Family. — This order of plants contains some delicious fruits ; but it is necessary to remem- FlG. 14. (^itrullus colocynthis. ber that they are nearly allied to colocynth, briony, and elaterium, dangerously active cathartics. The poisonous principle of these fruits is generally associated M'itli bitterness, so that there is not much danger of poisoning except from the more familiar of them. § 186, PITAYA TKos Sinclair* Son, Lith, --'-'^^^^^^'^w^-.^.. §.189, PAWPAW Thou SmtlmrASon.Luh. § 191. ] BOTANY. 131 These, when unripe or badly prepared, may be poisonous. All of these fruits should be used with great moderation. The eommon eueumber, Cucumis sativus, sliced thin, M'itli salt and vineo-ar, quiekly loses all deleterious properties, and is a de- lieious and wholesome salad. The watermelon, Citrullus vulgaris, is a very dangerous fruit. Where it has been long and carefully cultivated, varieties have been produced which when ripe are delicious and wholesome. There have been occasions of men eating watermelons unripe and of inferior quality, from which serious accidents have oc- curred. They generally produce an attack of cholera morbus, which may prove fatiil. We have seen in the market at Ma- zatlan, Mexico, watermelons capable of producing this result. The French army in Egypt suffered much from watermelons of bad quality. Pumpkins and squashes, the various species of Cucurbita, are eaten only when cooked, and in this condition they are good food. (189.) ThejMwpaw of the tropics, tree melon, Carica papaya, is a tree sometimes attaining the height of twenty feet. The fruit is about the size and form of the common muskmelon. The pulp is rather insipid, but the seeds, some of which should be eaten with the fruit, have a pleasant pungent flavor, curiously like the flavor of watercresses. This fruit is very common and much eaten by sailors, and we have never known harm to result. When eaten freely it produces a moderately laxative effect. (190.) UMBELLIFER.E — The Pavsley Family. — This extensive order embraces plants which vary exceedingly in their properties. They are generally merely aromatic and carminative ; as fennel, anise, dill, carui, etc. Some of them by cultivation lose their aromatic and stimulant properties in some degree, as carrots, parsnips, celery, etc. Some of these plants supply exudations of unpleasant fragrance, which are used as antispasmodic medicines. The Ferula asafoet- ida, and Dorema ammoniacum, furnish products of this kind. Conium maculatum, poison-hemlock, and Cicuta virosa, w^ater- hemlock, are powerful acro-narcotic poisons. MONOPETALOUS EXOGENS. (191.) RuBiACE^. — The plants of this order possess various and active properties. Not one of them, however, is dangerously 132 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 191. poisonous. Rubia tinctonim furnishes the madder of commerce, a A'ahiable dyestuff. Fig. 15. Apocynum cannabinum. The ipecacuanha of the shops is the root of the Cephaelis ipe- cacuanha of Brazil. It is the most gentle and efficient emetic substance known, causing the evacuation of the stomach with the least possible^ amount of distress or pain. It is said that other species and allied genera possess similar properties. A^arious species of Cincliona, growing in the elevated mountain regions of tropical America, supply us with (piinint', the most im})ortant article of the Materia INlcdica except oi)ium. Coffee is the fruit of the Caffea arahk-a, the great benefits of which will probably never be estimated as highly as they deserve. § 192. ] BOTANY. 133 (192.) LoGANiACEyE, Poison Beans; ApoCYNEiE, Dof/bancs; AscLEPiADACE^, 3Ii!kwecds. — All the plants of tliet^c throe orders are poisonous. Some of them procluoc the most deadly poisons known. Strychnine, the active principle of StrijcJuios mix vomica and other species, is among the most active. It is already ob- taining a place by the side of arsenic in the annals of secret murder. The Strychnos to.vifcra and Strychuos cogens are the Fig. 16. Apocynum andros»mifoIium. source of the terrific woorari with which the Indians of Central America poison their arrows. The Strychnos tieute, of Java, is the celebrated upas tree. The Cerbera tanghin, of ISIadagascar, is said to be so poisonous that a single seed, the size of an almond, is sufficient to poison twenty men. This ls the celebrated ordeal nut of the east coast of Africa. The ordeal nut of the west coast, Physostigma, the Calabar bean, is referred to the order Legumi- nosce, though represented as precisely as bad as the other ; one bean the size of an almond being sufficient to kill twenty men. One of the Asclepiadacese, in 1871, was introduced to the medical profession under the name of Cundurango, as an effective 134 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 193. cure for cancer. It was found to be a new plant — a new genus was suggested to hold it ; and it received the appropriate name of Psemma(^ennetes, father of lies. — [San. Rep., 1873.) (193.) Pink root, Spigelia marilandica , is probably the least dangerous plant of its order. It is one of our most esteemed vermifuge medicines, and has never been known to do harm when administered with ^^°' ^^' due caution. I recollect meeting, a few years since, a much-esteemed friend in the course of his morning round, who expressed himself some- what as follows : " I have just witnessed one of the most distressing scenes which it has ever fallen to my lot to encounter. Yesterday a fine healthy child of Mr. G., our apothecary, was a little cross, so far as I can understand, and perhaps picked his nose, from which the nurse conclud- ing he had worms, ap- plied to the clerk in the store for medicine, and received a package of the last puffed quackery. The infusion was prepared and administered in ac- cordance with the direc- tions, and tlic conse- quence was the convul- sions and death which I witnessed. I had not the heart to hint it to the family, already sufficiently distressed, but it must be done. The Spigelia marilandica. § 195 ] BOTANY. 135 same murderous trick was enacted here about six yeare ago ; the same sort of ahuanac was gratuitously distributed, and 1 traced to this cause the death of twelve children, which occurred with similar symptoms at that time. I examined a package of the medicine, and it contained nothing but clear leaves of spigelia, the stems and roots being removed." Dr. Chalmers {Hidory of South Carolina) gives an account of the death of tAvo children, caused by pink root. The symptoms produced by a poisonous dose of this plant are giddiness, dimness of vision with dilated pupils, convulsions of the muscles of the eyes, general convul- sions, and death. On the whole, I am inclined to the opinion that a large proportion of the deaths of children by convulsions are deaths from carelessly administered worm tea. Two other species of spigelia, SprgeUa anthclmia and SpigeUa glahrata, are mentioned as active poisons known in the \yest India Islands. (194.) Composite — Simflotoers ; Asters. — This immense order of plants, including at least one thousand genera and ten thou- sand species, is remarkable for containing a great many medicinal plants, none of which has any dangerous activity. Lactuca sativa, garden lettuce, the young leaves of which make a pleasant salad, becomes pretty strongly narcotic as the season advances, and the inspissated juice, called lactucarium, though much less active, is comparable in some respects to opium. Chamomile, Anthemis nohilh, and other species, are simple bitter tonics, sometimes proving emetic and diaphoretic, if taken infused in large quantities of warm water. The same may be said of Eupatorium, boneset, and most of the other ten thousand plants of this order. (195.) LoBELiACE^. — The few plants constituting this order have acro-narcotic properties very similar to those of ordinary tobacco. Like other plants with such properties, they are me- dicinal, but require to be used with great caution. Lobelia infiata, Indian tobacco, was the principal medicine of the celebrated Samuel Thomson. He attributed to it almost miracu- lous powers. It was said to evacuate bile and other crudities from the stomach without causing nausea or disturbing whole- some food, or interfering in any way with healthy digestion. But since the decease of this celebrated individual, and his equally 136 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 199. celebrated botanic system of medicine, tliis plant has fallen into disuse. It is occasionally recommended to be smoked in a pipe in cases of asthma. (196.) Ertcace.e — Heaths. — This extensive fiimily of plants furnishes a great variety of edible berries — cranberries, whortle- berries, blueberries, bilberries, deerberries, bearberries, etc. Some of the berries and plants are not mucli esteemed, except as flavor- ing ingredients. Such are the Gaulthcria jit'ocumhcns, partridge- berry, and Pyrola umbeUata. The plants of this family have generally diuretic and astringent properties. Two genera, the rhododendrons and the kalniias, have narcotic poisonous proper- ties. The Kalmla angudifoUa, and other species, have proved fatal to sheep, and they appear not t<> have any instinctive dis- position to shun this poison. The berries are sometimes eaten by the ruffed grouse, partridge pheasant, when the ground is covered with snow, and the flesh of the birds is thus rendered poisonous. (197.) The Oxi/Goccus macrocarpa, cranberry, as it is capable of easy preservation through the winter, is, perhaps, the most important of our small fruits. (198.) ScROPHULAEiACEiE — Mullcui Family. — This important family produces some ornamental flowers, without fragrance. They are bitter and disgusting to the taste, many of them are narcotic poisons, and all suspicious. Some of them turn black in drying. The Digitalis purpurea, foxglove, the niost important plant of the order, is a valuable medicine. But it possesses dangerous properties, on acconnt of which it must be used with great cau- tion. The other species of digitalis possess similar properties. The same may be said of most of the plants of the order, though they are generally less active. They should be avoided. The mullein, Vcrbascum thapsus, has the narcotic and sedative properties in so moderate a degree that the leaves are safely ap- plied to painful tumors as a poultice. (199.) Labiatje — Mints. — This striking family of plants, embracing more than two thousand species, has many properties in common with the Cruciferas. They are all pervaded by a pleasant, aromatic, volatile oil, which differs somewhat in each j)lant, and gives to them their characteristic properties. There is § 201. ] BOTANY. 137 not one plant of tliis extensive order which is in any way poi- sonous. (200.) Coxvoi.vuLACE.E — 3Iomhi(/-i:ime. Much good and some harm re- sulted from this. LIBERTY ON SHORE. The bad habits of the sailor are doubtless those about which 152 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 222. King LeniueFs motlier admonl.-lied liini. Some came on board in various degrees intoxicated ; some Avere infected with danger- ous diseases; and some had to be carried on board. The great niajority, however, escaped these misliaps, conducted themselves properly, came on board at the expiration of their libei-t}-, and received nothing but advantage from their visit. The cheerful influences of these visits to the shore are exceedingly beneficial to health, lasting for weeks, and even months. AVe must here re- mark the strong contrast between this j^icture and such as would have been presented only a few years sooner when flogging was a recognized punishment. Nearly all would have been drunk, many diseased, most of them ragged and dirty, some nearly naked by swapping their clothes for rum ; the whole ship a sort of })ande- monium for several days in succession. Officers would have been sent to wander about the worst places in search of liberty men to be carried on board drunk ; instances occurring of officers assaulted, beaten, and perhaps nuirdered A\hi]e employed in this duty. The whole business was so hateful to the officers that they would not ap- prove of liberty for the crew more than once in six months, and even contrived excuses, emergencies of service, etc., to protract the interval to a whole year ; so that two occasions of general liberty would generally suffice for a cruise of three years. What a splendid chance to see foreign countries ! This has gradually changed, and is still changing more rapidly for the better. It is no longer con- sidered particularly heroic to get drunk and use disgraceful lan- guage, to assault an officer, and perhaps try to murder him, and to stand up " like a man " when tied up to settle the account. The men of their own accord return to the ship at the proper time, and the few who fail to return are arrested and brought on board by the local police. Many of them visit the shore about once a week, permission depending very much on the conduct of the individual during previous visits. It occasionally becomes a question ^^dlether the surgeon will recommend certain men to go on shore, and he is particularly hard to convince that getting drunk or other bad conduct is in any way beneficial to health. The const^uit ]iressure of these influences is ra})idly ])ringing our sailors to conduct themselves much more like oentlenien during; their visits to the shore in foreign countries. Very nmch remains to be done. Offic(n"s do not always fully appreciate these influ- § 223. ] HABITS. 153 eucet!; the record of conduct may be written by an unfaithful person, and very gross fauks overlooked. These difficulties must always exist in some degree. There are other influences at work beneficially influencing the character of the sailor. The most important of these is the " honorable discharge," which is given at the expiration of the enlistment. It confers such advantages that all desire to possess it, and it cannot be given at any time or withheld capriciously, but the propriety of its being given to each particular man is a question open for decision till the termination of the cruise. The few who are so indifferent as to fiiil to obtain it have great diffi- culty in re-enlisting, as the rendezvous is often closed agiiinst all who do not possess it, and a nearly insuperable obstacle is raised against their obtaining petty officers' positions. (223.) But the sailor is not altogether bad. If we expose his faults, which indeed are apparent enough, let us consider the cir- cumstances of his life, which have deprived him in some degree of the habit of self-control, and give him some credit for such virtues as he actually possesses. His life is a life of contrasts. His intemperance is partly the consequence of long periods of enforced abstinence. His life of privation seems to relieve him so much from the necessity of self-control that he loses all power to resist temptation. After long periods of monotonous and un- savory food, he suddenly has spread before him a profuse feast. There is so little pleasure in his way that he denies himself no indulgence. His life brings all the passions into vivid contrast ; hope immediately succeeding to despair ; excessive labor to idle- ness ; sadness to joy ; in fact, pleasure to pain, and pain to pleas- ure, in every imaginable form. His impious swearing conceals a relioious sentiment not much removed from suiierstition. He is unstable as the sea. He is the creature of impulse, and habitually of generous impulses. He is occasionally entirely forgetful of self in his generous impulses to serve others. We may relate a characteristic incident. Shortly after the Mexican war, 1848, one of our men, crossing the Rocky ISIountains from California, sepa- rated somewhat from his party. Suddenly a stranger running came up and begged to be taken on his horse, as he was out of breath, and the Indians after him but a short distance behind the liill, and they would kill him. Ned suggested that the horse 154 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 223. could not caiTY them hoth very fost ; the Indians miglit catcli them both. He begged for the sake of his Avife and children ; for himself he did not much care, but his poor wife ! his helpless children ! " Well, I have no wife or children, and am not out of breath," says he, and dismounting he induced the stranger to save himself with the horse. Meanwhile Xed, quietly concealed among the bushes, had the satisfaction of seeing the Indians fully occupied with their vexation as the horse travelled off. He watched his opportunity and made his way to the camp by a cir- cuitous route, and had the satisfaction as he came in on foot to hear that the stranger had arrived an hour previously on horse- back. ^Yith most men such forgetfulness of self to serve others could only be inspired by the most earnest sentiment of duty, and would be admired as an act of exalted heroism ; with the sailor it is a mere matter of generous impulse, nothing more. CHAPTER XVIII. VENTILATION CLEANING. (224.) Though the anchorage at Sacrificios is fully exposed to a breeze from tlie ocean, in nearly every direction, the calm and -warm weather had such influence that the subject of ventila- tion had to be much and seriously thought of. AVe need not much insist on the general importance of ventila- tion, as this is generally conceded ; but there are some parts of its mechanism which we may advantageously study. If we no- " tice the process of vitiation of the atmosphere in a close apart- ment, by a person breath- ing, we observe the air ^^'^- '^^■ expired from the lungs deprived of a portion of its oxygen and charged with carbonic acid, which, being warmer than the rest of the atmosphere, ascends to the ceiling; another expiration sends another portion of impure air in the same direction ; and thus the process goes on, continuously increas- ing the volume of con- taminated air from the ceiling downward. Gradually a portion of this impure air, in contact with the walls and ceiling, is cooled, and, being charged with carbonic acid, a heavy gas, it descends to the floor; and thus we have two reservoirs of impure air, one above and the other below. The atmosphere is likewise deteriorated by exha- lations from the surface of the body, which, being warmed, as Ventilation by One Hatch. 15G NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 224. well as rendered impure, ascends in like manner to the upper part of the room. This process continued would soon result in such deterioration as would be fatal to life. We liave a very simple modification of this in the ordinary railway carriag;e. The windows are of plate glass, closely fitted ; the doors nearly all the time closed ; there are merely openings in the elevated ridge of the roof. These are the only effective ventilation openings. The atmosphere as used — heated and fouled by respiration and perspiration, carbonic anhydride and all — as- cends to the roof, to the projection upwards in the roof, and is freely exchanged with the external atmos})liere. Pure air from without enters, and in accordance with its greater specific gravity descends for the use of the passengers, without much mingling with the air already used and escaping. These cai*s for each passenger have about six square feet floor-space, and fifty feet cubic capacity or air-space, as tight as plate glass and polished wood can make them, except the openings in the roof; and they are well ventilated. We start in the palace car, limited express, at New York, in the morning ; we ride nearly all day, with double plate glass windows to keep out heat and dust and noise, a door hardly opened more than three or four times in the whole journey, and we feel no want of ventilation. Or we enter a smoking car, full of men, all smoking like chimneys ; the smoke enters the air-passages and lungs of the smokers, to be brought to about tlic same temperature of other respired air, and to be charged with usual impurities besides the smoke ; but it still ascends to the openings in the roof, to be exchanged for pure air. There is generally some smell of tobacco in the car, but no smoke except the small spires from individual smokers. Nearly all our arrangements for artificial ventilation are contrived under the impression that there must be a nearly uniform diffusion of the contaminated air through the apartment ; but this of the railway cars is based on the reasonable presumption that pure air and foul air each follows its approj^riate course, iinder tlie impelling force of gravitation. If the foul air were heavier than pure air, it would be necessary to have the openings in the floor, as in get- ting rid of water or other heavy fluid. The atmosphere has the same properties on board ship as in a § 225. ] VENTILATION. 157 railway car, anJ sonic small vessels are ventilated l)y precisely the mechanism that we luive described. The hatchway of entrance ■with its continuation, the trunk, corresponds exactly in position and functi(^n with the ventilation ridge of the car. These small vessels with but one deck are very perfectly ventilated : they only require the side openings of the trunk to be partially closed so as not to iret too much ventilation. In larger vessels the same forces operate, but apartments are divided and subdivided as the vessel increases in size, till sometimes the matter becomes a little com- plicated. An air-port at the side is a great improvement, ad- mitting pure air directly into the apartment without bringing it so much in contact with the impure, which still continues to as- cend by the hatchway. With these arrangements, there is little danger of the air becoming seriously impure in cool weather, except from perverseness in closing hatches, or putting decaying material in close store-rooms, or chests, or closets. (225.) But in very warm weather the atmosphere may be about as Avarm as the human body, so that it cannot be made much warmer by being breathed, and no such movement of ventilation is established. We then must have another force. Wind, the atmosphere naturally in motion, is the great force for this pur- pose, effecting ventilation, mostly, without either care or con- sciousness on our part. A scarcely perceptible breeze of one mile an hour, entering an air-port of eight inches diameter, supplies more than eighteen hundred cubic feet of air per hour. Now, it appears that a man, in ordinary health and exercise, breathes about fifteen cubic feet in the same time. — [Dalton.) His daily supply would come through the aperture in less than twelve minutes. Hence we see that want of air in this sense is scarcely possible. But probably a hundred times more air is needed for healthy ventilation than is required to supply oxygen for the respiratory process. The air has other objects besides supplying oxygen for respiration and removing carbonic acid. The surface of the body requires air in motion to remove its heat and exhala- tions, which are otherwise retained in the system, and become directly and promptly poisonous. This action of the air on the skin seems hardly less important than that on the lungs. The exhalations must have sufficient motion in the air to remove them promptly from the apartment altogether, or they undergo changes 158 XAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 226. clothing, Fig. 27, Mliieh render them dangcroasly poisonous. They adhere to bedding, and furniture, and in this situation become the poisonous germs whicli result in epidemics of typhus, and probably of nearly all the terrible epidemics which liave from time to time de- vastated the world, including plague, measles, small-pox, dysentery, erysipelas, etc. It is on this account, as well as our instinctive consciousness of its comfort, that we need efficient ventilation. (226.) Wind being the ef- ficient force of ventilation, let us see how it may be made more useful. With a single hatchway above, the air pro- pelled into an apartment has constantly to encounter the opposite current, Avhich must simultaneously escape. As a general rule, there will be found some irregular obstacle to the motion of the wind in a direct line, so that it is re- flected in such a way that fresh air enters by one side or corner of the hatch, while the impure air escapes by another. Thus, if the hatcli be relatively large, and the breeze fresh, this ventilation is sufficient. An air-j)ort in the side of the vessel is of prodigious advan- Ventilation of Sailing Ships. course a tage. It is still better if there be two pretty large hatches at some distance from each other. The pressure of the wind can rarely § 228. ] VENTILATION. 159 be equal at both of tliciu, so that if there be anything of a breeze, the air enters at one hatcli and escapes at the other, thus flushing the apartment from end to end by a very efficient ventihition. This is greatly aided by the sails. In sailing ships, the mainsail is oenerallv so situated with reference to the main-hatch, that there is a torrent of air driven down this hatch and up forward, so long as the mainsail is set. This leaves nothing to be desired for this part of the ship, at sea, with a fair breeze. In a gale of wind, the main-spencer, sometimes called the coffee-cooler, gives more ventilation than is desired by those whose apartments are below this part of the ship. In the annexed diagram the arrows are designed to indicate the direction of ventilation currents. A, refers to the berth-deck; B, fore- and main-hold; C, steerage ventilated by main-spencer; I), after-hold or spirit-room; JE, situation of the galley ; F, mainsail ; G, main-spencer. (227.) When the ship is at anchor, an important part of this machinery, the sails, does us no good, and it is necessary to use machinery specially designed for the purpose. When there is a fair breeze a good portion of every day, the ordinary wind-sails are sufficient. If the executive officer of the ship and the sur- geon make frequent inspections, and make the condition of vari- ous parts of the ship a frequent subject of conversation, as directed by general orders, there are very few occasions when this amount of machinery is insufficient. The sense of smell affords us the best test of the sutficiency of the ventilation of any particular apartment. This sense, however, becomes readily blunted to habitual impressions, and the next evidence of defective ventila- tion is the headache, languor, and nausea. In calm, warm weather, if long continued, the means already indicated are quite insufficient, especially for the lower decks of large ships. It has hence been found that these parts of the ship are not to be inhabited in warm climates; and it has even been noted that the larger the ship the greater the average mortality from ordinary diseases, and the greater the liability to suffer from epidemics. In such situations -sve are obliged to use additional means of ventilation or suffer distressing consequences. (228.) Heat or fires may be used in various ways to create ventilating currents. The situation of the galley in ships-of-war, 160 XAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 228. Fig. 28. near the fore-hatch, is an excellent arrangement of this kind ; since the air which it Jieats immediately ascends and escap(^-, so as to create a current coinciding in di- I'cction with that produced by the force of the wind. When the galley is placed 1 )elow in a steamer it should be in the after-part of the same deck, so that its ven- tilating current may cor- respond in direction with that produced by the heat of the engine, rather than forward, where it would oppo.se or counteract it. The heat of the engine- room is, in fact, the great ventilating force of steam- ers, so long as there is fire in the furnaces. The en- tire atmosphere about the engine, being warmed and consequently expanded, ascends in obedience to its diminished specific grav- ity, follows the smoke- stack upward, and pro- duces ventilating currents from all parts to fill the vacuum. This ibrce is so efficient that ordinarily the course of the ventilat- ing currents, even at the ends of these vessels, is towards the furnaces, near the centre ; the reverse of The diagram is designed to iudi- \ 1 i ^^^^ \ >v ^- ^- J I the Ventilation of Steamships. direction in .sailing vessels. § 229. ] VENTILATION. 161 catc, by its arrows, tlic direction of the various ventilatiiio; cur- rents in a steamer. A, berth-tleck ; B, main- and fore-liold ; (/, officers' apartments ; D, after-hold ; E, situation of the galley ; G, sniokc-stack ; H, ventilator. We would suggest that the ven- tilation of steamers might be greatly improved by attention to this circumstance. Especially the ventilation of the orlop and hold, bv making vertical ventilating flues of light boiler-iron, near enough the engine to be warmed by its furnaces, and com- municating below with the orlop wings or other apartment to be ventilated. Such flues might constitute a part of the thickness of the bulkheads, and thus contribute to prevent the heat of the engine from being so much diffused through the ship, as is the case at present. Steamers at anchorage require the same ventila- tion machinery as sailing vessels do. (229.) The importance of this subject is so universally con- ceded among reflecting men, that it has formed a favorite subject of discussion and essays by practical writers. They have sug- gested a great variety of devices, some of which are effective and useful, and it is very hard to imagine the reason of the total nefflect with which most of them have been treated. One set of these plans proposes heat as the force to set the air in motion. The AVittig ventilator, the most effective of these, will scarcely propel air Avith sufficient force to blow out a candle. — {Fonssagrievcs.) It has often been suggested to associate ventilation-tubes with the cooking galley, to act in the manner of the Wittig ventilator. This is practicable, and might be useful, but it would be a labor for Hercules to overcome the objections which it ^^'ould encounter in its initiation. It has likewise been proposed that the air neces- sary for the combustion of fuel in the galley might be drawn through ventilation-tubes from the hold or other part of the ship to be ventilated. This plan is open to all the objections of the preceding, wdth the additional one of the supposed increase of danger from fire ; and, besides, any height whicli it would be convenient to give the galley chimney gives only sufficient draft for the combustion of the fuel, without any force to spare for other purposes. Heat, the most efficient motor under ordinary circumstances, is really inapplicable on shipboard, from the in- convenience of giving the flues sufficient height, unless we could make the masts hollow for that express purpose. It has been 11 162 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 231. proposed to use bellows to pump fresh air into various parts of the ship, or, what amounts to nearly the same thing, to pump the foul air out. The only objections to these contrivances are the labor of working them and the space they occupy. (230.) The most efficient and convenient contrivance for me- chanical ventilation is the rotary fan, as much as may be like the farmer's winnowing fan for cleaning grain. We do not know of any other contrivance ^^\t\\ which the light labor of one boy is sufficient to propel a column of air a yard in diameter, with suffi- cient force to blow out an ordinary candle ; but the winnowing fan does this readily enough. In some ves,sels, the monitor class, for instance, it may be advisable to ventilate inhabited apartments in this way. The opening at the axis of the fiui can be con- nected with an external air opening, so as to draw in pure air, and it may be propelled in any direction by the labor of a boy. And still better, when the engine is in motion, the fan may be worked by a small shaft or pulley. (231.) It is, however, the hold, and other uninhabitc^l parts, which occasionally demand mechanical ventilation imperatively. In windy regions and at sea this is easily enough accomplished by wind-sails, and only requires a little attention ; but during calm weather, in tropical climates, something more is required. During our stay at Vera Cruz, the spirit-room and after-hold were so defectively ventilated and so offensive as to create some uneasi- ness ; and the fan represented in the margin was designed, to be made by the carpenter of such materials as are always to be found on shipboard. But before this fan was completed we received a similar machine from another ship about leaving for home. This fan was very useful. It only required one hour of light work for a boy, in the cool of the evening, to change the entire atmos- phere of the spirit-room or after-hold. The machine Avas worked on deck, and the air first drawn up was exceedingly offensive. The suction opening of the fan has a canvas hose attached, with wooden hoops at short intervals to ]>revent its collapse. This ventilator, or something like it, should be on board every ship that visits the tropics, or any calm warm region ; even our own southern coast in summer. It has been stated in general terms to matter little whether fresh air is driven into the vessel, or the vitiated air drawn out, as a complete renovation of the atmos- § 232. ] VENTILATION. 163 phcro results in either case. To this statement we may state an exception: in ventilating the hokl in the manner just mentioned, the suction hose drawing air from the bottom of the hold, the fresh air to supply its place must necessarily pass downward through the other ajiartments ; but if we had attached the hose to the 2)i'opulsion opening of the machine, we should indeed have Fig. 29. Fan for Ventilation. propelled fresh air into the hold, but the vitiated and offensive air expelled must have diffused itself more or less through these apartments before its final escape. We are wholly at a loss to comprehend the usual indifference shown about these simple con- trivances, which everybody understands, which add so greatly to the comfort of all, and which save many valuable lives. It seems necessary to give the wings of the fan a velocity of about 2500 feet per minute. It is sometimes more advantageous to drive the fresh air down, as thus the foul air, smelled as it comes up, makes known to the dullest apprehension that some good is being done, and thus contributes to produce more zealous work. (232.) The cleaning of the decks and other visible parts of a ship, for the sake of neatness and good order, is generally quite 164 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 232. sufficient for all hygienic demands in this respect. The manner in Avhich it is done, however, is not altogether a matter of in- difference. In dry, pleasant weather, nothing can be better than holystoning ^vith a profusion of water and sand, as the decks promptly dry, leaving a bright, clean surface. But in Avarm, calm weather, and the atmosphere saturated with moisture, it is far otherwise. The decks, except the spar-deck, may be several days in drying ; and the atmosphere of the vessel, in the mean time, is oppressive with the offensive effluvia of wet wood. This ofFensive- ness of \yet decks is something very different from mere dampness of the atmosphere; for the atmosphere may be saturated with moist- ure even to the degree of precipitation, without any such feeling of oppressiveness. During such weather, the berth-deck and other covered parts of a ship should not be saturated with water. It has been attempted to obviate this difficulty by dry holyston- ing. As usually practiced, this proceeding is very objectionable. Dry sand is sprinkled on the deck, and ground in great measure into dust, Avhich fills the atmosphere and is inhaled by the men employed at the work. These particles of sand, lodged in the lungs, cannot fail to be a very serious cause of injury to these delicate organs, and yve may reasonably attribute a large part of the consumption, which has been very prevalent in the navies of the world, to this cause. Whether this may l)e obviated by merely moistening the sand, so as to prevent the formation of dust, we do not know. The only satisfactory way, which we have seen, of cleaning the berth-deck in damp weather is to scrub it with hot water, wetting but a small portion at a time, scraping as much as necessary to remove spots, and wiping each portion dry as the work proceeds ; thus the water does not remain on any part of the deck long enough to soak much into the wood. Drying stoves, little movable sheet-iron stoves, with charcoal, are a capital device for drying the berth-deck and purifying its atmosphere. The floor oil-cloth, now commonly used in officers' apartments, is greatly to be commended, as it can be washed clean and wiped dry without inconvenience of any sort. Similar ad- vantages nvay ])robably be obtained for the berth-deck by paint- in"- or varnishino;, as is sometimes done with the floors of houses. CHAPTER XIX. QUAEANTIXE — HOMEWARD BOUND SUDDEN CHANGES OF CLIMATE. (233.) While lying at Sacrificios Island, a case occurred whicli renders it convenient to discuss briefly the subject of quar- antines. A vessel joined the squadron from New York, and a few days after lier arrival one of the crew was attacked with well- marked small-pox. The vessel was about twenty-five days from New York ; the man had been some weeks on board the receiv- ing ship there without visiting the shore, so that it is impossible to say how the disease was contracted. About two weeks before arriving at this port one of the men had an eruptive fever, re- sembling measles : this is supposed to have been a case of vario- loid, the source of the small-pox contagion on board ; but this man had returned from a cruise of more than a year on the West India station, without hearing anything about small-pox ; was transferred on his return directly to the receiving ship, and remained tliere for three weeks, till his transfer for the present cruise, without ever having visited the shore. Do these cases prove the spontaneous origin of small-pox ? As both these men had freely mingled with the crew, being a part of it, and reports of the case might reach the authorities on shore, it was recommended that a quarantine flag should be worn for a few days, lest the market-boats should be interrupted. At the same time, no absurd restrictions were imposed on intercourse between the ships of the squadron, or the ships and town. (234.) After the small-pox patient first mentioned was well, and the quarantine flag removed, another man of the same vessel was attacked. It was now concluded that quarantining enougli had been done ; the sick man was merely confined to a separate ajwirtmcnt with his nurse, none else being allowed to enter it, except under tlie direction of the medical officer. This case progressed favorably for a week after the appearance of the. 166 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 235. eruption ; but a sudden oliange of weather oceurred, with a cool breeze, a norther ; the pustules shrank ; he was attackcnl with lethargy, and died There was no other case of this disease in the squadron, or neighboring town. (235.) The legislation on the subject of quarantine, much of it founded on the ignorant prejudices of persons who imagine epidemic diseases to originate and to be propagated by contagion only, has inflicted a great deal of mischief and cruel suffering. Every large city has interments every week, nearly every day, of persons dying of small -pox, typhus fever, and other contagious diseases. How nonsensical, then, the law which would confine a man merely because he has been on board a ship in which such a disease has existed, or, still worse, because he comes from a town in which such diseases exist. The notions on whicli these laws are founded, rigidly carried out, would not ])ermit a man to come from the city of New York at any time whate\er, without undergoing quarantine confinement. The city of London has escaped great epidemics of tlie plague for two centuries, not through the influence of quarantines, but of a great fire, which destroyed a large portion of the city, and enabled the authorities to have it rebuilt in a more healthy style. The plague has likewise nearly disappeared from the island of Malta, not through the influence of quarantines, but, on the con- trary, by being made the stopping-place for steamers on long voyages, which communicate at once or not at all. The places where the old system of quarantining prevails continue to suffer nearly as badly as ever. The city of New Orleans has nearly escaped the yellow fever since occupied by our troops, because the intelligent military authorities carried out rational sanitary meas- ures. Baltimore, and the cities north of it, have escaped the same disease for half a century, because they are so abundantly supplied with river-water that streams of it are constantly run- ning to waste through all the drains and sewers. Small-pox has ceased to be a terrific pestilence, sweeping a third of the poi)ula- tion from the face of the earth about once in ten years, and has become a comparatively small affiiir, since the great discovery of .Tenner has been generally practiced. We would not do away with all sanitary measures in reference to a vessel entering a port, but there should be abundant discretion allowed to intelligent, well- § 236. ] HOMEWARD BOUND. 167 educated officers, in order that passengers need not be subjected to disease and death by senseless cruelty, or commerce to absurd and destructive restrictions. Persons, whether from distant cities or not, who have recently recovered from contagious diseases, should not enter a house occupied by other persons without due precaution. Their clothing and bedding should be thoroughly disinfected, not under the direction of ignorant prejudice, but of intelligent, well-educated persons. Xo punishment is too severe for the convalescent from small-pox, or the nurse who has re- cently been exposed to it, Avho would take a seat in a public con- veyance with strangers, as has occasionally been done in our city passenger railway cars. (236.) February. — The order was passed, "Up anchor for home." But the cruise had been so short that the seamen did not generally expect their discharge, and the order excited but little of the enthusiasm which we expect to see on such occasions. A few days in Havana afforded an opportunity for a few little expeditions around the neighborhood and some social visits, to be remembered with satisfaction. The medical topography of this place may be explained in a few words. Havana is a w^alled city in a warm climate. A walled city is necessarily very compactly built, so as to include the largest possible number of people, with the smallest possible amount of walls to build and defend. The best part of the city, the vicinage of the governor's palace, is scrupulously neat and beautiful, with gardens of flowers and orna- mental shrubbery. The good order of this part is such that the iroveruor's familv, and a few others as favorablv situated for health, generally escape the yellow fever even in the worst epi- demics. Cases of this disease, however, constantly exist in the city, and it is mostly a fearful epidemic during the latter part of summer. This epidemic is not hard to account for on our theory of the cause of this disease. ISIany of the back streets, crowded with population, are not paved or drained, so that pools of stag- nant water receive all sorts of animal exuviae, excrements, and remains, to putrefy among these crowds of human beings, — Span- ish, negro, and mixed. Outside of the walls, too, especially in the immediate vicinity, even in some of the principal thorough- fares, the same nuisances may be seen. AVe do not wonder that 168 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 238. cases of yellow fever constantly exist in Havana, and an epidemic occurs every summer. (237.) March 16th. — The passage from Havana to New York carried us in four days from tropical heats to severe winter; wear- rived in a terrific snow-storm. Such sudden changes of tempera- ture we have always found among the most trying incidents of sea life ; but it is really astonishing with how little of real suffering we go through such a change if it is properly anticipated. It was curious from the first moment of leaving Vera Cruz to see the sailors examining their flannels and winter clothing, from day to day. The woollen socks were examined and darned ; the flannel drawers patched and quilted ; the pea-coats made all right, and those who had no such garments made something still better, by quilting two or three flannel shirts together, or one new one with all available old ones. INIittens, too, of no matter how many thicknesses, and caps with ears, to tie under the chin, were made. The instant we crossed the Gulf Stream all these devices and a good many more came into use. Fire was kept in the galley night and day, so that men who were cold had an opportunity to warm themselves and to make coflx?e. With these arrangements it is astonishing with how little appearance of injur,^ the transition was borne — from summer to winter in one day. ]Men got cold, shivered, and warmed themselves; they had catarrhs, pleurisies, pneumonias, and frosted fingers; but with good appetites, and hopes of soon reaching comfortable quarters, of serious sickness there was but little. (238.) The men on arriving at New York were somewhat dis- appointed in their expectation of being made comfortable. The ship was required to lie several days off the Battery, in a snow- storm, before proceeding to the navy yard; Plenty of coal stoves, however, properly disposed, with awnings and hoods over the hatches, and other sailor devices, made warm and dry corners for such as needed them when off watch. As soon as the ship was moved up to the yard, a fine sunny day affording the opportunity, all the men on the sick list were transferred to the naval hospital. In. a few days more there was an order to transfer the stores to the warehouses of the navy yard and the men to the receiving ship. Our ship was laid up " in ordinary," and the officers, in the evenino:, were on the road to their various homes. § 239. ] SUDDEN TRANSITIONS. 169 The ship went out of conuuission on the 1st of A])ril, and be- fore midnight the order arrived to refit inmuuliately with the same officers and crew. The men were at hand and telegraphic despatches brought back the officers. We passed Sandy Hook, April 6th, outward bound, but no one knew whither. A few days, and Ave were in sight of Fort Pickens, at the entrance of Pensacohi Bay. The fort was i)romptly relieved, and an effi^c- tive force of the Second Artillery landed. (239.) April 12th. — In the course of a month we have just passed from the tropical weather of Havana to a New York win- ter, with its succession of snow-storms and cold, and after remain- ing there nearly three weeks, have returned to the region of warm weather. These sudden transitions do not seem to have affected health very seriously ; on entering the rigion of cold weather, there was much discomfort certainly, — some frosted fingers, some cases of pneumonia, many catarrhs, but not one death. The change in the opposite direction was still more satisfactory : in leaving New York we escaped from its cold, and the catarrhs dis- appeared gradually as the weather became warm. In the month of April there is no discomfort from either heat or cold at Fort Pickens. CHAPTER XX. PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE TRANSPORTATION OF WOUNDED ACCIDENTS FROM FIREARMS — MOUTHS OF THE MISSIS- SIPPI — FRESH PROVISIONS — -CURACOA. Fig. 30. (240.) The passage to Pensacola included the probability of a hostile engagement on our arrival there, so that it Avas necessary to be prepared. Among the first necessities of wounded men are water and stimulants, as well as bandages, lint, and tourniquets. It would appear advantageous that, instead of a musket, about one man to every fifty should carry a satchel moderately filled vdth these things for the wounded. The tourniquet, however, in igno- rant hands, seems likely to do more harm than good, especially after great battles, where proper at- tention cannot always promptly reach the wounded. The general theory of the use of this instrument is so simple that every one imagines he knows all about the matter in an instant, and the moment he sees a wounded man he is for applying the instrument, and inunoderately tight, with the effect of destroying the circulation of the limb. If the wounded man remains in this condition without proper attention for some hours, mortification of the limb and death of the sufferer is the probable consequence. This has, doubtless, been the case very often when the bleeding was quite inconsiderable, and when the patient would have recovered if his friends had not possessed this dangerous contrivance. If a large artery of one of the extremities be wounded, whether by ball or by sabre, the tournicpict is appropriate, and not otherwise; but a very small projxtrtion of tlie wounds in battle arc of this char- acter. As a rule, the application of lint and bandage, with mod- erate firmness, is more appropriate and more likely to save life. Surgeon's Haversack. § 241. ] TRA.NSPORTATION. 171 (241.) The transportation of tlie wonndcd is varionsly managed according: to emergencies. A\'licn the wonnded are merely to be taken beloAV from the deck, the best arrangement is to have a stout man lift the wonnded, by placing one arm back of the shoulders and the other under the knees. Holding him in this way he can carry him up or down stairs, or a short distance any- Avhere, with as little jostling or injury as by any available contriv- ance. If a wounded man be too heavy to be carried in this way he may be placed in an arm-chair and carried by two or three men. If too severely injured to be handled in a chair, he may be transported on a sick-bay cot, a cord of sufficient length being attached, if it be desired to lower the cot to the berth-deck. If men are to be carried any distance by hand, stretchers, wooden frames, Avith canvas (Fig. 32), should be provided, or the cots may be used with loops attached to the sides, so that muskets can be attached as bearing-poles. Pikes, oars, and boat-hooks are occasionally found useful for this purpose. The arrangement with muskets has the advantage that it transports so many nuiskets to the hospital. Two muskets, tied together by their bayonets, form a good bearing-staif, on which a man, not so badly wounded, may be carried in a hammock. It appears that each wounded man on the average requires two comrades to assist him to the rear, and that they very rarely again reach the front, so that if a battle should continue till one-third were wounded, the other two-thirds would be away taking care of them. Hence the persistence of an army depends in battle greatly on the existence of a really efficient ambulance corps to attend to the removal of the wounded. In an appendix to the first edition of this work there is de- scribed an ingenious and very convenient contrivance for removing the wounded on board ship, as arranged by jNIedical Inspector A. C. Gorgas. It consists essentially of a common cot, which, for this purpose, is made considerably smaller than usual ; two pieces of board are joined at a right angle to make inclined planes under the knees ; and there is a pillow and a band at the upper part to hold the patient securely in position. When it is necessary to lower the foot of the cot, as in descending a hatchway, the in- clined planes hold the lower part of the body securely and com- 172 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 241. fortably. This ambulance cot, suspended by the cords at the ends, makes a veiy good invalicVs dtair. Fig. 31. Ambulance Cot. A stout arni-cliair is sometimes securely slung, so that bv means of a whip on the mainyard a wounded man, an invalid, or eyen Iland-litter lor currying the WouuiUa heyond Musket range. a lady or child, securely tied in the machine by shawls, flags, cords, etc., may be safely hoisted or lowered from a boat, even § 243. ] LOW ISLANDS. 173 Avlicn the weather is too rouijh to come very close to the side of tlie slii]x Tliis is rather better tliaii the cot, unless the patient is too weak to sit up. (242.) ]5ut, in the course of our blockadino; service at Fort Pickens, an accident occurred which calls for a few remarks. On the return of the first armed boat expedition of the cruise the men commenced i)assing Minie rifles from the boat, and one of these guns was accidentally discharged, shooting a man through the thigh. Such accidents to boat expeditions are so common that it may be well to describe the manner in which they occur. When a boat expedition is to be fitted out a quarter gunner loads a dozen or two rifles, not omitting percussion primers, and lays them in an irregular heap. Another man transfers them to an- other part of the ship by taking them in his arms, as many as he can lift at a time, as if he were handling hoop-poles, carries them across the deck or up a ladder, and lays them down again in a heap. The guns do not always go off by this sort of handling ; in fiict, I have never known a man to be shot by this part of the manoeuvre, but I have noticed that most persons about observe the direction of the muzzles and stand clear. When the boat is brought alongside the guns are generally passed into it by men standing in a row, nearly the length of a gun apart, so that the muzzle is pretty sure to point toward some one. On the return of the expedition the guns are passed from the boat in the same manner. It is not very astonishing that frequent accidents occur from this manner of handling firearms. As far as my observa- tion has gone, the first armed boat expedition of every cruise has always produced an accident in this way. In California, during the Mexican war, there was perhaps more preparation than fight- ing, and it was computed at the time that about one-third of the wounds and deaths from firearms were accidents from the man- ner of handling arms. In the last edition of the Ordnance Ilanual, this subject is attended to. Percussion caps are not to be placed on the rifles in fitting out boat expeditions, and before passing the guns from the boat the primers are to be removed. Instructions to men in the use of arras are directed with some urgency. (243.) The low sand islands of the coast, such as Santa Rosa, on which Fort Pickens is located, afford an abundant supply of 174 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 244. good water witliout further trouble tlian digging shallow wells in the sand. They likewise have wholesome breezes from the ocean, and are much less affected by annoying insects than the neighbor- ing main land. With good sanitary police we shall be able to maintain garrisons in good health on any of these islands which it may become necessary to occupy. (244.) From Pensacola Ave passed to Mobile Bar, and had a good view of Fort Morgan in the distance. Two or three days later we established the blockade at the Southwest Pass of the Fig. 33. .PASS S W.RAS8. MouUis of the Mississippi. Mississippi. At first there were vessels passing in and out every day, presenting new objects of interest constantly. There is not much swell here, and the ship lies very comfortably, just outside the bar. The volume of fresh water is so great and remains so distinct from the water of the ocean, that by watching opportuni- ties we were able to draw from the surface alongside all the fresh water required for use on board. This water was very nniddy, but by merely settling, it became sufficiently clear and palatable. § 245. ] THE MISSISSIPPI. 175 AVc had no occasion to seek l)etter water. The (lei)tli of water on the bar is about fifteen feet, but tlie mud is so soft, that the ves- sels drawing eighteen feet, or even more, work their way through it. Tlie steam-tugs bring them down till they stick fast in tlio mud and there leave them to the winds and currents. The small vessels generally get through in three or four days, but large ves- sels remain as many weeks or even months, so that the crossing of this bar is apt to cost as much as all the rest of the passage to Europe. It is really astonishing that no attempt has been made to carry the larger vessels over this point by camels or similar contrivance. The situation here is quite healthy, and even at the lighthouse, six or seven miles above, among reedy islands, they never have intermittent fever. Everything seems to be so much submerged and so thoroughly washed by currents that the malarial miasm has no abiding-place. The Balize— the pilot station further up the river — seems to enjoy a similar exemption. (245.) While at the Southwest Pass we had some experience of the considerate forethought and intelligent energy of the admin- istration at home, in the extraordinary arrangements for the pres- ervation of health. The most important of these was an abun- dant supply of ice and fresh provisions to the squadrons. A cargo sailed once a month from New York for the supply of the blockading vessels. The arrival of these supply vessels was very welcome, and a place for the storage of a few tons of ice was quickly arranged and quickly filled ; and between the layers of ice were snugly deposited quarters of beef and saddles of mutton, enough to supply in profusion the whole crew for a week or ten days. The supply ship was then ready to go on her round to the coast of Texas, treating the other blockading vessels on her route in the same way. The benefits of this arrangement, affording salutary changes from salt diet, with the cheering influences of news from home, cannot be overestimated. The health and strength of the men, and consequently the efficiency of the block- ade, have been greatly due to these beef-boats. During the early part of the blockade, we drew a tolerable sup- ply of fresh fruits from a very different source. Small cargoes of fruit from Cuba and Mexico came in occasionally, with intention of running the blockade, and fell into our power. They were 173 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 246. permittetl to sell out to our men at a good price and go on their way rejoicing, probably to reappear in a few days to go again through the same ceremony. The people engaged in this business always left us in doubt whether they were more desirous of sup- plying us or our enemies. Some of them doubtless acted the part of spies. (246.) We had a cruise in the Caribbean Sea, and to the coast of Brazil beyond the mouths of the Amazon. AVe stopped at Kingston, Jamaica, and received a supply of coal. Some of the men behaved badly and got drunk. In consequence of this visit, in the course of a month, we had several cases of remittent fever, of no great severity, none of the cases proving fatal. The Island of Curafoa at the time of our visit was quite healthy, and from an inspection of the locality', with its good pavements, its good sanitary police, and its sea-breezes, it may be expected to remain so as long as the inliabitants retain a personal recollection of the sufferings of the past. The Island of St. Thomas we found the centre of supplies and intelligence; it has an excellent harbor in a mountainous island of well-drained slopes. We passed south of the Island of Barbadoes, and with the island in sight had an epidemic catarrh, influenza ; and probably every person on board suffered from the disease. CHAPTER XXI. SPECIAL HYGIENE EPIDEMICS. (247.) Theije are many causes of disease of which we know very little, and some of which we know absolutely nothing at all. The occasional prevalence of influenza, epidemic catarrh, may be mentioned as a case of disease in which no person of conuuon honesty and common sense pretends to know the cause. Those who are unwilling to acknowledge this degree of ignorance may make guesses, and suggest some distemperature of air or earth, or some error of diet, or they may put down some of the symp- toms for the cause, and say it is caused by fever, or irritation, or inflammation of the air-passages. They might as w^ell suggest at once that influenza is caused by influenza. The only fair way to get over the difficulty is to say that the cause is in some epi- demic influence, and to explain further that there certainly must be some influence, and epidemic is the single word in common use to indicate that we know little or nothing about it, except that it affects or falls upon the people (s-f, upon ; (hp-oc, people), and causes many of them to suffer from disea-se in the same way at the same time. But influenza is by no means the only disease which occurs epidemically. There have been epidemics of cholera, dysentery, typhus, etc., in fact nearly all the diseases which afflict humanity seem occasionally to prevail more extensively than usual on ac- count of some epidemic influence. Sydenham was probably the first to fully appreciate the constant presence of some epidemic influence, or epidemic constitution of disease, as he called it. He describes several epidemic constitutions, running into and blend- ing with each other, the constitutions constantly changing, in fact. These occurred in the following order : I. Epidemic constitution of 1G(j1,'62, '63, savl '64: Continual 12 178 NAVAL HYGIENE. [§248. fever, autumnal remittent; agues, intermittent fever; small- pox. II. Epidemic constitution of 1065, '(i'i: Pneumonia, pleurisy, and quinsy, in the s})rin«2; ol' 1G65; ])estilential fever, a continual fever, very ditierent from that of the previous constitution ; plague, with carbuncles and Ijubos, at its height about September 10th, 16G5, when eight thousand died in one week. III. Epidemic constitution of 16(37-68, and a part of '69: Continual fever, variolous fever ; regular small-pox. lY. Epidemic constitution of 1669, '70, '71, and '72: Chol- era, epidemic cholera of 1669; continual fever, a dysenteric fever; dysentery; measles, 1670; irregular small-pox, a black small-pox in 1670, '71, and 72; bilious colic 1670, '71, '72. V. Epidemic constitution of part of 1673, '74, and '75 : Con- tinual fever, a comatose fever; measles, 1674; irregular small- pox, a malignant black small-pox, 1674, '75; cough, pleurisy, and peripueumony, 1675. YI. Epidemic diseases from 1675 to 1680: Measles, 1676; cholera, epidemic, 1676; intermittent, 1677, '78, and '79; con- tinual fever, comatose fever, like that of 1675 in 1679; cough, like children's cough, pertussis, 1679; intermittents, 1680, '81, '82, '83, '84, and '85. (248.) Professor George B. Wood mentions similar epidemic influences prevailing over somewhat similar periods in Philadel- j>hia, and more or less extensively over the United States. He gives accounts of the following, arranged somewhat differently : An epidemic of malarial fevers commenced in 1795., and lasted ten or twelve years; another, commencing in 1822, lasted ten years. An epidemic of yellow fever commenced in 1792, and lasted two or three yeai-s ; another, commencing in 1820, lasted one year. An epidemic of typhus conunenced in 1812, and lasted six or eight years; another, conunencing in 1 836, lasted two years ; and another, commencing in 1851, lasted live years. An epidemic cholera commenced in 1832, and lasted two years. An epidemic influenza, producing neuralgia, commencing in 1838, lasted five years. There are here monlioned two epidemics of yellow fever, last- § 250. ] EPIDEMICS. 179 ino- a year or two, witli an interval of tAventy-eiglit years ; three epidemics of typhus, histing from two to eight years, with inter- vals of sixteen and twenty-four years, the most severe epidemic being succeeded by the longer ])eriod of exemption. The chol- era e])idemic lasted tAvo years, travelling very irregularly over the country. Malarial fevers prevail more or less in certain lo- calities near Philadelphia every year, the years indicated being years of unusual prevalence; but these fevers never occur in densely built portions of the city. All countries and all places have, in this way, their epidemic influences, and Pliiladel})hia, with this frightful array of " the pestilence that walketh in dark- ness," seems, by the published statistical tables, to be about the healthiest city in the healthiest country in the world. (249.) The word plague {plaga, a blow), in ancient writings, seems generally to mean about the same as epidemic with us. It certainly meant very various diseases and afflictions ; thus there Avas a plague of frogs, of lice, and of grasshoppers, as well as the plague of leprosy, of boils, and of hiemorrhoids. But why the terms plague and pestilence, of similar import, should be so fre- quently associated, is not apparent unless they were occasionally appropriated to specific diseases. The cause and nature of this epidemic influence we have said is quite unknown. The most ancient theory is as true as any : God so ordained it ; has thus organized his creatures. Anciently these diseases were mostly attributed to His wrath; and certainly they mostly result more or less directly from violations of His known laws, AVhen we seek for the instruments of His will in this matter, we get into a labyrinth of guesses, and ingenious and plausible theories, in Avhich hydrocarbons, fermentations, organic germs, microscopic animalcules, and cryptogamic vegetations are made prominently to figure. They nearly all refer to impurities or distemperatures of the atmosphere. (250.) But this want of knowledge does not extend to the con- secpiences of epidemic influence ; and from the observed course of diseases we are enabled to announce as established the follow- ing laws of epidemics : I. The epidemic influence is sujfjcient to produce specific diseases, in some rare cases, without the intervention of any other cause. AVe may instance as examples of this, the prevalence of influ- 180 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 250. enza in tlio summer season, witliout any peculiarity of weather to account for it. In the commencement of e])i{lemics of small- pox there are generally three or four cases of the disease occur- ring nearly at the same moment in diiferent distant parts of a city, without any communication, direct or indirect, having oc- curred, and without the possibility of tracing the disease to direct contagion. II. The epidemic infiaeiice is much more frequent! ij merehj a cause of aggravation in diseases which at the same time are prop- agated by well-known though possibly obscure causes. Thus small-pox and measles, typhus and scarlet fever, are much more prevalent and much more fatal during certain seasons when they prevail epidemically, though propagated by contagion as they are at all seasons, every season. Intermittents and other malarial fevers during seasons of epidemic prevalence are much more fatal than usual, though exhibiting their common forms and prevailing principally in their usual localities. III. The epidemic infiuence sets in very vioJenthj at frst, and gradually abates as the season advances. In evidence of this we may state that the first few cases of diseases in all epidemics mostly prove fatal (in regard to the epidemic cholera it is noticed that the first few cases nearly all prove fatal), but the disease gradually becoming more manageable, towards the close of the season, it is scarcely more dangerous than ordinary catarrh. In regard to small-pox, it is stated that as many as three in five cases, sixty per hundred, prove fatal during the first few weeks of an epidemic ; and but very rarely is the proportion of deaths more than two in five, forty per hundred, the whole ej^idemic through, and very rarely is the proportion of deaths in this dis- ease more than one in twenty cases, five per hundred. This law holds good in all epidemics, so that if we lose all our first patients in a disease thus prevailing, and none later in the season, we may not, merely from this fact, infer that we have obtained any great additional skill in the management. IV. The epidemic influence is frequently felt in slighter affections of similar character, before the disease is established in full force. Thus mild cases of diarrhoea arc very numerous ibr a week or two before the first cases of epidemic cholera make their appear- ance. § 251. ] EPIDEMICS. 181 V. The epidemic influence is very generallij felt by the lower animals, and in some cases before any such influence is observed on the human race. Rush observes that cats, dogs, and birds died in great numbers, both before and during the yellow fever of 1793. And in the Grecian host before Troy — " On dogs and cats the infection first began, And next the fatal arrows fixed on man." — Pope. (251.) Sydenham informs us that "the plague rarely rages vio- lently in England oftener than once in the space of thirty or forty years." We have histories, however, of the following epi- demics in London, Avhicli had an average interval of but eigh- teen years : In 1593, there died 11,106 during the season of ten months. In 1603, there died 29,992. In 1625, there died 34,754. In 1636, there died 11,000; this, however, was called the great plague, as it lasted twelve years, till 1647. In 1665, there died 69,602 in nine months. This was the la.st great plague, described by Defoe. But perhaps we are to come to the conclusion that this idea of epidemic constitutions is a delusion after all. The plague has been traced to the crowding, privation, and want of cleanliness in tlie old fortified cities. Hence after a sweeping pestilence, there is comparative health until the place becomes again crowded and dirty, with a new generation of subjects for the disease. Similar reasoning is applicable to small-pox : fortunately since the dis- covery of Jenner, we have the means of destroying individual susceptibility to this disease ; but human nature is so perverse that every few years there grows up a new generation who will not believe in vaccination, till the community is startled by a few deaths from small-pox. The epidemic influence is a new genera- tion of unvaccinated people ; the vaccinators get to work and the deadly pestilence is avoided. And again, malarial fevers are occasionally epidemic — very prevalent and very fatal ; such epi- demics have been traced to derangement of the watercourses of the country by public works. Quite recently, in India, a terrible destruction of life was traced to the building of canals for in- 182 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 251. ternal navigation ; and in our own country these ci)ideniics are found to have coincided with similar public works. The dam- ming of small streams for mill-ponds, has occasioned many such epidemics on a small scale. An epidemic pestilence has generally been noticed among the consequences of war ; the destruction of property and the resulting derangement of industries, must neces- sarily entail subsequent privations, which can only be mitigated by all the alleviations which social science is able to suggest ; but we have advanced so far in the right direction, that hereafter, instead of the terrific pestilence, perhaps the crisis of suffering may be passed without anything worse than an epidemic of vaga- bondism and beggary, — the tramp nuisance. Thas one after another, we trace the terrific epidemics to a manageable cause, and the epidemic constitutions vanish. CHAPTER XXII. ENDEMICS MALARIAL FEVERS. (252.) The diseases of whose causes we know but little are of the very highest importance, and require from us the most careful study. Some diseases occur principally in particular lo- calities, and are hence called endemic {^v, among ; 5£//"c, the peo- ple), as coming among the people. This term seems not very different, etymologically, from epidemic; and these words have occasionally been used in a confused manner ; but their proper application is very distinct. Thus, there is a curious disease of the hair, P/ica pohnica, thought to be peculiar to Poland, and hence said to be endemic in that country. Intermittents, as they prevail principally in level marshy districts, are said to be en- demic to marshy lands. The yellow fever, prevailing more or less constantly in all the cities of tropical America, is endemic in those cities. When unusually prevalent and exceedingly fatal, without apparent reason for this change of character, yellow fever is said to prevail epidemically, or to have become epidemic. In this case an epidemic influence is supposed to be superadded to the ordinary causes of the disease. We must pass in review the most important and most curious endemic diseases. (253.) The malarial fevers, intermittents, remittents, etc., — the periodic fevers — are endemic to marshy localities. Their obscure cause is supposed to be some emanation from the soil itself, con- taminating the atmosphere. This supposed emanation is called malaria or malarial miasm. It is too subtle to be discovered by the senses, or any sort of chemical analysis yet devised, and is only known by its effects in causing disease. It has been sup- posed to be some one of the poisonous carbohydrogens ; but none of these has been found capable of producing any such disease ; and coal mines known to abound in these substances appear not to injure health in this way. Sulphide of hydrogen, too, has been 184 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 254. suspected ; but with some observation of men, in an atmosphere contaminated l)v this substance, I have never seen any evidence of its coiitributiuij: to j)roduce this form of disease. When we inquire into the circumstances of the origin of this malaria, al- though its essential nature eludes us, we arrive at facts of the greatest practical importance. Xo more important subject of study can occupy the human intellect ; and the little that is already known is of the utmost importance to all those who would enjoy exemption from these destructive diseases. The circumstances which are considered necessary for the de- velopment of the malarial miasm, marsh-fever poison, are a quantity of decaying vegetable matter, with an appropriate de- gree of ^varmtli and moisture. The vegetable matter is subject to some doubt; it certainly exists in all marshes in sufficient abundance, but the diseases under consideration have been ob- served in situations where decaying vegetable matter is rather scarce; however, it is not perhaps absent anywhere except in the burning craters of volcanoes. And again, immense masses of vegetable matter decay without producing any disease. (254.) Intermittents, remittents, pernicious fevers, and conges- tive fevers, all occur in the same place, at the same time ; the cases of mild intermittent, by aggravation, becoming remittent in their progress ; and the congestive and remittent frequently become intermittent in their course of melioration. We will mention in succession the most important circumstances connected wdth the origin of these diseases. I. The malarial miasm requires for its development an appro- jyriate degree of moisture. The soil may be too dry to produce it ; as the deserts of Arabia and Africa, and elevated slopes of land nearly everywhere. And again, the soil may be too wet to produce it ; hence we notice in very wet seasons the overflown marshes, wdiere it usually prevails, are healthy, and the higher lands become infected. The lighthouse keepers about the mouths of the ^Iississij)pi are exemi>t from these diseases, probably be- cause their marshes are mostly submerged. II. A rather high summer temperature, of at least one month\s duration, seems necessary to produce this miasm, in any degree of strength likely to impair health. Hence these diseases are nearly unknown hi elevated mountains where the temperature is uni- § 254. ] MALARIA. 185 foniily cool, as well as in countries like New England, Canada, and I^abrador, where the summer, though sufficiently warm, is very short. The necessity of long-continued heat for the i)r()(lu('- tion of this poison is further illustrated by the o(!cnrrcnce of the diseases progressively worse, both in the severity of the disetise and the greater number of casts, as the summer advances. They are diseases of the fall rather than of the spring or summer. III. Tlic (hu'hncHs of night k necessary for the development of the miasm, or at all events for its action. The most deadly spots in the world M'ith reference to these diseases are visited with per- fect impunity in the daytime ; though to remain a single night would be nearly certain death. Thus the citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, have been accustomed to visit their plantations in the daytime, whenever they feel an inclination to do so, but they are very sure of a dangerous attack of country fever if they reuiaiu over night, except in the winter season. Our squadron on the African station enjoys complete exemption from this pest, since the regulation is uniforuily enforced which prohibits any officer or man from being on shore after sunset. The country prejudice against night air is well founded. IV. The miasm seems incapable of being treinsmitted any great distance from its source, though it must reach the body principally through the atmosphere. It is either diluted in the atmosphere to such a degree as to be harmless, or it is rapidly decomposed. I can find no sufficient evidence of its ever having been wafted, under any circumstances, to a ship anchored as much as a mile from the shore. But there are abundant instances of perfect im- munity where vessels have been anchored in the midst of infected marshes, for months together, near the middle of a river about a mile wide. V. The malaried miasm never affects the well-built parts of a city. We cannot say whether this immunity is due to drainage and pavements, or whether the puhnonary and cutaneous exhala- tions of congregated people are incompatible with it, or whether the smoke and gases from the numerous culinary and other fires in some way destroy it, or whether each of these exerts a salutary influence. But the fact as stated appears to admit of no reasona- ble doubt. YI. Very slight obstacles have been known to interrujjtthe diffu- 186 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 254. sion of the mia.w7, such as groves of trees, the destruction of Avhich has rendered uninhabitable places previously healthy. — (Bush.) VII. Afier exposure to the miasm, several, but an uncertain number, of days elapse before any symptoms of the disease are no- ticed. While the system is thus charged M'ith the poison, slight causes of excitement, severe labor, exposure to cold or to the heat of the sun will immediately produce an attack. The malarial miasm produces various forms of disease, so va- rious that it is very hard to comprehend that they all are due to the same cause, and they have hence been called by many dif- ferent names. People of ([uict habits, long exposed to the mode- rate action of a malarious atmosphere, lose flesh and become im- poverished in blood ; they are weak, but are not considered sick ; they are suifering from malarial anaemia. This is likely to change any day, in consequence of unnoticed irregularities, and most probably to a simple intermittent, with its chill and fever, and sweat, every second day, the patient being quite well during the interval ; or it may be every day, or every third or fourth day ; and the disease receiving new names according to the interval becomes a quotidian, tertian, cpiartan, septan, etc. But, instead of this simple intermittent, with leisure to count the days, we may have a pernicious fever, an intermittent with violent and dangerous brain symptoms ; the patient becoming delirious during the paroxysm, and lethargic, even to death, perhaps in the second paroxysm, or even the first. The sudden, more concentrated action of the poison, is much more likely to produce other forms of disease ; the paroxysm comes every day, and the patient is not nearly well during the interval ; he has a remission : this is a simple remittent ; it may vary greatly in severity, or it may he complicated with tl>e brain symptoms, violent delirium, Avith danger of lethargic death : it is then a malignant remittent. These peculiarities appear to result from the peculiarities of constitution of each individual patient, and from the degree of concentration or manner of application of the miasm ; but there are other com- plications : the jiatient may have been defectively nourished, and Ave shall have malarial fever with scorbutic complications; he may have some of the characteristic syniptoms of typhoid fever, malarial fever with typhoid complication ; if patients be crowded, as has often been the case, we are pretty sure of typhus fever com- 255. ] MALARIA. 187 plication, a terrific contagious pestilence brcaki no; out in the midst of the patients. The foregoing are the principal circumstances ^vhich vary the character of malarial fevers, and, as these few elements admit of almost infinite variations, it is not strange tliat many kinds of malarial fever are described under different names. Nearly every unhealthy place in the world has a name for its fever : hence African fever, Bengal, Bulam, Carthagena, Madras, Walcheren, Whampoa fever, etc. In our army reports the com- plicated types, typhus, typhoid, adynamic, scorbutic, and malig- nant, are l)lended together under the simple designation, camp fever. Sometimes very intractable malarial diarrhea seems to result from the action of this poison, more especially from the use of bad water in malarious districts. The following figures from reports in the Surgeon-General's office, showing the number of cases of malarial fevers, and gun- shot wounds and other injuries, and deaths from these diseases and wounds in the United States army during the first two years of the war, indicate sufficiently the importance of the study of these diseases : There were reported during the year ending June 30, 1862: Malarial fevers, Gunshot wounds, Total wounds and accidents, Total diseases and wounds, During the year ending June 30, 1863 : Malarial fevers, Gunshot wounds, Total wounds and injuries, Total diseases and wounds, Cases. Deaths. 146,605 6,554 17,496 4,421 44,886 4,857 878,918 19,040 327,739 14,121 55,974 8,775 98,475 10,142 1,171,803 52,152 (255.) In discussing somewhat fully the phenomena and causes of malarial fevers, we have suggested the most important meas- ures of prevention. We should never spend the night, or even a part of the night, unnecessarily, in the infectious locality. In the central parts of a city, or on board of ship anchored a mile from the shore, we are certainly safe from these destructive 188 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 255. fevers. At Wluunpoa, near Canton, China, there arc a number of ship-fliandlcrs and others, Avho, with their families, are quite heahiiy liviii<;' on board hulks anchored in the stream, though a single night on shore would be nearly certain death to them. In anchorino- in a river it is desirable to anchor near the middle of Fig. 34. Anchorage in a river. the stream, and, if possible, opposite a fork ; for, besides the additional breadth of water at such points, the breeze conforming in its direction with one or another of the branches, more con- stantly reaches the ship thus situated. Persons obliged to spend the night in an infectious district should use such screens as they can procure against night-air, even a mosquito-curtain ; and they should avoid much exertion, or exposure to the sun. It is ad- visable, under such circumstances, to take a small dose of quinine every day as a preventive. Quinine, in pretty large doses, fre- quently repeated, has enabled recent African explorers to pass through terrific localities. In most European countries, the peasants who cultivate land thus unhealthy live in villages in selected healthy spots, and walk to their labors in the field every morning to return to their vil- lages before night. Some such arrangement must be adopted by our own people before Florida or even Eastern Virginia can be fairly settled up. This plan has social advantages over the usual one, which isolates the farmer's family among his fields. § 255. ] MALARIA. 189 It appears tliat tlic malarial })oison is soluble in water, and it is thus carried into the soil ; at any rate it often exists in the soil to a dangerous degree. 'J1ins tlie turning up of new soil for cultivation has proved very fattd to residents of the neighbor- hood. I remember to have visited a small, steep, rocky island, in the Bay of Panama, otherwise quite hetdthy, which was very quickly fatal to every one of the few workmen who first at- tempted to remain on it at night, after there was a portion of its surface levelled for a coal heap ; and a few months subsequently the island was occupied with difficulty. Fatal casualties of this kind may always be avoided, if the workmen will merely spend their nights in a healthy place. We have now pretty well determined the means of avoiding malarial miasm and its consequences ; but human nature inter- poses obstacles. AVe see men going to nearly certain death ; we reason, we explain, we argue ; and a man who has never studied the subject suggests his " I should think " in opposition to us. The ignorant man's "I should think" may carry the day against us, and our hygienic precautions go for nothing, except that we can sometimes use the privilege of saving ourselves. AVe see this in every city over the land ; this ignorant " I should think " controls legislation and is slaying its myriads. We have the same difficulty in the military service. Expeditions are planned, topographical engineers are consulted about visible obstacles, but no reasonable calculations are made for the diseases, which even in campaigns of hard-fought battles will destroy three times as many men as all the bullets. The medical man is not consulted till after the mischief is done, the men sick and dying. The surgeon bv his reports then suggests that the force is being weak- ened, and may hint at the cause. The subject is discussed by those in autliority, who knowing very little about the sul>ject, their discussion is apt to end in something very like the old-fash- ioned " I should think." I have always found the most effective way to manage this business is, to set up prejudices in the right direction, by discreet social conversation, and when this produces nothing, to follow it up by a report if necessary, the occasion for which may be explained, by stating the propriety of putting certain views formally on record before going into such risks as are contemplated. Such reports should state the case in good 190 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 255. terse language, and conclude with a recommendation too pointed to be evaded. If this do not succeed, it is understood that a copy may go with comments to the files of the department ; and the responsibility of a. swee})ing pestilence is in the right })lace as nearly as we can make it so. Sometimes our recommendations may involve alterations in the plans of a department, and then commanding officers feel that they must have such reports before they are safe in acting — even ask for them. The best illustration which I remember of the manner in whicli this has to be done occurred in China some years ago. We were anchored in the Pearl River, above Canton, opposite Macao Pass, and the cap- tain, whom I had pretty w^ell indoctrinated previoasly on the subject of rice swamps, sunset boats, and night air, mentioned that he had orders to observe the tides in this part of the river, and hinted at the difficulty of finding a suitable place for a tide- staff, the edge of a rice-field appearing to be the only available place. " We are healthy here ; cannot we get a j^ost or two down somewhere on a bar, at a distance from the shore ?" " The current is strong ; it would be in the way ; boats would run against it and tear it up." " Perhaps you might get observations enough in the daytime?" '■'• Hardly ; we may not be here long, and the work should not be half done." " Leaving all risk of sickness out of the question, how would you arrange it ?" " Place a tide-gauge at the nearest point to the ship, with two men, and relieve them by other two at mealtimes." '' A month of such observations would cost us about eight lives." "Oh, no." " Yes ; the first set, six men, down in one week, and others at the same rate ; twenty -six down in a montli, one-third to die — eight and two-thirds ; the calculation a little strong, perhaps, so Ave will throw off the fraction — eight deaths a month." "Well; but we must do something." " Men should not spend a night in that swamj); they can pull up to the staff at tlie right moment, which surely can be antici- § 255. ] MALARIA. 191 patetl, make their observations, and pull out into the ri\er again, back to the ship if they have time." "The current is very strono- ; hard Avork, and no rest." "They had better spend the niuht, if need be, pulling against the current in the middle of the river." " Well ; we will try it so." The plan was tried and I soon heard that it only required fif- teen to twenty minutes to pull ashore on slack water, make the observations, and return. There was no difficulty about it. The observations were continued for several months ; as long as there was any motive for continuing them, and the results are recorded in the history of the Japan expedition. This little conversation doubtlessly saved several lives, for without it the men would have been spending nights in the rice-field before I should have heard anything about the tidal observations. This kind of socia- bility must be discreet; the most important of all the official duties of the medical officer must be performed by stealth ; to at- tempt it otherwise is to excite such opposition that it cannot be performed at all. On the African station we are greatly assisted by the following — GENEEAL OEDEE. Sanitary Regulations for the United States Squadron on the Coast of Africa. 1. No officer or man will be permitted to be on shore before sunrise or after sunset, or to sleep there at night. This rule applies not only to the continental coast but to the Cape de Verde Islands. 2. No United States vessel will ascend or anchor in any of the African rivers, except upon imperative public service. 3. Boat excursions up rivers and hunting parties on shore are forbidden. 4. Vessels, when possible, will anchor at a reasonable distance from shore, far enough not to be influenced by the malaria floated ofl' by the land breeze. 5. Convalescents from fever and other diseases (when condemned by medical survey) are to be sent to the United States with the least possible delay. 6. When the general health of a ship's company shall be reported as im- paired by cruising on the southern or equatorial portion of the coast, the earli- est possible opportunity will be given them to recruit, by transferring the ship for a time to the Canaries or other windward islands of the station. 7. Boat and shore duty, involving exposure to sun and rain, is to be per- formed, so far as the exigencies of the service will admit, by " Kroomen " em- ployed for that purpose. 8. All possible protection from like exposure is to be afforded to the ship's company on board, and the proper clothing and diet of the crew, as well as the 192 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 256. ventilation and care of the decks, will be made a frequent subject for tlie in- spection and advice of medical officers. 9. These regidations are to be considered as permanent, and each command- ing officer of the squadron, on retiring from the station, will transfer them to his successor. (256.) In order to enforce our hygienic precepts and to prove that we are teaching no new doctrines on this subject, the follow- ing quotations from an excellent old book are introduced : Another evil, less known and less suspected, but not less dangerous, is the sending of Europeans in open boats, after sunset, where the soil is swampy, or where there are great night-fogs. The duty alone of fetching fresh-killed butcher's meat at night for the use of the ship's companies in the East and West Indies has destroyed every year several hundred seamen. In those parts of the world, butcher's meat must be brought on board at night, immediately after it is killed, otherwise it will not be fit for use next day. But surely a con- tract for sending it on board .... might be made with the natives, .... and it ought to be considered that this trifling sum is advanced for the preser- vation of many lives. During the sickly season at Batavia, a boat belonging to the Medway, which attended shore every night, was manned three times successively, not one having survived that service, .... so that at length the officers were obliged to employ none but natives of the country on that business. Great numbers of men have perished from being employed in this manner at Bengal, where European ships often anchor in the most unhealthy parts of the river, and even after the rainy season the men are often obliged to perform such service in boats. In a voyage to the coast of Guinea, performed in the year 1766, by the Phoenix, ship of war, the officers and ship's company were perfectly healthy till, on their return home, they touched at the Island of St. Thomas, in the Gulf of Guinea. Here the captain unfortunately went on shore to spend a few days. In the same house were lodged the captain's brother, the surgeon, some midshipmen, and the captain's servants. But in the course of a few days every one, to the number of seven, who had slept in the house were taken ill, and all of them died except one, who returned to England in a very ill state of health. The ship lay at anchor there twenty-seven days, during which time three mid- shipmen, five men and a boy remained on shore for twelve nights to guard water-casks, under pretence that the islanders would steal them ; all of these were likewise taken ill, and two only escaped with life. At that island only those who slept on shore were taken ill ; no other man of the ship's company was seized with any distemper during their stay. Even during the whole voyage, except these, only one man died, and he was killed by accident. None of those who slept on shore escaped the sickness, and of them only three survived it. While the Phoenix ccmtinued at this place, twenty or thirty of her men went daily on shore, rambling, hunting, shooting, fishing, bartering for provisions, wasiiing linen, and otiiorwise employed, so tliat almost the whole shijj's company of two hundred and eighty men were, in their turns, on sliore upi)ntlie island in § 256. ] MALARIA. 193 the daytime, not one of wlioni who returned at night was taken ill or .suffered even tlie sliglitest indisposition. In tlie year following, the Phcenix made another voyage, and happened again to touch at this island, where she lost eight men out of ten who had im])ru- dently remained all night on shore. At the same time the rest of the ship's company continued in perfect health, who, after spending the day on shore, always returned to their ship before niglit. On board tlie Hound, sloop, then in company, only one man died during the whole voyage, the officers having been particularly careful not to permit any of the people to continue all night on shore. If ships on their passage to India touch at the Islands of St. lago (Cabo Verde Islands), Madagascar, Johannes, Mohilla; at Culpee in the River Hoogly, Batavia, or Bencoelen, those persons who go on shore should always re- turn before night. These places have proved particularly fatal to Europeans who sleep on shore. It may at first sight appear almost impracticable to find a convenient and safe retreat from sickness which rages at times in many foreign climates. Man- kind are more ready to start difficulties on this subject than desirous to remedy them. Where can that safe retreat be found on the coast of Guinea? The answer is, that all places on that coast are not equally unhealthy. The English liave found the Island of Goree much more healthy than their settlements on the Senegal and Gambia. When a mortal sickness, in the year 1765, prevailed at Pensacola, by which a regiment newly arrived there lost one hundred and twenty men, and eleven out of twelve of the officers' ladies are said to have died, the companies of the men-of-war, lying at a mile distant from the shore, enjoyed the most perfect health. It is likewise remarkable that such gentlemen as were seized with this fever at Pensacola and carried on board quickly recovered, or, at least, the fever, being divested of its most mortal symptoms, soon assumed the form of an intermittent. The just inference is that if a ship was fitted as a floating factory, and secured at a due distance from the shore, at all places where it may be found necessary and safe, it would be the means of preserving every year a multitude of lives. The idea of a floating factory is not new ; ships, so called, have been securely moored in different parts for the advantage of trade ; they are here proposed for the benefit of health. A floating factory, store, or residence, may be fitted up in any taste whatever, either for convenience or pleasure. — ( Lind.) 13 CHAPTER XXIII. YELLOW FEVER. (257.) Another most important endemic disease is yellow fever, black vomit, tt/jihus icfcrodcs, nova j^estis. This disease seems to prevail in eveiy tropical city, occasionally extending its ravages in warm weather to some of the cities of temperate cli- mates. It never occurs in the fields except as persons escaping from an infectious city carry with them the seeds of disease, and sicken and die anywhere. It is therefore an endemic of cities in warm countries. This disease has perhaps sometimes been con- founded with the malarial fevers ; but that it has a specifically diiferent cause, we think fully established by the following con- siderations. All the acknowledged forms of malarial fever are occasionally present at the same time and in the same place, and frequently change from one type to the other in their course conveying irresistibly to the observer the impression that the dif- ference is due to the greater or less violent action of the same cause, and to peculiarities in the constitution of individual patients. With yellow fever nothing of this kind is observed ; but there are cases of ever}^ degree of severity, some proving fatal in a few hours, while others are scarcely sufficient to inter- rupt attention to business ; but none of them exhibit anything like the intermittent character. The fact appears to be that oc- casionally the morbific poison, no matter which, malarial, yellow fever, small-pox, typhus, or cholera, assaults and overcomes the powers of life with such suddenness that there is actually no de- velopment of the characteristic symptoms of any of these dis- eases ; they all act alike. The patient becomes faint, falls, has some black evacuations ; he is pulseless, the skin bloodless, dusky, and shrunken to the bones; he expires in a few minutes, or per- haps an hour after the first appearance of disease. These are the cases which, individually, it may be impossible to discriminate, § 257. ] YELLOW FEVER. 195 and wc may not be able to say wlictlier the patient dvin<^ thus suddenly has died of sniall-pox, yellow fever, or eliolera. And it does not seem very imi)ortant, for the sufferer is beyond all chance of assistance from us from the very l)e,<2;innin<^. The following may be stated as laws of development of the endemic of tropical cities : I. Somewhat protracted imrm summer weather is necessary for the development of the yellow fever poison. — Thus, at Havana, where there are cases the year round, the number of sick rapidly increases with the warm weather, and in the latter part of sum- mer. At New Orleans, where the disease appears regularly every summer, it always declines with cool weather and disappears with the first frost. II. The yellow fever miasm is only active during the night. — This seems to follow from the imnuinity enjoyed by fishermen and truck farmers, who merely visit the city during the day to attend the markets. Instances having been reported of strangers passing through an infected city, without remaining over night, in all cases, so far as we have heard, with impunity. During the epi- demic at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1855, many persons went to farm- houses in the neighborhood to reside during the continuance of the disease, and visited the city nearly every day throughout the season with perfect impunity, only being careful to leave before sunset. More evidence is needed on this point. III. Yelloiv fever is by no means a contagious disease. — This is sufficiently proved by the custom, general since the epidemic of 1793, and probably before, of whole families, even after some of them are fatally infected, removing to houses of friends in the country. The infected in this way occupy the same room with members of the farmer's family, are nursed by them, and die under their care ; and no instance can be found of the disease communicated in this way. Volumes have been written to prove the yellow fever to be contagious, and other volumes to prove the contrary ; but it is not necessary for our purpose further to refer to them. During the epidemic at Norfolk, steamboats plied regularly every day, except Sundays, to Baltimore, merely avoid- ing their old wharf, which was in the midst of the disease ; they landed about a mile down the river, at a place without popula- tion, and open to the air of the country. Hundreds of families 196 NAVAL HYGTENE. [ § 257. left by these boats, carrving with them as muoh clothing as they pleased, and even bedding. They remained for the season at Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Carlisle, Chambersburg, York, Bedford, Gettysburg, and other places, many carrying in their bodies the germs of the fetal disease by which they perished among their hospitable entertainers ; but they did not in a single instance communicate the disease to the families among whom they sojourned. His ]Majest)^'s ship-of-war Tweed being at that time (during the yellow fever of 1764) in Cadiz Bay, several of her men were taken ill on shore, but by being carried on board all of them re- covered. Neither did the black vomit or any other deadly symp- tom of that fever make its appearance in any of the ships. The dread of this distemper forced many people of fashion to retire into the country, where they remained in perfect safety from it. — [Lind.) IV. The yellow fever poison may originate on shipboard inde- pendently of any communication with an infectious city. — ISIany instances might be mentioned where no possible communication could have existed, as some of the vessels had not approached within several miles of any land whatever. They had merely sailed from Europe, not perhaps in the best condition of stowage or cleanliness, and the disease broke out as the vessels experienced the high temperature of the tropics. — [La JRoche.) The ships which principally suifercd were either defective in arrangements for cleanliness, or had been long in commission without opportunity for thorough cleansing. The last case is that of the United States steamship Susquehanna, which, after a full cruise in the Mediterranean, show-ship, well holystoned, a pattern of neatness as ftir as visible, attempted, in 1858, to continue her cruise in the West Indies ; but nearly as soon as she encountered hot weather, the yellow fever made its appear- ance on board and was terribly fatal. In some steamships the disease has appeared to depend on the faulty manner of placing the machinery, so that the floor beneath the engines was not sufficiently accessible for the purpose of cleaning. Under these circumstances a ])ool of offensive mud is formed, principally of worn-out oil, and it camiot be removed without removing the engines entirely. § 258. ] YELLOW FEVER. 197 V. The yelJoio fcvov infection sometimes originates in the decay of accumulations of human excrements and e.vuinm — The city of Canton, China, wliich is in precisely the climate for the disease, and is said to be very filthy, probably never suffers from it, and , the following circumstances may have something to do with its immunity. The surface of the ground is pretty well covered with buildings, and paved ; and the site is so low and level that the rise and fall of the tide washes out the sewers every day ; the excrements are assiduously collected in buckets and carried off to manure the fields, so that though these buckets frequently offend the nostrils of the pedestrians, there are no accumulations of such material in the city. The town of Key West, Florida (Cayo Hueso), was formerly a pestilential place ; and a few years ago a board of navy surgeons were sent there in the midst of an epidemic, to investigate the matter. Some pictures were made of these doctors approaching the wharf warily, cocked hats on their heads and boat-hooks in their hands, with wliich to feel pulses without undue personal risk. They, however, probably learned in reference to the place about what every navy surgeon who had ever been there knew before. But they made a report, together with a recommendation that a few ditches should be dug, certain accumulations of filth removed, and that a general clean- ing up, draining, and whitewashing should be practiced. From that time to the present. Key West has been a comparatively healthy place. New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, which formerly suffered occasionally from this disease, have been en- tirely clear of it, since they have been abundantly and conve- niently supplied with water from the rivers, so that constant streams flow through all the streets and sewers. (258.) If we would prevent the yellow fever, or check its ravages, we must reflect upon the circumstances under which it usually occurs, and note what has been done in Canton, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Such measures, more thoroughly carried out, are necessary at New Orleans, Key West, and Ha- vana. In regard to the question of quarantine in this disease, we may safely say, that all restraints which prevent the sick from reaching a healthy locality are absurd, and with our present knowledge on the subject, outrageously cruel, little better than deliberate murder. A yellow^ fever patient, even carrying his 198 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 260. elotliiuo: antl bedclinji' with him, has never been known to com- municate the disease to another person in a healthy locality, and the experiment has been tried thousands of times. But in regard to a ship, it may be full of poison ; and in such a case it should not be moored in a close dock, with dwelling-houses about it, nor should the cargo be discharged in sucli a situation. Families living near vessels in this condition, and especially workmen em- ployed on board, have frequently lost their lives by such reck- lessness. There seems, however, to be no great risk in discharg- ing such a ship, under the direction of competent inspectors, away from populous places ; for systematic ventilation, chlorine fumigations, and the light of day have been found capable of rapidly decomposing or dissipating the poison. The safest and most economical way in our climate is to wait for hard frost. (259.) To prevent yellow fever on board ship, we must prac- tice those measures which are required to prevent diseases gener- ally; cleanliness, purity, ventilation, good food, and cheerful social influences, are the necessary means. The cleanliness must not be of that kind which we sometimes describe as being "skin- deep." It is of no avail to scour and scrub while the debris of decaying cargo is accumulating in the hold. When a ship is newly fitted, it is pure in this respect, but it cannot possibly re- main so. The deterioration is steadily progressive from day to day, though it may be greatly retarded by assiduous care. When- ever it is necessary to remove articles from the hold, there is an opportunity to collect and remove more or less of exposed frag- ments and dirt. When arrangements are being made to receive new^ stores, or new cargo, it is convenient to break out and rear- range the old, collecting dirt and fragments, using very freely chloride of lime and whitewash, particularly about secret recesses. It seems impossible to avoid tedious repetitions when Ave under- take to indicate the means of preserving health, as Me are often permitted merely to vary the form of expression, no matter what the disease. The universal prophylactic is purity, material and moral purity, personal and social purity, at home and abroad, by night and by day, of air and of watei-, in all places and at all times, purity. (2G0.) If circumstances prevent a ])erson from leaving a place where the yellow fever prevails, he should select his residence in § 260. ] YELLOW FEVER. 199 the hiohest and healthiest available spot; should sleep preferably in the highest part of the house, avoid the night air, using mos- quito bars rather than nothing for its exclusion ; use nutritious and wholesome food, avoid fiitiguing exercise, exposure to the sun, and excesses of all kinds; maintain a cheerful, confident temper, for which a clear conscience and earnest Christian feeling, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, appear to be the most essential circumstances. If it be necessary to enter an infected spot, go in the daytime and do not stay long. Attempts to guard against the disease by low diet and physic are worse than useless, as they enfeeble the system and render it less able to resist the action of the poison. — (§ 277.) CHAPTER XXIV. SCORBUTUS. (261.) Scorbutus, .sea-soiir\y, having been a most terrible en- demic disease on shipboard, during the last and preceding cen- turies, comes naturally to be noticed here. The common Eng- lish name, scurvy, is rather objectionable, as it is" not necessarily a scurfy or scabby disease ; and the translators of the Bible (Le- viticus xxi, 20, and xxii, 22) appear to use the word scurvy as synonymous with scabies or itch, to which scorbutus, the true sea-scurvy, has no sort of resemblance. We greatly prefer the term scorbutus, though it may be a barbarous Scandinavian word Avith a Latin termination. It is the name of this specific disease and of no other. (262.) Scorbutus was formerly the endemic of cold climates, as it prevailed extensively in all cold countries during the winter. But now that its cause is known and understood, it has ceased to belong to the class of endemic diseases altogether. The cause of this disease, undoubtedly, is deficiency of food, eitlier in quan- tity, quality, or variety, so that the digestive organs are incapable of appropriating sufficient nutriment. It hence prevailed ter- ribly in protracted sieges, Avhere poor food was necessarily used, because better than none, and variety was limited to the small number of articles within reach. It was the winter endemic of cold countries, till civilization and agriculture furnished a varied supply of vegetables and fruits for the winter season. It must have been pretty common in England when the Queen had to send a special messenger to Holland before she could obtain the necessary material for a salad. Cold with moisture is likewise an exciting cause, by rendering a larger amount of food necessary. Hence when seamen have been but indifferently nourished by all that their digestive organs could appropriate in mild weather, they have generally suffered § 263. ] SCORBUTUS. 201 severely by running; into enld and stormy regions on tlie same diet; the cold and additional exertion rendering a greater amount of nutriment necessary. Other causes have been suggested and disproved, some of which it may be \\c\\ to mention. Sir Gilljert Blane, as late as 1785, thought it might be contagious. The old navigators, many of them, supposed it a terrific pestilence of the climate in which they happened to be. Salt and salt food have been assigned as the cause ; but Lord Anson's crew suffered on the west coast of INIexico, when living on fresh meat ; the Russian army, at the siege of Azof, suffered when they had no salt meat ; and besides, salt-makers are not peculiarly subject to the disease. Salt meat, especially if long kept, on account of its progressively increasing hardness, and consequent defective digestion not afford- ing due nutriment of itself, may thus be a cause. Within a few years, it has appeared to some, reflecting that the sailor's beef is all salted with soda salts, in the midst of an ocean of soda salts, the need of sufficient potash for the healthy constitution of the tissues might be the cause of this disease ; and they suggested starch, containing the needed element, as the appropriate remedy. This has been used with great alleged benefit. This is a satisfac- tory report so far as it goes, but we are unable to understand why starch on this theory should be much better than bread and beans, usual articles of food when the disease made such havoc. (263.) Of the symptoms, the phenomena of this disease, we need not say much, as nobody has really seen them during the present century, and it is not likely that they will ever be seen again. A full account of them in their varied forms is given by Lind, the last and best authority on this subject. When after a deficiency, somewhat protracted, of nutritive and varied diet, with total ab- sence of fresh food, we notice a dark discoloration of the more transparent parts of the skin, the lips, gums, tongue, and eyelids, with purplish or yellow spots on various parts of the body, we are pretty sure of the establishment of the scorbutic tendency ; and if, in addition, we notice fetid ulceration of the gums, with bending up and stiffening of the knees or elbows, we need not hesitate to say that the patient is suffering from scorbutus, how- ever much these symptoms fall short of the awful pestilence, the ravages of which are so terrifically portrayed in Hackluyt's Col- 202 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 265. lection of Voyages. When the disease has proceeded so far tliere Ls no time to be lost. (264.) The only real antiscorbutic remedies which we are dis- posed to acknowledge arc good, varied, fresh food, and cheerful influences, cleanliness, neatness, and order. The necessity for variety of food seems to be very imperfectly understood. During the early part of this century experiments were performed with the object of determining the comparative nutritive value of the various proximate elements of meat. A dog was fed with pure gelatine and water, and he soon became disgusted with his food and died ; it was hence inferred that gela- tine was not nutritive. A similar experiment was tried with albu- men, and with like result, and with fat and the other constituents of meat in succession. Xo one of the constituents, singly, being capable of nourishing the animal, the inference followed that the entire flesh is necessary for nutrition. An unfortunate canary bird was fed exclusively on sugar and water, and he soon became blind and fell dead from his perch. A poor bird fed exclusively on rice did no better. It would seem that many persons greatly injure their health by attempting to live on a few articles of food which they deem wholesome, instead of using the variety in the midst of which we are placed, and for which our organization appears to be adapted. The changing seasons of the year, with their peculiar fruits for each month, if not for each day of the month, seem to supply just such a variety as is required for healthy nutrition. (265.) Freshncs.^ of food is a quality on Avhich more depends tlian could readily be imagined. The earlier voyagers to Canada found great advantage in using the fresh foliage of the spruce pine, Abies canadensis, which they chewed, infused, made into beer, etc. Captain Cook found equal advantage from the foliage of a similar tree growing on the island of New Zealand. Equal advantages have resulted in time of need from the use of some cruciferous plants found growing about Hudson's Bay and else- where, which on this account have received the name of scurvy grass. When Lord Anson arrived at Juan Fernandez, Crusoe Island, a boat's crew, who went on shore for the purpose, loaded their boat with any grass which came in their way, not caring § 265. ] SCORBUTUS. 203 about the kind, but only that it was green. This mixture of weeds was found as effectual as spruce boughs and spinacli. During- an experience of twenty years in the navy I have seen the scorbutic tendency develoi)ed twice on shipboard. On the first occasion the ship, the frigate Savannah, was on her return from California, during the Mexican war. The crew had had very few fresh vegetables, uot even good beans, for nine months ; and the salted and dried provisions had mostly been on board nearly the same time ; some of it had been packed three or four years previously. As soon as we reached the cold and stormy weather of the South Pacific, the symptoms began to appear; brown spots, big and little, about the arms and legs, ulcerated, fetid, bleeding gums, rheumatic pains with rigidity and contrac- tion of the flexor muscles. The preserved lemon-juice, citric acid, wine, etc., in various mixtures, had a pretty extensive trial and with great benefit. These articles had been long kept, though probably not so long as the beef and pork. The relief was but partial, and a day's duty in the cold on deck was sufficient to renew or aggravate the symptoms in some of the cases. It was even noticed that many were relieved by merely being excused from duty ; their ordinary diet was sufficient while they were quiet and warm, but not enough for the wants of nutrition when they were exposed to cold and labor. This scorbutic disposition con- tinued, though without much actual suffering, for two or three weeks, when we met a whaling ship, from which we obtained a basket of potatoes. These were distributed, a potato to each, on condition that they were to be eaten raw. The jack-knives were soon busy scraping them to pulp, which seemed to possess a de- licious flavor. The sore gums healed, the blotches disappeared, the legs and arms became flexible and free from pain, and no more was heard of the scurvy. The second occasion was on board one of the vessels of the Japan expedition. We sailed from New York direct for the Straits of Sunda. The passage exceeded four months, during which we did not see land except a distant island. The latter part of tlie passage was stormy and cold. When about ninety days out, and beyond the Cape of Good Hope, the scorbutic tendency became apparent. All our remedies only mitigated the disease and kept it in check. We could not see that the pre- 204 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 266. served limc-jnifc was any better than a solution of crystals of citric acid, with a little wine or ale. And our canned meats, oxtiiil soup, boiled beef, roast beef, and roast mutton, did not afford effectual relief; but there remained a number of men who had to be excused from duty till we arrived at the Straits of Sunda, when a boat-load of oranges and cocoanuts, with a fcAv chickens, brought perfect relief. (266.) This mere freshness of food has an importance which we find it difficult to comprehend. The proximate principles of vegetable food, so far as we know them — sugar, starch, and gum; the vegetable acids, alkalies, salts, and oils — seem ciipable of per- fect preservation for very long periods ; but it is found that after such preservation they are incapable of affording proper nutri- ment without something fresh — some animal or vegetable sub- stance but recently deprived of life. This important quality probably resides in the nitrogenous, the azotized material, held in solution in the juices or sap of vegetables. This nitrogenous material, which appears to be a principal agent in the decay of all organic tissues, seems likewise necessary to their proper diges- tion as food. Nitrogen, in fact, seems as interesting in its relations as any other of the recognized elementary substances, though the chem- ists do characterize it mostly by negative properties, — without affinities or repulsions — may be mechanically mixed but not chemically combined with anything by any known process. It constitutes nearly four-fifths of the atmosphere, where it is in the condition of mechanical mixture or diffusion. The only known power in nature by which it is brought extensively into combina- tions is the influence of organic life. Vegetables prettj- certainly and animals probably appropriate it directly from the atmosphere, as well as from the remains of preceding organisms. Very few vegetables, if any, can exist or grow without the nitrogenous compounds which they receive from their predecessors in life, and certainly no animal can exist without them. It hence ap- pears that nitrogren is found in nature only in the atmosphere, its great natural reservoir ; in the tissues and fluids of organic beings ; and in various stiites of chemical combination which result from -the decay of these tissues and fluids. The multitude of organic beingx on the earth, by their excre- § 266. ] SCORBUTUS. 205 tions and bodily dcrny, furnish an immense quantity and nntold variety of these eombinations, tlie iniportanec of which it is im- possible fully to a})preeiate. Some of the best understood, though perhaps not the most imp(H-tant of these eombinations of nitro- gen, are the following: Ammonia, of nitrogen and hydrogen; nitric acid, of nitrogen and oxygen ; cyanogen, of nitrogen and carbon ; and ferro-cyanogen, of nitrogen, carbon, and iron. By chemical manipulations wdth these four an endless variety of sub- stances is obtained, having nitrogen as one of their constituents. The vegetable alkaloids — quinine, cinchonine, morphine, meco- nine, atropine, daturine, etc. — universally have nitrogen as one of their constituents. There are a vast number of other nitro- genous substances, the result of vital actions of the innumerable being-s which inhabit the earth. Some of these we have been enabled to study and comprehend in some degree ; others essen- tial to our existence will, doubtless, elude human comprehension forever. It is probably to some of these, so delicate in their chemical affinities as to be incapable of protracted preservation, that we are to look for the necessity of fresh food. Or is it that some spark of molecular life still adheres, for a time, to dead organisms, and that this is a necessary element of nutriment ? However this may be, or whatever may be the cause, a small quantity of fresh food, some animal or vegetable substance re- cently removed from the domain of life, seems absolutely neces- sary for the preservation of health. And it is not by the amount of nutriment that it furnishes, but by some peculiar stimulus which it supplies to the powers of assimilation, enabling them to appropriate other food ; for a potato, an onion, or a handful of weeds, no matter what, so that it is fresh and not really poison- ous, answers the purpose. The universal use of potatoes and other fresh vegetables, fur- nishes the needful amount of fresh material for the most part. The preserved lemon-juice, so much used in the British naval service, no doubt has its use, and when freshly prepared is fully as good as any common grass, but we have no doubt that its useful properties are lost or greatly impaired by long keeping. The various processes for preserving food with as much as possible of the condition of fresh vegetables and meats have much utility, as they afford means of w^arding off disease. These we have described 206 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 267. elsewhere, together with a contrivance for supplying fresh vege- tables for a salad at sea. (267.) Cheerfulness, cleanliness, neatness, and good order are of the fii'st importance to health on shipboard and everywhere else, but here we find it necessary to suggest a caution. One of the symptoms of scorbutus is an indisposition, almost an inabilit}^, to move : this has been mistaken for laziness, morosencss, and skulking; and death has occurred suddenly from driving the sufferer on deck with the view of promoting cheerfulness and activity. Laziness is a consequence not the cause of this disease. CHAPTER XXy. OTHER ENDEMICS— PLICA POLOXICA — BROXCHOCELE CRETIN- ISM ELEPHANTIASIS ARABUM — CHOLERA INFANTUM MILK SICKNESS — GUINEA WORM — TRICHINOSIS— TARANTISMUS. (268.) The other endemic diseases, having little reference to our subject, may be noticed briefly. Plica polonica is a curious disease of the hair, which occurs principally in Poland, though it is occasionally met with in other countries. It is hence considered the endemic of Poland. The roots of the hair are enlarged and become very sensitive, so much so that occasionally the hair is painful to the touch. The hair at the same time grows very rapidly and is glued together by a viscid, fetid secretion, so that combing is quite out of the question. It hence becomes the habitation of crowds of vermin, and the suifercr is a most disgusting and repulsive object. This disease, like other peculiarities of physical organization, is, perhaps, in some degree, hereditary, but it seems that the principal cause is to be found in national habits, — long hair and the want of clean- liness. It would appear that the disease may be prevented and even cured by the cautious and systematic use of scissors, soap, combs, brushes, etc., not forgetting to use a little mercurial oint- ment occasionally for the insects. (269.) Bronchocele, goitre, is a disease which is seen in all parts of the world, but it is very common in Switzerland. It is a tumor in front of the neck, an enlargement of the thyroid gland. The disease occasions but little pain or uneasiness, except when the tumor becomes very large, and then it may seriously impede respiration. The cause of this disease is quite unknown ; we only know that it is endemic in Switzerland, prevailing more in some valleys than others, but without anything peculiar about them which can be indicated as the cause. The snow-water theory and such like conjectures have been disproved by further 208 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 271. observation. This disease is certainly and promptly removed in most conditions by the cautious use of iodine, and by this means may be prevented from attaining a troublesome size and figure. But as we know nothing of the cause, we are not able to suggest any means of preventing this disease. We certainly should not recommend to persons in health the habitual use of iodine or any other medicine, which might produce worse consequences than bronchocele. (270.) O'etinism is another and more terrible endemic of Swit- zerland, prevailing principally in some of the valleys of the Upper Elione, inclosed by high mountains. Nearly the only thing certainly determined about the cause of this terrible dis- ease is that it occurs in some of these beautiful and fertile val- leys. This disease is characterized by the small size and defor- mity of the sufferers, with crooked limbs, comparatively large heads, and weakness of intellect, bordering on idiocy. Poverty, with wretched and filthy habitations, has been suggested as the cause, especially as persons in more comfortable circumstances, even in the same villages, are much less subject to the disease. It is certainly hard to exaggerate the morbific effects of such causes, but they ordinarily produce very different diseases from this. We are more inclined to the opinion that the disease, with its in- tellectual and bodily weakness, prevents its subjects from acquir- ing comfortable habitations and other comfortable and healthful appliances. The only circumstance which seems common to the localities is that they are all deep valleys inclosed by high moun- tains, such as we may suppose to prevent the free circulation of air, and this, we are inclined to believe, is in some way the cause. We know so little of the cause of this disease that we have not much to say about the means of avoiding it. We may safely rec- ommend to the people cultivating these valleys to select healthy localities in the neighboring mountains for their villages, near enough to enable them to walk to their fields for necessary labor. (271.) Eleplundiasls arabum is a curious endemic disease in many tropical countries. It is characterized by a thickening of the skin, particularly about the ankles. This thickening extends so much about the limbs and becomes so enormous that the legs are in some instances fairly comparable to those of an elephant, and hence the name of the disease. It prevails in particular § 272. ] VERUGAS. 209 localities, all of which I believe arc within the tropics, but there are many troi)ical countries in whicli no such disease is known. As we know nothing of" tlie cause of this disease, except its en- demic character, m'c are unable to suggest any means of avoiding it in tlie localities where it prevails. \\'e have known persons who had observed the commencement of this disease to leave the island of Barbadoes, and thus avoid any troublesome increase of this affliction, so long as this exile from their native country con- tinued. (272.) Cholera infantum, the summer endemic of children in large cities, appears to be caused by various circumstances un- favorable to health, acting on the impressible organization of children. Deficiency of daylight, produced by high buildings crowded together, an atmosphere contaminated by decaying hu- man exuviae and excrement, the consequence of crowding and de- fective ventilation and unwholesome food, particularly factitious milk and the milk of diseased animals, appear to be the principal causes of this scourge of civilization. The only means of avoid- ing it is to escape from its causes, by placing children, during the prevalence of this disease, in the country, in the midst of health- ful food, light, and air. Verugas. — The Spanish conquerors of Peru found a curious endemic of warts (verruca, a wart), and even suffered from it in one of the upper valleys of the Rimac, about (20) twenty leagues from Lima. The disease is there yet ; it affects particularly the nose, the eyelids, tlie ears, the hands. It is a fever, Avith an erup- tion of vascular tumors or bloody vesicles, the size of a pea, or even an inch in diameter. These tumors are not painful, dry up into hard scabs and drop off'; but if roughly handled or cut they bleed profusely. The suspected spring-water is found to be very pure, and a party who went to assist in getting the iron railroad bridge in position, and took water with them, brought back the infection, and in about a month had verugas.; — {San. Rep., 72.) StY'idnre of Oesophagus — mal de engasco — exists endemically in Southern Brazil, district Limeiras, province San Paulo. The disease comes on gradually and ends in death by starvation in about a year (/"-'.a"?, hunger). Can it be that the Brazilians thus name the district because people there sometimes die of starva- tion? — [San. Rep., 74.) 14 210 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 275. (273.) 3rdk sickness, Staggers, is the name of a disease formerly endemic in some portions of our Western country. It was acute poisoning, caused by eating tlie flesh, ])utter, or milk of cattle which liad fed on a particular poisonous weed, Rhus toxicodendron, poison oak. It appears that under certain circumstances, when the pasturage is very bare, the cattle eat grass more or less mixed with this weed, and as they are by no means fond of it, they eat but little at a time, till gradually the entire flesh of the animal is imbued with poison, without any symptoms of poisoning being observed. This was formerly a very serious affair, but the dis- ease has disappeared with the cultivation of the land, and a gen- eral understanding of the cause of the mischief. The flesh of the deer has been found poisonous occasionally from the same cause. The disease was endemic in localities where sprouts of poison oak grew so mingled with the grass that the cattle were unable to ob- tain their food separate from the poisonous weed. (274.) The Guinea-worm is a peculiar, long, threadlike worm, found in the bodies of persons living on some parts of the African coast and in the West Indies. Its presence is indicated under the skin by a little red, itching spot. This ulcerates or is opened artificially, and the head of the worm is found. The whole ani- mal requires to be removed very carefully to avoid a very trou- blesome sore. There has been a great deal of speculation and doubt about the source of this worm and how^ it could insinuate itself into such a situation. It was observed that persons using water from a particular well suffered, while their neighbors es- caped. A microscopic examination of the water resulted in the discovery of many })eculiar organic objects supposed to be the or- ganic o-erms of this worm. These are swallowed with the water, and })robably insinuate themselves into the tissues from the bowels, growing in their progress. In places where this disease is a serious annoyance it may be obviated by the Japanese custom of always boiling water before drinking it, using tea, etc., and being careful never to drink fresh water directly from the well. (275.) Trichinosis. — Germany, the land of sausages and hams, has suffered from an endemic disease, the cause of which has but recently been discovered. This disease is by no means confined to Germany, as numerous cases have already been reported in our own country. Two or three deaths occur in a family, of typhoid § 276. ] TRICHINOSIS. 211 fever, Avith some anomalous symptoms ; suspicion is aroused, and a microscopic examination of the remains of the ham or sausage proves the existence of the newly recognized cause of ham-poi- soning. The following case, which is going the rounds of the medical journals, led to the discovery of the cause, and places the whole subject in its proper light : (276.) "About the middle of October, 1;uaetent inspectors. With typhus, small-pox, and syphilis, the practice should be different. We must not countenance the notion that these diseases can be absolutely excluded from a city by any regu- lation, however strict. People are constantly dying of these dis- eases in every large city, so that the contagious germ is always near — always present. But the sufferei-s, whether arriving on a railroad or found in a secluded alley, should be promptly removed to healthy situations, and the community should be protected from too near individual contact with them. I have known a person to lose his life by going into a barber shop to have his hair trimmed and meeting there a person who had recently re- covered from small-pox. We want protection from contagious diseases in l)arber shops, in hackney coaches, and in railway car- riages. CHAPTER XXX. SUEIXAM — MARANPIAM HOMEWARD BOUND STATISTICS OF DISEASE PRISONS DISCIPLINE — REWARDS AND PUNISH- MENTS. (304.) September 21st, — We arrived on the coast of Suri- nam, Dutch Guiana, and liad a view of the trees at the distance of a mile for a few hours, till a boat visited the shore and re- turned. We made a similar visit to French Guiana. Our next stopping-place was south of the equator, — Maranham, Brazil. The principal, perhaps the only Avhite people, were a retired slave- trader from Kentucky and his family. The rest of the inhabi- tants are a mongrel set of Indians, Negroes, and Portuguese. If Maranham is not subject to severe epidemics of yellow fever, it must be for want of material, — white people and unacclimated strangers ; for, though well situated on a handsome bluflP, it is a badly policed, unclean town, in a tropical climate. It is a small place, almost rural. (305.) On the homeward passage we spent a week on the direct line between Fernando Noronha and Bermuda, and although this is the great route for vessels homeward bound from nearly all parts of the world, except Europe and North Africa, we did not see a single vessel of any description ; there was only sky and sea. (306.) In the latitude of Cape Hatteras, in a storm, we had a startling accident : the outboard ejection was broken oif. This is a cast-iron tube, leading to an opening, 18 inches by 30, in the outside planking below the water. Two minutes lost and the ship would have gone down in mid-ocean. The firemen seem to be always ready ; boards, blocks, ropes, and wedges were in place as if by enchantment, so that this part of the machinery was effectually kept in place. As many men as could get into the narrow space were stationed there during the rest of the passage, § 308. ] DISCIPLINE. 237 one or two to hold blocks and wedges, while another was busy with a sledge, driving them back into their places as fast as they worked loose. One man lay on the top of the boiler, invisible except his hands and wedges, and could not be coaxed out till our arrival in New York. (307.) The medical history of this cruise was not eventful ; as dull as the history of a country without either war or famine : Average number of men, ....... 299 Number of days in commission, 438 Whole number of patients treated, 582 Or 1.622 per thousand per annum; so that on the average each man was on the sick-list once in (7J) seven and a half months. Keturned to duty, 573 Transferred to hospitals, 7 ; sent home, invalids, 2 ; total, 9 ; equal to 25.1 per thousand sent to hospitals. Deaths, none. The only remarkable thing about these figures is the large number of admissions to the sick-list without any serious disease. (308.) In conclusion, we must discuss the subject of discipline, not with any idea of exhausting our subject, but because this is one of the constantly present forces whose influence on health is often little thought of. It is difficult to estimate it at its proper value ; it has never been overestimated. Correct discipline, en- forced by constant attention to faults, so that they rarely escape notice, and such reproof and moderate punishments as do not greatly degrade or reduce to despair, together with a consistent example of Christian kindness and forbearance, with such as are reasonably conscious of their foults, are the principal means of doing good in this direction. Mr. Dana, author of Three Years before the Mast, is one of the principal benefactors of seamen. Congress, by abolishing the punishment of flogging, has done more to improve the health and character of seamen than by any other act of legislation. The enormity of this outrageous bar- barity, wdiich continued in considerable vigor up to the middle of the nineteenth century, could hardly be believed without the 238 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 008. evidence of official records ; but this evidence exists in the re- turns of punishments on file in the Xavy De'partment and in the old log-books. This barbarism was swept away by act of Con- gress in 1850, and the transition to a better system has been more rapid and attended with less confusion than could readily have been imajrined. Some officers seemed to think that all lawful means of discipline were done away with among these degraded men, and in their effi^rts to discover punishments, according to the usages of the sea-service, not prohibited by law, and in some degree corresponding to their notions of necessary severity, they reinvented some of the obsolete tortures of the Middle Ages, — the drunkard's jacket, the wooden horse, etc. But these things were never common, and have nearly passed into oblivion. In the Blue Book of 1876, we find the following order : "Cells for the confinement of prisoners, are not to be less than 6| feet long and 3j feet broad, with full height [seven feet] between decks, and are to be properly ventilated." This is 22.75 square feet (^m^ 1044) of floor surface, and 160 cubic feet (4ni', 48) of air space. It would not seem proper to appropriate more space for this exclusive purpose aboard ships in regular commission ; it is about four times the size of the previously authorized cells, which were not much used except for ornament or for the ward- robe of the master-at-arms. These cells are to be "properly ventilated.'^ I have had some opportunities of observing what was considered proper ventilation ; and I will relate a case, omit- ting names and dates merely to avoid suspicion of willingness to indulge in personal criticism. One fine morning I received at the hospital a patient who came in charge of a strong guard, with the usual hospital ticket, and a private message, intimating that the man was serving out a court-martial sentence, and it was important tliat he should not be allowed to escape; he was ansemic, bleached nearly to death, could scarcely stand up a mo- ment without fainting. He rapidly recovered, declaring his three hours a day running in the garden, the very best medicine he had ever heard of. But the man is a convict, and something else must be done, or he goes back to serve out the rest of his sentence. My first visit was to the surgeon, under whose care the patient first came, to see how the land lay without exciting attention. The i^rison is a hulk, not f\t to confine prisoners for any long § 308. ] DISCIPLINE. 239 period ; but there arc prisoners sentenced to various terms, one of them as much as five years. About a year ago a commission found it unfit for a prison and recommended it to be broken up. Everything about it is neatly kept by a colonel of marines in command, a courteous gentleman, but it is killing the men — delenda est. A copy of the repoi-t of the commission was found ; it merely stated that the hulk is unsuitable for a prison, and rec- ommended that it be discontinued. A visit to the commandant of the station supplied important information. The care of such prisoners is troublesome ; they were transferrcxl to the ship from a worse place. A commission had recommended a change, but nothing better was suggested, and nothing came of it. A visit to the colonel in command was satisfactory. It included an in- vitation to inspect the cefls. Immediately below the spar-deck are the cells; a corridor (5) five feet wide runs lengthways through the centre ; on each side are the cells, about ten on each side, (12) twelve feet square and (3) eight feet high. There is a narrow pas- sageway between the back of the cells and the side of the ship. The door of each cell has a grated opening for ventilation (24 by 18 inches), three square feet area, and there is a similar ventila- tion aperture back of the cell, just opposite a circular air-port (7) seven inches in diameter. There are about six prisoners, and the place is scrupulously neat. It would not do to stop here, or the abomination would stand forever. Prisoners are perverse fellows, and have confederates outside. To prevent improper com- munications, it was necessary to obstruct entrances to the side passages. The openings opposite the air-ports were occasionally closed to prevent communication by boats. Some of the grated openings in the doors had to be made closer, especially for pris- oners sentenced to a diet of bread and water. Two or three of the doors had boards nailed tight over the ventilation apertures, and auger-holes bored for ventilation ; in one of the doors, prob- ably the worst one, I counted (17) seventeen auger-holes, (|) three-eighths of an inch in diameter. This was inspection enough. A commission had already recommended the discontinuance of this prison, in language so tame that the report rested quietly in its pigeon-hole. Another style of report must be written. The gen- eral good order is commended "without superfluous Avords. The gradual obstruction of ventilation, with its causes, was alluded 240 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 308. to, on the berth-deck of a ship — about as well ventilated as a good cellar at best; the aggregate area of the 17 holes, | inch, was carefully computed, and found to equal one hole of (2.38) two inches and thirty-eight hundredths, about the ordinary size of the buncj-'hole of a barrel. The idea of a man iu a barrel, and re- ceiving his allowance of air and light through the bung-hole, carried the dav. The prison was discontinued in the course of a week, preliminary orders having arrived by return of mail. So far as the navy is concerned, where these sentences are very few, and can only be adjudged for oifences punishable with death, this incident is not worth recording ; but in the United States there are more than (1000) one thousand county prisons, some of them no better than they should be. This incident shows to what the best of them tend, even when managed by courteous and estimable gentlemen, when there is no efficient system of independent in- spection. Proper ventilation is apt to mean a hole in the door or in the wall, without reference to the fact that the whole arrange- ment is in a poorly ventilated building. With a very full share of sea-service, it is curious that I have never seen any of the horrible tortures that have been described as the necessary consequence of the abolition of flogging. The difficulty seemed absolutely irremediable to an officer who had grown up under the notion that disorders are to be suppressed only by punishment. As for imprisonment, the ship at sea is a close enough prison. Additional pain might be inflicted by flog- ging ; confinement in a cell was only a relief from rough hard labor, unless smothering or starvation could be added ; confine- ment in irons 'svas no punishment at all, unless so arranged as to impose a painful attitude — it was only punishing the other men who had to do the work. On rare occasions these tortures have been inflicted ; and I accidentally learned of a characteristic series of them. A number of men were to be tried for desertion, and some annoying busybody put it into their heads to ask me to de- fend them. 1 kiarned from the commandant that the men had been punished about enough already, but if I would accede to their wislies, they would probably go into the trial more cheer- fully, do better, and give less trouble. The private statements of these men coincide in all important particulars. The following is selected as being the most graphic. § 308. ] DISCIPLINE. 241 *' You left tlic boiit, of course, and tliey will be likely to prove it, but you have an excuse ; tell me all about it." " I (lid leave ; I have done wrong, try to do right, and hope that I have succeeded so far as to have the good opinion of the officers and men that know me. I left on ac(;ount of the terrible system of punishment; have no fault to find with my ow^n treat- ment, but could not help seeing terrible punishments inflicted, not for crimes only, but for all sorts of petty offences. Solitary confinement on bread and water 'svas a common punishment ; it meant being locked up in a dark closet with a bucket. This un- painted wooden bucket is emptied every evening when hammocks are piped, and it smells in hot weather like anything. It is a ziuisance, not only to the prisoner, but to all the men sleeping near the cells. The cells are thirty inches scpiare, the door with- out any opening for ventilation except a crack at the top. A man fainted in one of these cells, and they had to carry him to the windsail and sprinkle him with water before he revived. The punishment of ' confinement in double irons,' is to have regular irons on the legs, and the hands ironed behind, and fastened to a chain three feet long hanging from a beam above ; this chain is long enough for a man to stand at ease, and when he gets tired of that he can turn around till his chain gets twisted, and then he can go around the other way ; bat the men get too tired of it for anything, and so they lean forward and hang by the hands. They sometimes go to sleep hanging in this \\ay. Sometimes the irons make the wrists a little sore, but they are pretty smooth, and do not fit so close but that the prisoners get bits of rag be- tween, and thus save their arms a little. Sometimes they try to stand up so long that they get to sleep standing, and then they are liable t(5 fall suddenly, so as to hurt themselves by coming up wdtli a jerk on the chain. Tricing up was a lighter punishment, in ^vhich men were tied up alongside of the reel. These punish- ments, though terrible to look at, need not frighten a correct man if they were only inflicted for serious offences. The terrible thing is, that they are inflicted for the smallest breach of discipline, — occasional awk^vardness at work, want of smartness at learning, and such other things as no man whatever can be sure of escaping. I have known a man to be confined in a cell on V)read and water for awkwardness and stupidity in handling his musket. But the 16 242 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 308. woi-st things are not called punishment at all. Early in the cruise the men were dissatisfied and tried to run (desert). After they were punished for attempts of this kind, they were secured every evening for safe-keeping. They were ironed in a row by the feet to eye-bolts and shot-racks. The most celebrated of these runners was a chap I think his name was Humphreys. One evening at chaining-up time he could not be found ; no matter how nuich they called he did not come. He was found and secured on the spot, not a pleasant place, and left there for five days. The next time Colty was missed he was not so easily found. The boatswain's mates had a noisy time, whistling and calling, ' Colty JMatthews ! Do you hear, there, Colty INIatthews ?' This lasted till near midnight, and the men in their hammocks wished all the colts and all the boatswains in the warm place. INIatthews had found a box iu a dark corner under the heel of the bowsprit, filled with wash-deck gear, and when the concert came off he was sleeping so soundly that he did not hear it at all, or more likely he was peeping behind the squilgees and laughing all the time. Towards morning a noise was heard like the grating of holy- stones, and he was found sleeping very comfortably. I never heard that anybody had the heart to wake him. But in the morning he was reported, the squilgees were cleared out, he was put back in the box and a lid was nailed on. The lid had a round hole near the corner, large enough to pass a tin-cup. When he got out he was as much inclined to run as ever ; he left and returned no more. Alas, poor Colty ! I have told this in a laughing way, but it was no joke for the man nailed up in the box. The officers never spoke of the men as horses or colts, and the boatswains did not sing out for Colty Matthews, but I suppose used his first name ; do not remember his name ; do not know whether the captain ever knew of the man being nailed up in the box ; do not know whether the executive officer ever saw it ; do not know who nailed on the lid. The box was four or five feet long, nearly two feet high. Do not know who ordered it nailed down, or who nailed it down ; but I saw the man in it. I think there was something wrong in the way of examining offences. Punishment was common enough, but it was not common to see the captain examining cases at the mast, the accused facing the witnesses; have seen it, })ut it was not the conunoji way. § 308. ] DISCIPLINE. 243 Thiiiijs were reported l)v the master-at-arms or the sliip's corpo- ral and nobody else called; and mayl)e they snggested tlie pun- ishments, particularly those with a spice of wit or nastiness. They must have thought it a good joke when ]\Iatthews was nailed up in his l)ox. The ship has always been a hard ship. In the be- ginning we had a good crew : there were 1500 men on the receiv- ing-ship when we fitted out, so that there were plenty to choose from. If they could not choose they had to take them as they came, so that there must have been a pretty fair average. There were some very good men, and some very bad. Yes, I must tell about myself. Was never much punished ; was captain of the mizzen-top ; something w^ent wrong, and we were called lubbers ; the men did not like it and found fault with me, so I went down and asked to be disrated ; did not know how soon my time might come to be punished for some fault that I could not possibly avoid, and I felt very badly. So when the ship was going to sail, I staid ashore and hid till I had a chance to go aboard the other ship ; was kept in double irons about a week ; haxe been on duty ever since, mostly in a boat; have never been punished since. I hope the court will be lenient with me." The reader who has become interested in the above narrative should know some additional particulars. The narrator Avas aided and encouraged by a steady fire of leading questions. On his trial he received an excellent character; no one was able to specify an oifence for which he had been punished ; he was the smartest man they had ever seen aloft. He was defended in a two-minute speech showing how he hated to be called a lubber, and ignoring conclusive evidence of guilt, the court acquitted him. The other men were found guilty and sentenced, but the revising officer, keeping his word to consider them punished enough, the findings and sentences were formally approved, but in consideration of previous good character, or subsequent good conduct, or that they had already been punished — in consideration of something good or something bad, the punishment was re- mitted. John ]\Iatthews, Colty, was nailed up for five days in a box, four feet long, three feet wide, and two feet high, notched on one side to fit under the heel of the bowsprit. One man lived fifteen consecutive days in a sweat-box. The officers principally responsible for these outrages were eventuallv tried bv court- 244 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 309. martial^ convicted, sentenced, and punished, and one of them is believed to have ended liis unhappy career by suicide. It has been asked, What has this matter of discipline and puuishnuMits to do with your business of care for the sick ? There really are men so constituted that it appears necessary to answer very plainly this question. (309.) Clergymen, lawyers and physicians, judges, juries and magistrates, philanthropists, philosophers and essayists, the think- ing part of mankind, are now divided into two great parties by their differences of opinion as to the best way to treat the degraded, the imbecile, and the criminal. These parties may be called the reward party and the punishment party. The punhhrnent jmrty should come first, being the most ancient. It cites Divine au- thority ; offences must be adequately punished. If you reward the criminal and the worthless, you compel the poor man to be- come criminal, so that by hypocrisy he may come in for some of the good things going. The reward party, which probably in- cludes nearly all the physicians, take a different view of the matter. The poor man, whether criminal or not, whether aboard ship or in prison, when obliged to do the roughest and hardest work, and to live on the cheapest food capable of maintaining health and strength, is in a position wdiere not much more in the way of punishment can be inflicted without impairing his strength to labor ; you may flog him, but this degradation impresses him in such a way that he rarely gets over the vilification so far as to be of any value for labor ; you may confine him in a painful posi- tion, but his limbs so stiffen under this treatment that his labor is very much lessened in value ; you may star\ e or smother him, but this does not mend the matter ; you may hang him, and if a constitutional murderer, this is i)erhaps the very best thing to do witli him, for otherwise he is likely to be pardoned and permitted to commit more murders. When a man is in prison on prison fare, there is not much more of physical punishment available without destroying his health and ability to labor ; and when we consider the facility of the step of petty larceny, for instance, or shipping to relieve pressing w'ant, the strength of these young men may be worth preserving. The undertaking is by no means a desperate one. All men, and some beasts, are greatly influenced by their consciousness of what is thought of them, their love of § 309. ] REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 245 approbation. We have seen on a jii-evious page that men were vexed and punished by being called lubbers. This is a good and legitimate punishment, but it should not be spoiled by being made too common, and, applied to a large party of men, may reach some one who does not deserve it ; " Very well done on the main- yard," might have done as well, particularly if the men on the main-yard deserved it, for men will really work harder to gain praise than they will to avoid censure, but the ofticer in charge of the work is the proper judge of this, and perhaps he could not see any work deserN'ing praise at that particular time. In the navy, the reward party is likely to carry the day. For- merly by law all serious offences were punishable with ''death, or such other punishment as a court-martial shall adjudge," but in practice nearly everything, from spitting on the deck to murder, was punished by flogging ; more anciently it was keel-hauling, throwing the man overboard and pulling him up again before he was quite drowned. We now have a Blue Book of regulations, in which the section on rewards is half as long as the section on punishments, and better still, while the punishments are awarded for specific offences, some of the rewards accrue from the mere absence of punishment or of bla('k-mark reports. It is a rather elaborate system, requiring some keeping of books, but it em- braces every enlisted man, and is producing most admirable re- sults. There is no occasion to misunderstand this matter. The re- wards, in the ordinary sense, are not rewards at all. When a man does his work well it is hardly a reward to tell him so. When he receives better pay for better work, it is only fair com- pensation. When honorably discharged, a bargain is made with him that he may reship on better terms than a stranger just from the penitentiary. When he is allowed a portion of his pay at stated periods to meet his little wants, he is treated with some little show of decency and justice. When a fair record of his conduct is kept, so as to distinguish the good man from the in- different and bad, we are only making a decent effort to give him reasonable credit for what he is worth. But these are the rewards of which we think so much ; for they produce good order, good health, and good work. The punishments are mostly of a very different character, such as death, imprisonment for life, or for a 24Q NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 309. term of years at liard labor, fine and imprisonment, imprison- ment with or without irons, solitary confinement on bread and water. AVe have, however, advanced so far in the right direc- tion, that some of the punishments are merely withdrawing or withholding of the rewards, reduction to the next inferior rating A\ith corresponding loss of pay, deprivation of liberty on shore, the withholding of liberty-money, praising the other fellows. One thing more is needed : the statistics of punishment should be studied where the records are kept; and annually there shonld be published, for the information of Congress, a statistical report showing the number of punishments in each squadron, for each description of oifence, the number per thousand of mean force, etc. Such reports would surely show us the effect of each act of legislation, and of each description of reward and punish- ment ; and they would thus greatly aid in removing disorders of the criminal character. Both offences and punishments would diminish still more rapidly. APPENDIX. WEIGHTS AXD MEASURES. (310.) The confusion that exists on this subject is curious. Anciently every city had its own yardstick, differing somewhat from the yardstick of its neighbors ; in modern times one of them was selected to be the yardstick, and an exact copy of it was made and deposited in the Tower of London : this curious piece of platinum is the standard of reference for all our weights and measures. The carpenter's measuring-rule, about as long as his foot, is the third of the yard ; it is divided into twelve inches, and these are our measures of length. To avoid the confusion that must occur if the standard measure be lost, a pendulum beating seconds, mean time, in the latitude of London, in a vacuum, at the level of the sea, was measured and found to be 39.1393 inches, or 1.087175 yards. MEASURES OF LENGTH AND SURFACE. J. Cloth Pleasure. One yard, yard = 36 inches, is simply divided into halves, quarters, and eighths. Formerly the arrangement was : 2f inches make ....... 1 nail, 4 nails, 1 quarter, 4 quarters, . . ... . . . .1 yard, 3 quarters, 1 ell Flemish. 5 quarters, 1 ell English. //. Timber Ileasure. 1 foot =12 inches = 144 lines = 1728 seconds. The duo- decimal subdivision continuing indefinitely is used for surface and cubic measurements and computations. Formerly 3 barley- corns made 1 inch, etc. 248 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 311. III. Road Measure. I mile = 8 furlongs = 320 rods = 1760 yards. 1 furlong = 40 rods = 220 yards. 1 rod, pole, or perch = o.o yards = 16.5 feet. IV. Land Measure. 1 acre = 4 roods = 100 perches = 4840 S(iuare yards. 1 perch = 30.25 sq. yd. =^ 272.25 scpiare feet. MEASURES OF A7EIGHT. (oil.) Ill this \\T)rk .Severn] kinds of weight are used, and oc- casionally in such a way as to leave the careful reader in doubt as to the particular weight intendexl. For instance (§ 144), we read that two seamen, being informed that the Cape toad-fish is poisonous, determined to try the experiment on themselves, and ate part of one fish, weighing four drachms. 4 drachms avoir- dupois is = 109f troy grains, and 4 drachms troy is =240 grains ; in strictness we should conclude that the quantity was 109| grains, though the writer probably meant 240 grains; but in this case the confusion of weights i.s not important, as the fools were both dead in less than twenty minutes. Our standard of weight is a troy pound, deposited with the yardstick in the Tower of London. One cubic inch of distilled water, at 62° F., and 30 inches bar., weighs 252.458 grains. V. Avoirdupois Weight. 1 pound, 1 ft = 16 ounces = 7000 grains. 1 ounce, 1 oz. = 16 drachms = 437i grains. VI. Apothecaries Weight. 1 pound, riij = 12 troy ounces = 5760 grains. I troy ounce, 5J ^ 8 drachms = 480 grains. 1 drachm, 3j = 3 scruples = 60 grains. 1 scruple, 9J = =20 grains. 1 grain, gr. j = = ^^\^ pound. The United States Pharmacopoeia uses the troy ounce, 480 grains to the ounce ; the British Pharmacopoeia uses avoirdupois pounds and ounces, 437 1 grains to the ounce. §311.] APPENDIX. 249 MEASURES OF CAPACITY. VIZ. Liquid 3Icasures of the United States rharmacopceia. One minim, "Kj = .93G9 grains. One fluid drachm, fjj = 60 minims. One fluid ounce, f^j = 8 fluid drachms. One pint (octans), Oj = 16 fluid ounces. One gallon (congius), Congi = 8 ))ints. One pint of distilled water at 60° F., 30 in. bar., wciglis 7291.1109 grains. VIII. Liquid Pleasure of the British Fharmaeopoeia. 1 minim = .91146 grain. 1 fluid drachm = GO minims == 54.6875 grains. 1 fluid ounce = 8 fluid drachms = 437.5 grains. 1 pint = 20 fluid ounces = 8750 grains. 1 gallon = 8 pints = 70,000 grains. One gallon of distilled water at 62° F., 30 inches barometer, weighs 70,000 grains. IX. Liquid Pleasures of the U. S. P., compared icith other ineasures of capacity, and the weight in grains of ivater cd 60° F. United States Pharmacopa'ia. <5 III & " 3 fO 3 c S] . SCO M Ctr~ ^ = li.S Pints, B.P. = .34.6592 cubic inches. .3 CM a Gallon, . . . 231 0.1337 133.2980 6.6649 0.83311 58,328.8872 Pint, . . . 28.875 0.0167 16.66225 0.8331 0.10414 7,291.1109 Fluid ounce, . 1.80469 0.00104 1.04146 0.0521 0.00651 455.6944 Flnid drachm, 0.22559 0.00013 0.13016 0.0065 0.00081 56.2118 Minim, . . . 0.00375 0.00002 0.00217 0.0001 0.00014 0.9369 1 cubic foot = 7.4805 gallons = 5 9.6442 pints. 1 gallon B. ] P. = 1.20 328 gallon. 1 fluid ounc s B. P. = .96025 fluid ounce. The foregoing are some of the weights and measures in com- mon use in the United States and in Great Britain. It is neces- sary to understand all of them if we would read intelligently common books of science in our own language. To understand common market reports of the prices, etc., of commodities, we must understand some more. They are gradually undergoing modification ; the unreasonable subdivisions are omitted, and in 250 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 312. the market-place binary fractions — lialves, fourths, and eighths — are substituted. In works of science the decimal fractions are used, as being more in accordance with our system of decimal arithmetic. But this is a slow process, that brings us no nearer to any international standard, and it does not satisfy men con- scious that much valuable time is wasted over the needless com- plications. In France, during the first republic, an effort was made to correct this, together with all otlier absurdities, as they were supposed, of the social condition. It was not thought philosophical to take for the standard of measures either the length of the cloth-merchant's arms or his measuring-stick, or the length of the carpenter's foot or of his foot-rule; but the forty-millionth part of the circumference of the earth, measured over the poles, might ansAver ; to be consistent, it should be the hundred-millionth. This starting-point is called a meter {,'j.sTpov, a measure, a meter) ; and it is found to be a little longer than the English yardstick, or even the seconds pendulum. It had been observed that the Chinese use a system of decimal subdi- visions in their weights and measures, corresponding Avith the system of decimal arithmetic, and it was thought right to learn reason and common sense even from the heathen ; hence ^ve have the French metrical system. (312.) It seems quite im])ossible for us to realize the immense advantages we enjoy from the fact that, in every known country of the world, the system of numeration is the same. This system happens to be decimal. Whatever is written or spoken in any language in reference to numbers is decimal. As far as history goes no other system is known, except as a matter of philosophical speculation. The ethnological inference, however, is that other systems have been in use. The inhabitants of Northwest Mexico, according to Clavigero, counted regularly up to four, the luimber of fingers on one hand, and then they counted four and one, four and two, etc. The islanders of the Pacific counted up to five, and then said five and one, five and two, etc., including the thumb, to make their full number; or, possibly, they counted by the toes. The people of Central and Southern Asia nuist have counted all the fingers of both hands, including the thumbs, to get their com- plete number, and then they counted ten and one, ten and two, etc. : this is the decimal system that colonists carried to Greece, § 312. ] APPENDIX. 251 and Italy, and Spain. The emig-rants from Central Asia, moving north and west, perhaps had freqnent occasion to place their fingers and toes near together to keep them Marm, and they counted them all up to twenty for a complete number, and then went on counting twenty and one, twenty and two, etc. ; and we find a remnant of this vigesimal system in the present French four-twenties, four twenties and one, etc. ; and in English litera- ture, two scores and five, three scores, etc., now about obsolete. But this is a very primitive condition of the science of numbers, which even the crow is imagined in some degree to possess, M-hen it is insisted that he can count as high as three, the number of toes on the front of his foot. The decimal system of numbering has become universal, prob- ably from the habits of the Arabs sitting on the floor and count- ing their toes when they invented arithmetic and algebra. If they had worn shoes and counted on their fingers, we might have had an octaval system of numerals, corresponding with the halves, quarters, and eighths, into which the trader naturally arranges his merchandise. I would favor in any rational way the refor- mation of this whole subject, so as to have an octaval system of numbers, octaval subdivisions of weights and measures. It might be a good thing to start the matter by an octaval system of ^veights and measures and coinage, leaving the arithmetic to follow. But we need not seriously object to the rising of the sun, and so we proceed to accommodate our work to coming events. To facilitate necessary computations the following tables are added. 252 NAVAL HYGIENE. [§312. X. Metrical Measures of Length, compared with the Pleasures in most Common Use in the United States. Metrical. Inches. Feet of 12 inches. Yards of 36 inches. Miles of 1760 yards. Millimeter, . . Centimeter, . . Decimeter, . . 0.03937 0.39371 3.93708 0.0032809 0.0328090 0.3280899 3.2808992 3,280.89920 0.0010936 0.0109363 0.1093633 1.0936331 1093.63310 0.0000006 0.0000062 0.0000621 0.0006214 0.6213824 Meter, .... Kilometer, . . 39.37079 39,370.790 1 inch = 2 centimeters .539954. 1 yard = meter .914384. 1 foot = 3 decimeters .047945. 1 mile = 1 kilometer .609315. AT. Measures of Surface. ISretrical. Square feet of 144 sq. inches. Square yards of 9 sq. feet. Acres of 4840 sq. yds. Centiare, square meter, .... Are, 100 square meters, . . . Hectare, 100 are, 10.76423 1076.4299 107,642.99 1.1960 11.9603 1,196.033 0.000247 0.024711 2.471143 1 sq. inch = 6 centimeters .451367. 1 sq. yard = meter .836097. 1 sq. foot = 9 decimeters .289968. 1 acre = hectare .404671. §312.] APPENDIX. 253 >i 1 ■loiisnq 'dJllSBJllI Xjp 's)IItJ oiqno GT'SIoo Jo sptisiia o lO CO '* (M «5 -^ CO O (M CD -* o o O (N o -*- ofqns TSo JO '-d'S'Il 'snoiiBo o d O d O d d 00 o ■saqoui oiqno Qig-ss JO '-a'S'Il. 'sinia Oi o 05 (M CO Ci o Oi ro CO (X) o o •saqoui o CO CO c» (M o CO CO Oi oiqna 69f08'I Jo saouno inn[A CO C5 CO CO CO lO CO (M t^ rH CO LO CO I— ( CO o CO lO CO >o •saqoni o o CO lO CO o o oiqna Soil JO jaoj oiqno o o o o CO o o o o to CO •saqanj oiqnQ % r^ QJ k. S d "3 ;h C 0^ ;j W "h-l ji 'O ci -2 S OJ -TT CO S (M S -S ^ ;^ ^ .';:5 T-H CO li r^ G S — ! 254 NAVAL HYGiENE. [ § 312. XIII. Meusnres of WeiyJxt. Metrical. Grains. Troy ounces of 480 grains. Avoirdupois ounces of 43734 grains. Avoirdupois pounds of 7000 grains. Milligram, Centigram, Decigram, Gram, Kilogram, 0.01543 0.15432 1.54323 15.43235 15432.3488 0.000032 0.000322 0.003215 0.032151 32.150727 0.000035 0.000353 0.003527 0.035274 35.273941 0.000002 0.000022 0.000221 0.002205 2.204621 1 grain = gram .064799. 1 ounce avoirdupois = 28 grams .3496. 1 troy ounce = 31 grams .103496. 1 pound avoirdupois = kilogram .453593. 1 ton of coal = 2240 pounds = 1016 kilograms .475. We sometimes find quantities stated in weights and measures that we are not used to, and we find it convenient to reduce them to others by these tables. For instance, the exhibit of the navy ration (§ 61) begins with fourteen ounces of biscuit, and if we Avant to know what it would be in metrical weight, we turn to Table XIII and' find that one ounce avoirdupois equals 28 grams .35, which multiplied by fourteen gives 396 grams .9 (397 grams) ; and proceeding similarly with the other articles of the ration the table stands as follows : § 312. ] APPENDIX. 255 I ^ ^ ^- lO >o O ^ i t^ rt 1^ CO 00 lO (M rt (M Oi "^ Oi Oi T— I lO (M < 3 t^ Ol CO CO ■* !N rH cq CO rH rH r-l O* (M ■-H tA lO "O • r:t4 • I^ rt o "* 1- t-l CO co_ • ^. • ^. Ix t^ CO CO co' 1- 00 co" . (N . oi S 05 iC • T— < lO . :« lO lO CO t-. rH CO CO t-- 'B 1-^ o cd CO t-^ CO 00 co H OJ '^ (M >0 . v X ^ n s ^ ^ V* ^ ^ ^ V, ^ v ^. ^ ^ ^ ;— « ^* 5 be oT 0) 2 'A -S "S '£ be > < ^ K -3 o o "r^ ^ a " ."S" "^ -o 12 !h 'l; OJ - % go l1 ^ Ph Ii a _c. C3 J t- o " O OJ e- 0) o c HOC " 1 1 CO c- Q p: 256 NAVAL HYGIENE. [ § 312. Tlic usual niauner of .stating the chemical impurities of water is a little confusing, unless the relative value of these weights is kept in mind. In the Report of the ]Massachusetts State Board of Health for 1874, there are tabular statements of the results of analysis of the water of the various lakes and rivers of the State, and the proportions are given in parts per 100,000, and in grains per United States gallon, on consecutive pages ; but the books on this subject are not always so accommodating. In Parhe^s Manual of Hygiene (edition 1878, p. 61), the amount of certain impuri- ties sufficient to impart taste, is given in grains per imperial gallon ; we give these quantities in tabular form, with the cor- responding number of grains per United States gallon, as like- wise the parts per thousand. We recommend the uniform prac- tice of writing such numerical statements in parts per thousand, and then by reading more or less of the figures beyond the deci- mal point as whole numbers, we will say parts in ten thousand, parts in a hundred thousand, or parts in a million : MAY BE TASTED IN WATER. Grains per imperial gallon = 70,000 grains. Grains per U. S. gallon = 58328.887 grs. Parts per 1000 or grains per liter. Sodium chloride, . . . 75 62.5 1.07143 Potassium chloride, . . 20 16.7 0.28571 Magnesium chloride, . . 55 45.8 0.78571 Calcium sulphate, . . . 30 25. 0.42857 " carbonate, . . . 12 10. 0.17143 " nitrate, .... 20 16.7 0.28571 Sodium carbonate, . . . 65 54.2 0.92857 Iron, 02 .017 0.00028 This may be read, — Sodium chloride is ta.sted in water, when in the proportion of one part per thousand, or one gram per liter ; jxjtussium chloride, when about three parts in ten thou- .saiid ; magnesium chloride, when seventy-eight parts in one hun- dred thousand ; iron, when three parts in ten millions, or twenty- eight parts in a hundred millions, if we Avish to be so exact. The physician of the future, even the jjhysician of the i)res- ent, will write prescriptions in grams and centigrams; he will neglect and eventually forget the grains and scruples, and these in another generation will become matters of history or tradition, § 312. ] APPENDIX. 257 like groats, four-pcuoe-ha'-pcnnies, and clcvcn-penuy-bits ; the decigram, the milligraiu, the dekagram, and the hectogram, though occasionally referred to, will not fare much better. But for the present we need simple formalie for reducing weights of one standard to the other. We have but to remember that the gram nearly equals (15.4) fifteen and four-tenths grains, and to compute all the rest by simple processes of mental arithmetic : 1 gram ^ 15.4 grains. 10 centigrams = 1.54 grains. 1 centigram =: 0.154 grain. 1 kilogram ^ 15,400 grains, = 2.2 ponnds. 100 grains = 6 grm. .4, six grams, four-tenths. 10 grains = grm. .64, sixty-four centigrams. 1 grain = grm. .064, six centigrams, four tenths. Instead of writing the abbreviation grm. between the whole number and the decimal, it has been proposed to draw a line from the top to the bottom of the paper, as the accountant rules his books for dollars and cents; and if we choose we may write grams over the column for grams, and centigrams over the centi- grams ; just as you would distinguish the different parts of a knife by writing " this is the blade " on one part and " this is the handle " on another part. This all looks like plain sailing, but there are (50,000) fifty thousand physicians in the United States, and they will need fifty thousand lead-pencils to blacken up the margins of their books with the new weights till the printers have time to print them new books ; the fifty thousand apothecaries will need fifty thousand sets of new weights; and this will encourage the mining of copper, and zinc, and tin. Who is to pay for all this ? In the first place the physician and the apothecary must pay ; the sick will pay the physician and the apothecary with interest. Some of those supporting the sick earn their livelihood by making lead-pencils, some by printing, and some by mining, so that the matter moves in a circle ; with some individual inconve- nience, the result is convenience and comfort; more precision, more safety ; just weights, just measures ; more charity, less alms- giving ; partial evil, universal good. 17 AUTHORITIES. American Journal Medical Science.— American Journal of Medical Sci- ence, new series, 1841 to 1864. Philadelphia, Blanchard & Lea. Bell.— Dietetic and Medical Hydrology. Philadelphia. BoucHARDAT. — Annuaire de Therapeutique, etc. 22eme annee. Paris, 1862. BOUDIN. — Etude sur le Recrutement, etc. Annales d'Hygiene, xl, 268. Paris, 1849. Carpenter. — Use and Abuse of Alcohol. Chase. — Cincinnati Lancet and Observer. June, 1861. CoNDiE.— American Journal of Medical Science, iv, 410. Transactions of the College of Physicians. DuNGLisoN. — Human Health. DuNGLisoN. — -Therapeutics. DuNON. — Etudes sur la Verruga. Paris, 1871. Farquharson. — Poisoning by seeds of Jatropha curcas, by R. J. Farquharson, M.D., United States Navy. American Journal of Medical Science, xx, 102. July, 1850. FoNSSAGRiVES. — Traite d'Hygiene Navale, par le Docteur J. B. Fonssagrives, professeur, etc. Paris, 1877. Forget. — Naval Medicine, from the French of Forget. London, 1835. FouRCAULT. — Comptes-Eendus. Mars, 1844. Gamgee.— Dangers of Slaughtering Diseased Cattle. London Lancet, Febru- ary, 1864. GoDMAN. — American Natural History, by John B. Godman, M.D. Philadel- phia, 1828. Hackluyt. — Collection of Voyages. Hamjiond. — A Treatise on Hygiene, with Special Reference to the IMilitary Service, by William A. Hammond, M.D. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1863. Holmes. — Puerperal Fever as a Private Pestilence, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D. A pamphlet. Boston, 1855. Horner. — A Cruise in the Mediterranean. Hughes.— The Natural History of the Island of Barbadoes, by the Rev. Griffith Hughes, A.M. London, 1750. Jameson. — Linnaan Transactions. November, 1860. Keller. — Trichinosis. American Journal of Medical Science, xlvii, 352, April, 1864. 260 AUTHORITIES. Kneeland. — On the Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, by Samuel Kneeland, Jr., M.D., of Boston. American Journal of Medical Science, xi, 45. La Roche. — Yellow Fever, Considered in its Historical, Pathological, Etio- logical, and Therapeutical Relations, by R. La Roche, M.D., etc. Phila- delphia. Lallaigne. — L'Air a Differente Hauteur, oh ont respire un grand nonibre d'hommes. Annales d'Hygiene, xxxvi. Paris, 1846. Larrey. — Surgical Memoirs. LiND. — On Scurvy. London, 1757. LiND. — On Hot Climates : An Essay on the Diseases Incident to Europeans in Hot Climates, with the Method of Preventing their Fatal Consequences, by James Lind, M.D., etc. Philadelphia, 1811. Magendie. — Gazette M^dicale. Decembre, 1843. Medical and Surgical Reporter. — Buffalo Medical and Surgical Reporter, edited by Julius F. Miner, M.D. 1862. Mitchell. — Cryptogamic Vegetation the Cause of Disease, by J. K. Mitchell, M.D. Philadelphia, 1847. Parkes. — Manual of Practical Hygiene, 1878. Peebles. — Facts in Relation to Epidemic Erj'sipelas, by J. F. Peebles, M.D. American Journal of Medical Science, xi, 23. 1846. QuETELET. — Experiences sur la Force Musculaire. Annales d'PIygiene, xii, 204. 1834. Sanitary Reports. — Sanitary and Medical Reports, published by authority of the Navy Department. Salisbury. — Remarks on Fungi, with Experiments, etc., by J. H. Salisbury, M.D. Newark, Ohio. American Journal of Medical Science, xlvi, 17. July, 1863. United States Pharmacopceia. Wood. — A Treatise on the Practice of Medicine, by George B. Wood, M.D., Professor, etc. Philadelphia, Lippincott, Grambo & Co. 1855. VOCABULARY. (The most important technical words are explained in the body of the work, and may be found by reference to the Index.) AcRO-NAECOTic. — Acrid narcotic ; causing excitement and stupor, or coma. Anemia. — Poverty of blood. Anesthetic. — Privative of sensation, either of the sense of touch or of the sen- sation of pain. Anthrax. — Carbuncle. A dangerous and painful mortifying sore. Apetala. — A subdivision of exogenous plants, characterized as being without petals. Their flower-leaves, no matter how brilliantly colored, are con- sidered as constituting the calyx merely. Section 205. Apoplexy. — A sudden failure of the powers of life, partly characterized by effused blood, or great congestion in the brain. An epidemic among cattle, in which the spleen, or melt, is somewhat similarly affected, has been called splenic apoplexy. Aromatic. — Possessing fragrance, as the spices. Banked fires. — The slow fires kept under the boilers of steam-engines when the machinery is not in motion. Catalysis. — The breaking up of the chemical constitution of a body by exter- nal force, as fire, produced in various ways. Chorea. — A convulsive disease, generally called St. Vitus's dance. Cinchona. — The Peruvian bark. Coma. — An appearance of profound sleep from disease, so that the patient can- not be aroused. Contagion. — The propagation of disease by contact, either direct or indirect, with an individual already affected by the same disease. In some cases this occurs from direct bodily contact ; in others by contact with solid or liquid excretions of the sick, or by emanations from the sick carried by the atmosphere. Contagion, infection, malaria, and miasm, are often im- properly used synonymously. Cryptogamia. — The grand division of flowerless plants — ferns, mosses, and mushrooms. Desiccated. — Thoroughly dried. Diaphoretic. — Producing cutaneous perspiration. Emeto-cathartic. — Producing or causing vomiting and purging. Empyreumatic. — Caused by the action of fire. Organic matter burned in closed vessels produces many unpleasant empyreumatic substances. 262 VOCABULARY. Endogens. — Endogenous plants are characterized by having the wood of their stems irregularly disposed, without pith in the centre, or concentric layers of growth ; leaves mostly parallel-veined, but in three or four orders a little netted ; young plants with but one seed-leaf, and the leaves arranged alternately ; the parts of the flower mostly in threes, never in fives. Enthetic. — Inoculated diseases — those diseases caused by morbid matter ap- plied directly to a sore, or abrasions of surface ; the word is commonly applied to contagious sexual diseases. Entozoon. — A parasite living witliin the body. Epileptic. — Belonging to epilepsy. ExoGENS. — Exogenous plants are characterized by having stems of bark, wood, and pith ; tlie wood growing by additions to its surface, so as to form con- centric annual layers ; the leaves net-veined ; the young plants with two opposite seed-leaves ; the parts of the flower mostly in fours or fives. Fractuee. — A broken bone. Galley. — The cooking-stove on shipboard. Gangrene. — Mortification. Gastric. — Having reference to the stomach. Glumacea. — A subdivision of endogenous plants, with flowers destitute of any proper flower-leaves, except small scales or bristles — chaff. Glumes. — Tlie husky scales which form the chafi^' of the grain-bearing plants and grasses. Helmintha. — Worms. Hydropaths. — Hydropathists. Persons who profess to believe that all dis- eases are best cured by the use of water without any other medicine. IcosANDRiA. — Of twenty anthers. This class is distinguished from polyandria (many anthers) not so much by the number of anthers as their mode of attachment. In the first, the anthers being attached to the petals, mostly five in number, are generally a regular multiple of five ; while in the second class, being attached to the receptacle, they are much more irregular in number, though not necessarily more numerous. Infection.— The influence on living beings of material capable of producing specific disease, whether the infecting poison be solid, liquid, or aeriform, and whether emanating from diseased individuals or from other sources. This term differs from contagion, as it includes the action of poisons ema- nating from other sources than from diseased individuals ; thus we have yellow fever infection and malarial infection, though neither yellow fever nor the malarial fevers are believed to be contagious diseases. Lethargy. — Drowsiness gradually becoming more heavy, to coma and death. Malaria. — Malarial miasm. The poisonous emanations of marshy places, which cause the intermittent and other periodic fevers. Miasm. — Miasma. A poison of unknown composition infecting the living body through the atmosphere ; as small-pox miasm, yellow fever miasm, marsh miasm. MoNOPETALA. — A subdivision of exogenous plants, with flowers of both calyx and corolla, the corolla being all united into one petal. Narcotic. — Causing sleep or stupor. Nervous. — Referring to the nerves or brain. VOCABULARY. 263 Officinal. — Kept in the shops as medicine. Petaloidea. — A subdivision of endogenous plants, witli flowers not collected on a spadix, bvit with floral envelopes answering to the calyx, or both calyx and corolla, either green or colored. Phagedenic. — Eating, wearing away. Plantar arch. — The arch formed by the bones of the foot. Pleuropneumonia. — An inflammatory disease of the lungs and side. A con- tagious cattle disease of this kind occasionally prevails. PoLYPETALA. — A Subdivision of exogenous plants with both a calyx and a corolla of several petals. Prophylactic. — Protecting against disease. Puerperal fever, puerperal peritonitis. The fatal contagious fever of lying- in women. Purulent. — Of pus, the matter of an abscess. Saccharine. — Of sugar. Satchel. — Haversack, a small sack to be carried by a strap over the shoulder. Sedative. — Tending to allay irritation. Spadiciflora. — A subdivision of endogenous plants with flowers on a spadix fleshy axis ; mostly without calyx, or corolla, or glumes ; leaves sometimes net-veined. Sternum. — The breast-bone. Stupor. — Drowsiness less profound than lethargy or coma. Sulks. — Nostalgia ; homesickness. This term is principally used with refer- ence to African slaves. Variola. Small-pox. Vermifuge. — Worm-destroving. INDEX. Section. Section. Abelmoschns, . 169 Apples, dried, . . 67 Abuses, . 78 Argemone, . 166 Acacia, . 177 Aracese, 213, 220 Accidental shooting, . . 242 Aro, .... . 214 Acclimation, . 277 Aromatic drinks. 20, 70, 105 Acid, sulphhydric, . 20 Arrowroot, . 220 Acidulous drinks, . 106 Articulata, . . 149 Aconitum, . . 156 Artificial respiration. . 36 Acorn coffee, 72, 105 Arum, . 214 Admiral's cabin. 5 Asclepias, . . 192 Adulteration of liquors, . 101 Asimina, . . 164 Advance pay, . 31 Asparagus, . 216 Aerating apparatus, . . 95 Asafcetida, . . 190 Air, impure. 224, 286 Asters, . 194 Air necessary for respiratic )n, . 225 Atmosphere, 78,80 Air-ports, . . 224 Atropa, . 204 Airing clotlies, . . 236 Atropia, . 201 Albatross, . . 135 Attoley, . 109 Alcohol in pharmacy, . 101 Aurantiacere, . 170 Alcoholic drinks. 99, 104 Aves, .... . 131 Alimentation, . 106 Ayigato, . 205 Alkekengi, . 204 Bachelor's pear, . 204 Allspice, . . 183 Bacon, . 113 Alligator pear, . . 205 Bakers, . 63 Almonds, . . 181 Balize, . 244 Alum, 87,92 Barbadoes, . 246 Ambulance corps, . 241 Barbarisms, 13, 308 American Indians, . 52 Barrels, 11,97 Ammonia in rain-water, . 86 Batata, . 200 Ammoniac, . 190 Batavia, . . 256 Amphibious carnivora. . 126 Battle, prepare for, . . 240 Amusements, 54, 59 Beans, . . . 1 5, 118, 176 Amygdalus, . 181 Bear meat. . 122 Anacardiaceaj, . . 172 Bee-stinging, . 150 Animal food, . 129 Beef, .... . 128 Animal matter, . . 284 Beef, dried, . 112 Animalcular theory, . . 298 Beef in fat. . 114 Amnacete, anone. 160, 164 Beef, poisonous, . . 128 Anthem is, . . 194 Beef, salted. . 64 Antidote, Bibron's, . . 142 Beer, .... . 100 Antiscorbutics, Belladonna, . 204 68, 75, 107, 114, 1'. >6, 202, 264 Bencoolen, . . 256 Aloe, .... . 214 Bengal, . 256 Apetala, . 205 Berries, . 196 Apocynese, . . 192 Berth-deck, 6 Apoplexy, splenic. . 128 Berth-deck, cleaning, . 232 266 INDEX. Section. Section Bibron's antidote, . 142 Cassava, . . . 209 Bilge pumps, 15, 19 Cassia, . . . . . 178 Bilge-water, 15, 20, 24 Castor oil, . . . . . 206 Bilge-water remedy, . 15, 21 Catalysis, . . . . . 302 Birds, sea, . . . . . 135 Cats for food. . 124 Bitartrate of potassa, . . 108 Cedar, . . . . . 211 Bittersweet, . 202 Celandine, . . • . . 166 Black nightshade. . 203 Celery, . . . . . 190 Black paint, . 28 Centipede, . . . . . 150 Black snake-root, . 157 Cephaelis, . . . . . 191 Black vomit. . 257 Cerbera, . . . . . 192 Bladder fish, . 144 Cetacea, . . . . . 130 Blindness, . . 66 Chain lockers, . . 12 Blood-root, . 166 Chamomile, . 194 Blower, . . . . . 145 Cheerful influences, . 22 2, 243, 308 Blueberries, . 196 Chelidonia, . 166 Boarding-houses, . 31 Chelonia, . . . . . 138 Boat duty, . . . . . 256 Cherimaya, . 163 Boat expeditions, . 242 Cherry, ground, . . 204 Boneset, . 194 Cherry, Jerusalem, . . 203 Boston water, . 87 Clierrv, winter, . . 204 Botanic medicine. . 195 Chilblains,. . 237 Botany, . 153 Chloride of zinc, 21,23 Brackish water, . 25,87 Chloride of lime. . 21 Brandy, . 101 Chloride of soda, . 21 Brass-work, . 26 Chocolate, . 60, 70, 105 Bread, . 63 Cholera infantum. . 272 Breakfast, . . 78 Cicuta, . 190 Brick cisterns, . . 96 Cider, . 100 Brig clearing, . 308 Cimicifiiga, . 157 Briony, , 188 Cinchona, . . 191 Bromeliaceae, . 214 Cincinnati custard apple, . 164 Bronchocele, . 269 Cinnamon, . . 205 Bugbane, . . 157 Cirrhosis, . . 104 Bumboats, . . 221 Cisterns, . 96 Butter, . 74 Cisterns, leaden. . 98 Buttercups, . 154 Citric acid, 108, 265 Cabbage, . . 167 CitruUus, . . 188 Cabin, 4 Citrus, . 170 Cactus, . 184 Clams, . 148 Caffeine, . 71 Cleaning, . . 232 Calabar bean, . 192 Cleanliness, 259, 276 Calamari, . . 146 Clematis, . . 154 Camel, . 129 Clifton water, . 89 Camphor, . . 205 Climate, sudden changes o f, 237,239 Canned meats, . . 116 Clothes, . . 55 Cantharis, . . 149 Clothes, mending, . 59 Canvas-back duck. . 134 Cloves, . 183 Cape de Yerde Islands, . 287 Coal ashes. . 23 Capparis, . . 168 Cockles, . 148 Caps, .... . 237 Cofl'ee,^ _ . _ . 62, 70, 191 Capsicum, . . 202 Coffee imitations. 72, 105 Carai, yams, . 215 Coffee-making, . 72, 237 Carica papaya, . . 189 Coffee traffic. . 78 Carnivora, . . 121 Colchicum, . 217 Carnivora, amphibious, . 126 Colocvnth, . . 188 Carrot, . 190 Color; . 28 Caryophyllus, . . 183 Commendations, . 308 Cashew, . 173 Commission, out of, . . 238 Casks, 11, 97 ComposiUe, . 194 INDEX. 267 Section. Section. Conduct record, . . 222 Dioscorea, . . 215 Conc-estive fever, . 263 Dirt, . 9, 11, 14, 17, 21, 26, 236, 259 C'onif'oriP, . . . . . 211 Disappointment, . 238 C'oniuin, . . . . . 190 Discharge, honorable, 32, 222 Consumption, . 232 Discipline, . 308 Contagion, . • . .27 9, 293, 297 Disinfectants, 21, 71, 290 Contagious diseases, . 27 9, 284, 291 Distillation of sea-water, . 95 Convicts . 32 Distilling apparatus, . . 63 Convolvulus, . 200 Dogbanes, . . 192 Cooking utensils, . 26 Dogs as food. . 123 Copaiferse, . . . . . 177 Dorema, . 190 Copper, . . . . 26,98 Drainage, . . 15 Coptis, . 157 Dress, . 55 Cots, . 142 Dress, faults of, . . 57 Courts-martial, . . 32 Dress of officers, . 58 Courts, summary, . 308 Dress of sailors, . 55 Cowhage, . . . . . 179 Dried apples. . 62 Crabs, _ . . . . . 151 Dried beef. . 112 Cranberries, . . (j 9,118,196 Dried fruits. 62, 67 Cream of tartar. . 108 Drinking, moderate, . . 104 Cresses, . . . . . 167 Drinks, acidulous. . 106 Cretinism, . . . . . 270 Drinks, alcoholic. . 199 Crew, . . . . 33, 70 Drinks, aromatic. 20, 70, 105 Crocodiles, . 142 Drinks, farinaceous, . . 109 Croton oil, . . . . . 208 Drip-stone, . 93 Croton water, . 87 Drowning, . . . 3^ , 36, 37, 38 Crowd poison, . . 82 Drowning, resuscitation, 36,36 Crowding, . . . . . 49 Drunkard's bloat, . 210 Cruciferfe, . . . . . 167 Drunkard's breath, etc., . 104 Crustaceans, . 151 Drunkenness, . . i 52, 105, 222 Cryptogamia, . 219 Drving-stoves, . . 123 Cryptogamic theory, . . 299 Ducks, . 134 Cucumbers, 68, 188 Duff, .... 65, 69 Cucurbita, 188, 220 Dugong, . . 130 Culpee fever, . 256 Dulcamara, . 202 Cummerbund, . 56 Dynamometer, . . 34 Cura9oa, . 246 Dysentery, . . 56, 225 Currants, . . 118 Dysentery, malarial, . . 87 Custard apples, . 160, 164 Echinus esculentus, . . 152 Cutaneous exhalations, 225, 285 Eddos, eddas,' . 214 Cycas, . 212 Efficiency, . . 222 Darnel, . 218 Egg plant, . . 202 Date, . 62 Eggs, ... 132, 136 Date fish, . . . . . 148 Eiaterium, . . 188 Datura, . . . . . 204 Elements, . . 79 Daturia, . . . . . 201 Elephant, . . 129 Death presentiment, . . 53 Elephantiasis, . . 271 Death, sudden, . . 267 Emys, palustris. . 140 Decimals, . . 312 Endemic diseases. Decks, wet, , 232 252, 257, 2( 51, 268, 297 Delphinium, . 157 Endogena, . . 203 Desiccated vegetables. 77, 112 Engine-room, . 10 Desiccated potato, . 77 Enthetic, . . 283 Desiccation, . 67 Entozoa, . 152 Desiccation in vacuo, . 112 Epidemic influences, , . 247, 250 Destination, uncertain, . 238 Epidemics, . 225, 227, 2, 55, 246, 278 Detroit water, . . 87 Epidemics, causes of, . 2- 19, 297, 302 Digitalis, . . * . . 198 Epidemics, laws of, . . 250 Dinner, . 78 Ergot, . 306 Diodon Capensis, . 144 Ericaceae, . . 196 268 INDEX. Section. section. Erysipelas, . . 225, 285, 292 Fuligula erytlirocephala, . . 134 Erysipelas, contagious, . 294 Fungi, . 219 Erysipelas, prevention of, . . 296 Gallapagos turtle. . 141 Eschscholtzia, . . 166 Galley below. . 63, 228 Eupatorium, . 194 Gallinaceous birds, . 132 Euphorbiaceffi, . 206, 220 Gambia fevers, . . 256 Exhalations, cutaneous. 225, 285 Gamgee, . . 128 Exogena, .... . 153 Garcenia, . . 174 Farina, .... 206, 209 Garden for salad. . 119 Farinaceous drinks, . . 109 Gaultheria, . 196 Fast, protracted. . 109 Geese, . 134 Fastidious appetites, . . 72 Geranium, . 171 Fat, . Ill Germ theory. . 301 Felis borealis, . 124 Glaucium, . 166 Ferns, .... . 219 Glumacea, . 218 Ferula, .... . 190 Glycyrrhiza, . 177 Fever, congestive, . 253 Goitre, . 269 Fever, jail. . 287 Goldthread, . 157 Fever, marsh, . . 244, 246, 253 Gossypium, . 169 Fever, typhoid, . . 291 Grallse, . 134 Figs, . 62 Granadillas, . 187 Filiaria, .... 152, 274 Grass, 214, 218 Filters, .... . 93 Grasslaoppers, . . 149 Filtration, .... . 92 Gratings for hatches. 7 Firearms, accidents from, . . 242 Green paint, . 28 Fish, . 143 Green turtle. . 139 Fish, poisonous, . 144 Ground cherry, . . 204 Fixed ideas. . 53 Guava, . 183 Flag hoisting, . . 30 Guinea-worm, . 152, 274 Flannel belt, . 56 Gulf Stream, . 237 Flannel clothing. . 56 Gumbo, . 169 Flat-bottomed ships, . . 18 Gun-deck, . 5 Flogging abolished, . . 32 Gymnosperma, . . 211 Floor of the shij). . 18 Habits of sailors. . 222 Flour, .... . 65 Hair of the dog. . 105 Food,. ... 61 , 79, 110 Hall, Marshall, . . 37 Food adulterations, . . 73 Hammock, 14,42 Food, fresh, . . 118, 245, 264 Hams, 1' 13, 275, 297 Food, preservation of. . 110 Haras, poisonous. . 275 Food, preservation by cold, . 117 Hard bread. 63 Food, preservation by drying , . 112 Hardships, 50 Food preserved by exclusion of Hare, 124 air, .... . 116 Hats, straw, 57 Food preserved by oil. . 114 Hatteras, . 206 Food preserved by salt. . Ill Havana, . 236 Food preserved by smoking. . 113 Havana to New Yort J 237 Food preserved by molasses. . 115 Haversack, 240 Food preserved by vinegar. . 115 Hawksbill turtle. 138 Food, variety of. . 264 Heat, excessive, . 10 Food, wholesome. . 264 Heaths, 196 Forecastle, 4 Hellebore, black, 155 Foxglove, .... . 198 Hellebore, wiiite, 217 Fractures on sliipboard. . 47 Hematoxylum, . 177 Frencli conscripts. . 52 Hemlock, poisonous. 190 Fresh bread. . 63 Henbane, . 204 Fresh provisions, . 118, 245, 264 Hepatica, . 154 Fruits, .... 62, 67 Herbivorous cetacean s, 134 P'ruits, canned, . . 116 Herrings in oil, ' . 114 Fruits, dried. 67, 102 Hetstadt poisoning, . 276 Fruits, fresh, . 69 Hides, 14 INDEX. 2G9 Section. Section. Hippomane, . 210 Key West, . . 257 Ho.,^ . . . 129, 176 Kingston, Jamaica, . . 246 Hold, 9,11 Kino, . 177 Hold stowage, . . 11 Labiatse, . . 198 Holystoning, . 232 Lactucarium, . 194 Home news, . 245 Lamantin, . . 130 Homesickness, . . 32 Landsmen, . 33 Homesickness, prevention of, . 54 Laplander, . 52 Home, up anchor for. . 236 Larkspur, . . 157 Honey bee. . 150 Laurel, . 205 Honorable discharge. 32, 222 Laurel, sheep, . 133, 196 Horse-flesh, . 127, 129 Lausen epidemic. . 301 Horse-radish, . 167 Laziness, caution. . 267 Hospitals, . 13, 14 Lead, .... 26, 98 Hospital gangrene. . 285, 292 Leaky ships. . 15 Hospital gangrene, preven tion of, 296 Leathery turtle, . . 138 Hura, . 210 Leguminosse, . 176 Hurricane deck. 4 Lemon family, . . 170 Hydatids, . . 127 Lemon-juice, 68, 108 Hydropathy, . 83 Lemonade, . . 170 Hydrophobia, . 156, 279 Lettuce, . 194 Hydrosulphuric acid. . 20 Leviticus (xxi, 20 ; xxii, 2 2), . 261 Hyoscyamia, . 201 Leviticus (xiii, 2, 3, 4, 1 I, 13; Hyoscyamus, . 204 XV), . 282 Ice, .... . 117, 245 Lewd women, . 283 Iguana, . 142 Liberty on shore. 32, 222 Ilex, .... . 71 Lilies, . 216 Illicium, . . 158 Limbers, . 17 Improvement of sailors, . 31 Lime-juice, 68, 78, 265 Impulse, generous, . 223 Lime-juice, preserved, . 108 Impure air, . 224, 249 Limeiras, . . 272 Impure habits, . . 222 Limestone-water, . 89 Impure water, . . 89 Lind on malaria, . 256 Indian physic, . . 182 Liriodendron, . . 159 Indian turnip, . . 214 Liverwort, . . 154 Indigo, . 180 Lizards, . 142 Influenza, . . 246 Lobelia, . 195 Infusoria, . . 152 Lobsters, . . 151 Insects, . 149 Lockers, chain, . . 12 Inspectors, sanitary, . . 288 Loganiacese, . 192 Intermittents, 87, 253 Loggerhead turtle. . 138 Intoxication, . 104 Logwood, . . 177 Invalids, . . 33 Loligo vulgaris, . . 146 Ipecacuanha, . 191 Lolium, . 218 Ipomaa, . 200 London water, . . 87 Iron, .... . 25 Long ships, . 19 Iron ships. 25, 27 Lungs, . 80 Iron tank, . 11, 25, 96 Lycopersicum, . . 202 Itch, .... . 281 Lynx, . 124 Jail fever, . . 287 Madagascar, . 256 Jails, .... . 82 Madder, . . , . . 191 Jalap, . 200 Magazines, 9, 35, 40 Jamestown weed. . 204 Magnolia, . . . . . 158 Jatropha, . . . . 206, 209 Main hold. . 11 Jerked beef, . 112 Malaria, . 244 Jerusalem cherrv. . 203 Malaria in new soil, . . 256 Job (xx, 11), ■. . 282 Malaria, Lind on, . 256 Juniper, . 211 Malaria only active at nigl t, . 254 Kalmia, . 133, 196 Malarial fevers. 246, 253 Kalo, . 214 Malarial fevers at Pensaco' a, . 256 270 Malarial fevers, laws of, Malarial fevers, prev Mallows, Man overboard, . MaiKjanilla, Manihot, Manioca, Mangosteen, Marines, Marsh fever, Marsh-water, Marshall Hall, . Materials of construction, Maypops, . Meals, Measles, Meat, dried. Meat in oil. Meat in vinegar, Meat, preserved. Meat, salted. Meat, smoked, . Meconopsis, Medical survey, . Medical topography, Melanthacese, Meletta, Melongena, Melons, Mending day, . Merchant ships. Mess fund, Metals, Microscopes, Midshipmen, Mifflin, Fort, . Milk sickness, . Milk weeds. Mineral waters, . Mint, . _ . Mississippi Passes, Mittens, Molasses, . MoUusks, . Monkshood, Monopetala, Moral influences. Morbus pedicularis, Morellos, . Morning glory, . Morning work, . Mortality, average, Mud, . ■ . Mud turtles, Mucuna, Mullein, Muscular power, Muskrat, Mushrooms, Mussels, Mustard, . INDEX. Section. Section. . 254 Mustard family. . 167 2o5, 256 Mutton, . . . . . 128 . 1(59 Myroxylon, . 177 . 35 Myrtus, . . . . . 183 . 210 Nasturtium, . 167 20(5, 209 Nausea, . . . . . 43 163, 174 Naval hospital, . . 237 . 30 Nicotiana, . . . . . 204 . 253 Nicotine, . . . . . 201 87, 105 Nightshade, black, . . 203 . 37 Nightsliade, deadly, . . 204 20,25 Nitrate of lead, . 21,23 . 187 Nitrogen, . 216, 284 . 78 Nitrogen compounds, . 74 225, 280 Nostalgia, . . . . . 52 . 112 Nostalgia, prevention of, . . 54 . 114 Numbers (xxv). . 283 . 115 Nourishment, deficient. . 287 77 Nutriment, . 79 . Ill Nutrition, . 79,82 . Ill Nux vomica. . 192 . 166 Oatmeal, . 109 . 33 Objections answered, . 63,78 . 236 Ocean, . 40 . 214 Oesophagus, stricture. . 272 . 144 Ofiensive cargo, . . 14 . 202 Officer, executive, . 227 . 188 Oil, castor, . . 207 . 59 Oil-cloth, floor, . . 232 . 14 Oil, croton. . 208 . 62 Okra, . 169 . 25 Onion, . 216 . 301 Opuntia, . . 185 . 222 Orange, , 170 . 40 Ordeal nut. . 192 . 273 Organic matter, . . 74 . 192 Orlop deck. 7 . 88 Outfit, . 1,48 . 199 Ovens, . 63 . 244 Overboard, . 35 . 237 Oxycoccus, . 197 . 76 Oxygen in respiration. . 225 . 146 Oysters, . 148 . 156 Pachydermata, . 127, 129 . 191 Painting, . . 27 48,57 Palm trees. . 213 . 281 Palmipedes, . 134 . 204 Pandemonium, . . 222 . 200 Papaver, . . 166 . 78 Paraguay tea. . 71, 105 . 227 Parsley, . 190 . 12 Parsnips, . . 190 . 140 Partridge berry. . 196 . 179 Passerines, . 131 . 198 Passifiora, . . 187 . 34 Patclung, . . 59 . 129 Paulinia, . . 71, 105 . 219 Pawpaw, . . 189 . 148 Pear, baclielor's, . 204 . 62 Pemmican, . 114 INDEX. 271 Section. Section. Pen'C', Sqiiasli, Squill, St. Thomas fever, Staggers, . Stagnant water, . Star aniseed, Staterooms, Statisties, medical, Stavesacre, . Steanisliips, Stop-cocks, Store-rooms, Stoves, drying, . Stowage of hold, Stramonium, Strong drink, Strychnia, . Sugar, Sugar canes, Sulks, Sulphate of iron, Sulphide of hydrogen Sumac fomily, . Sunmiary courts, Sumter, a piratical vessel Sunflower, . Supper, Surinam, . Sweat boxes. Sweet potatoes, . Swiss, Sylvester's method, Syphraena becuna. Syphilis, Syphilis, how avoided Tanks, iron. Tape-worm, Tapioca, Tar, . Tarantismus, Tare, . Tartaric acid, Tea, . . Tea-making, Temperature, sudden clian Terrapins, . Test of ventilation, Testudo, Theine, . Theories, . Thirst, Thornapple, Timothv (iv, 23), Toad fish, . Toadstools, Tobacco, Tolu balsam. 20, 87 Section. . 2.S7 ,SS . 2U(; . 188 . 21G . ^Sti 273 105 158 () . 307 . 157 . 10 . 10 . 7, 8 . 232 . 11 128, 204 99, 104 . 192 . 70 . 218 252, 254 . 21 . 20 . 172 32, 308 . 24(5 . 194 . 78 . 304 . 13 . 200 . 52 . 38 . 144 . 282 . 283 11, 25, 96 . 127 206, 209 . 29 . 277 . 214 . 118 62, 70, 105 . 71 es. 237, 239 . 140 . 227 . 141 . 71 . 297 . 84 . 204 . 100 . 144 . 219 60, 204 . 177 152, Si'Ctiiiii. . 202 . 808 . 240 . 241 . 236 297 127, 275 . 246 . 219 . 159 . 132 . 167 . 138 87, 275 2, 225, 284 . 286 . 288 mtine, 290 . 190 Tomato, Tortures, barbarous, . Tourniquet, Transportation of woundci Treason, Trichina spiralis, . 12 Trichinosis, Trinidad de ('ul)a. Truffle, Tulip poplar, Turkey, Turnip, Turtle, Tvphoid fever, . TVphus, ... 8 Typhus, causes of. Typhus, prevention, Typhus, prevention by quar Umbelliferve, Undershirts, Undrawn rations. Upas, Uvaria, Vagabondism, . Vapor of tar, Varnish, Vegetable decomposition. Vegetables, fresh. Venereal disease. Venomous serpents, . Ventilation, Ventilation bellows, . Ventilation, defective Ventilation fan, . Ventilation flues. Ventilation by fires, , Ventilation by heat of engine, Ventilation by sjiils, Ventilation, improvement. Ventilation in calm weathc Ventilation, neglected. Ventilation of clothing. Ventilation of hold. Ventilation of lower deck; Ventilation of orlop. Ventilation of sailing ship: Ventilation of spirit-room Ventilation of steamers, Ventilation windsails. Ventilator, Wittig, . Vera Cruz, Veratrum, . Verbascum, Vermifuge, Verrugas, . Vin de campagne, . . . 108 Vinegar, . . . 68, 77, 107 Vines, 175 Virchow, 298 Virgin's bower 154 . 56 . 62 . 192 . 164 . 50 . 29 . 172 . 20 . 62 222, 282 . 142 224, 226, 286 . 229 . 227 230, 231 8,228 228, 229 228 226 . 228 . 227 229, 231 . 286 11, 228, 231 . 228 . 228 . 226 . 231 . 228 . 227 . 229 221 '. 217 . 198 rO, 193 18 274 INDEX. Section. Section. Vitis vinifera, . 175 Weights and measures, Appendix, 310 Walnuts, .... 118 Well water. . 89 Walrus beef, 126 Whales, . 130 Wardroom, 6 Whisky, . 77,99 Water, .... 83 Whisky, useful, . . 101 Water, aeration. 95 White "bloat, . 104 Water, bilge. 20 White paint. . 28 Water birds. 134 Whortleberries, . . 196 Water, boiled, ... 9 4, 274 Wind, . 225 Water, brackish, 25,87 Windsails, . . 227 W^ater casks. 11 Wine, 99, 175 Water, Clifton, . 89 Wine, acid. . 108 Water, Croton, etc., . 87 Wine, adulterations, . . 103 Water, distilled, 63, 95 Wine, medicinally, . . 100 Water-drinkers, 85 W^ine, of good quality. . 103 Water filters. 93 Wine, socially, . . 104 Water, in brick cisterns, . 96 W^olfsbane, . 156 Water, in lead, . 98 Wood, . 20 Water, in iron, . 96 W^oodcock, . 131 Water, in wooden casks, . . 97 Wooden water cases, . . 97 Water, limestone, 89 Woody nightshade, . . 202 Water, marsh, ... 9 0,105 Woorari, . . 192 Water, mineral, . 88 Worm tea, . Water, muddy, . 244 Worms, ." 149 Water, of large cities, 87 Wounded men, . . 240 Water, of sand islands, . i 1,243 Wounded men, transportat ion , . 241 Water, proportion in tissues. 84 Wounds, gunshot, . 242 Water, purification, . 92 Yams, 118, 215 Water, rain. 86 Yellow fever, 10, 221, 236, 246, 257, 301 Water, river. '87,9 2,244 Yellow fever at Norfolk, etc.. . 257 Water, sea. 20 Yellow fever, laws of develop- Water, selection, 85,91 ment. . 257 Water, snow, 86 Yellow fever, no t contagious. . 257 Water, spring, . 88 Yeoman, . 7 Water, stagnant. ". 9 0, 105 Zamia, . 212 Water tanks, 11,25 Zenker, . 298 Water, well, 89 Zinc, . . 98 Watermelon, , . 188 Zymotic theory, . 301 14 DAY USE RETURN TO^DESK FROM WHIQl BORROWED This book is due on J^lJpt Ma^smmpeJrbelow, or on the da» toHf hichKiw^^ed J™ Renewed books are stftyJfeCT to-frnfffSffiaflb'^recall. MAY 2 I960 • HV^K.^^^^^Q AUG 1 6 19B5 1? ^ I -^ DUE U DAYS AFTER RECPIP T NON-RENr:WA''^L| IWTEP.L'B^iARY lOA' vl JULl3|dB6 AUG 3 1965 OCT 2 6 1965 rt '- Mrf7(\ ^OV 25 WU NUV 2 71970 i ) LD 21-50m-6,'59 (A2845sl0)476 General Library University of California Berkeley