A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Volume Ii Part 28

Yes, _Ai_, '_Ee_o, _Ai_, '_Ee_o, 'Elo, s. _Ee_o, s. oe.

You, Oe, Oe.

One, A'Tahay, Katta'ha_ee_, Atta'ha_ee_, Ta'ha_ee_,

Ts_ee_'ka_ee_, R_ee_d_ee_, Wag_ee'ai_ng.

Two, E'R_oo_a, 'Rooa, A'ooa, E'ooa, E'ry, 'Karoo, 'Waroo.

Three, 'Ter_oo_, 'Tor_oo_, A'tor_oo_, 'Tor_oo_, E'r_ei_, 'Kahar, Wat_ee_ en.

Four, A'Haa, 'Haa, s. Faa, A'faa, A'faa, E'bats, 'K_ai_phar, Wam'ba_ee_k.

Five, E'R_ee_ma, 'R_ee_ma, A'_ee_ma, 'N_ee_ma, E'r_ee_m, 'Kr_ee_rum, Wannim.

Six, A'ono, 'Hon_oo_, A'ono, Ts_oo_'ka_ee_, Ma'r_ee_d_ee_, Wannim-g_ee_ek.

Seven, A'H_ei_too, 'H_ee_d_oo_, A'wh_ee_t_oo_, G_oo_y, Ma'kar_oo_, Wannim'n_oo_.

Eight, A'war_oo_, 'Var_oo_, A'wa_oo_, H_oo_rey, Ma'kahar, Wannim'g_ai_n.

Nine, A'_ee_va, H_ee_va, A'_ee_va, G_oo_dbats, Ma'k_ai_phar, Wannim'ba_ee_k.

Ten, A'h_oo_r_oo_, Atta'h_oo_r_oo_, s. Anna'h_oo_r_oo_, Wannah_oo_, s. Wanna'h_oo_e, Senearr, Ma'kr_ee_rum, Wann_oo_'n_ai_uk.

(Footnote re similarity of the languages)--omiited by ebook producer.

LETTER FROM JOHN IBBETSON, ESQ.

Secretary to the Commissioners of Longitude, T0 Sir JOHN PRINGLE, Baronet, P.R.S.

SIR,

The Earl of Sandwich, and the other Commissioners for the Discovery of Longitude at Sea, etc. who were present at a late meeting at this place, having expressed to you a desire that the very learned and ingenious Discourse upon some late Improvements of the Means for preserving the Health of Mariners, which was delivered by you at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society, on the 30th of November last might, with Captain Cook's Paper therein referred to, be printed, and annexed to the Account of the Astronomical and Philosophical Observations made in the course of the said Captain Cook's late voyages which account is preparing for the press, under their direction; and it having been since thought more proper that the said Discourse and Paper should be annexed to the Second Volume of the Account of that Voyage, which is shortly to be published, by order of the Board of Admiralty, I have, therefore, the direction of the Earl of Sandwich, First Commissioner of that Board, as well as of the Board of Longitude, to acquaint you therewith, and to desire you will please to permit your said Discourse, with the Paper therein referred to, to be printed, and annexed to the Second Volume of the Account of the said Voyage accordingly.

I am, with great Regard and Esteem,

SIR,

Your most obedient humble Servant,

ADMIRALTY, March 15, 1777.

JOHN IBBETSON.

A DISCOURSE UPON SOME LATE IMPROVEMENTS OF THE MEANS FOR PRESERVING THE HEALTH OF MARINERS.

DELIVERED AT THE Anniversary Meeting of the ROYAL SOCIETY, November 30, 1776.

By Sir JOHN PRINGLE, Baronet, PRESIDENT,

CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR.

GENTLEMEN,

Before we proceed further in the business of this day, permit me to acquaint you with the judgment of your Council, in the disposal of Sir G.o.dfrey Copley's medal; an office I have undertaken at their request, and with the greater satisfaction, as I am confident you will be no less unanimous in giving your approbation, than they have been in addressing you for it upon this occasion. For though they were not insensible of the just t.i.tle that several of the Papers, composing the present volume of your Transactions, had to your particular notice, yet they did not hesitate in preferring that which I presented to you from Captain Cook, giving An account of the method he had taken to preserve the health of the crew of his Majesty's ship the Resolution during her late voyage round the world*. Indeed I imagine that the name alone of so worthy a member of this society would have inclined you to depart from the strictness of your rules, by conferring upon him that honour, though you had received no direct communication from him; considering how meritorious in your eyes that person must appear, who hath not only made the most extensive, but the most instructive voyages; who hath not only discovered, but surveyed, vast tracts of new coasts; who hath dispelled the illusion of a terra australis incognita, and fixed the bounds of the habitable earth, as well as those of the navigable ocean, in the southern hemisphere.

[* The paper itself, read at the Society in March last, with an extract of a letter from Captain Cook to the President, dated Plymouth, the 7th of July following, are both subjoined to this discourse.]

I shall not, however, expatiate on that ample field of praise, but confine my discourse to what was the intention of this honorary premium, namely, to crown that Paper of the year which should contain the most useful and most successful experimental inquiry. Now what inquiry can be so useful as that which hath for its object the saving the lives of men?

And when shall we find one more successful than that before us? Here are no vain boastings of the empiric, nor ingenious and delusive theories of the dogmatist; but a concise, an artless, and an incontested relation of the means, by which, under the Divine favour, Captain Cook, with a company of an hundred and eighteen men*, performed a voyage of three years and eighteen days, throughout all the climates, from fifty-two degrees north, to seventy-one degrees south, with the loss of only one man by a distemper**. What must enhance to us the value of these salutary observations, is to see the practice hath been no less simple than efficacious.

[* There were on board, in all, one hundred and eighteen men, including M. Sparrman, whom they took in at the Cape of Good Hope.]

[** This was a phthisis pulmonalis terminating in a dropsy. Mr. Patten, surgeon to the Resolution, who mentioned to me this case, observed that this man began so early to complain of a cough and other consumptive symptoms, which had never left him, that his lungs must have been affected before he came on board.]

I would now inquire of the most conversant in the study of bills of mortality, whether in the most healthful climate, and in the best condition of life, they have ever found so small a number of deaths in such a number of men, within that s.p.a.ce of time? How great and agreeable then must our surprise be, after perusing the histories of long navigations in former days, when so many perished by marine diseases, to find the air of the sea acquitted of all malignity, and in fine that a voyage round the world may be undertaken with less danger to health than a common tour in Europe!

But the better to see the contrast between the old and the present times, allow me to recal to your memory what you have read of the first voyage for the establishment of the East-India, Company*. The equipment consisting of four ships, with four hundred and eighty men, three of those vessels were so weakened by the scurvy, by the time they had got only three degrees beyond the Line, that the merchants, who had embarked on this adventure, were obliged to do duty as common sailors; and there died in all, at sea, and on sh.o.r.e at Soldania (a place of refreshment on this side the Cape of Good Hope) one hundred and five men, which was near a fourth part of their complement. And hath not Sir Richard Hawkins, an intelligent as well as brave officer, who lived in that age, recorded, that in twenty years, during which be had used the sea, be could give an account of ten thousand mariners who bad been consumed by the scurvy alone**? Yet so far was this author from mistaking the disease, that I have perused few who have so well described it. If then in those early times, the infancy I may call them of the commerce and naval power of England, so many were carried off by that bane of sea-faring people, what must have been the destruction afterwards, upon the great augmentation of the fleet and the opening of so many new ports to the trade of Great Britain, whilst so little advancement was made in the nautical part of medicine!

[* This squadron under the command of LANCASTER (who was called the General) set out in the year 1601. See Purchas's Pilgr. vol. i. p. 147, et seq.]

[** Idem, vol. iv. p. 1373, et seq.]

But pa.s.sing from these old dates to one within the remembrance of many here present, when it might have been expeded that whatever tended to aggrandize the naval power of Britain, and to extend her commerce, would have received the highest improvement; yet we shall find, that even at this late period few measures had been taken to preserve the health of seamen, more than had been known to our uninstructed ancestors. Of this a.s.sertion the victorious, but mournful, expedition of Commodore Anson, affords too convincing a proof. It is well known that soon after pa.s.sing the Streights of Le Maire, the scurvy began to appear in his squadron; that by the time the Centurion had advanced but a little way into the South Sea, forty-seven had died of it in his ship; and that there were few on board who had not, in some degree, been afflicted with the distemper, though they had not been then eight months from England. That in the ninth month, when standing for the island of Juan Fernandez, the Centurion lost double that number; and that the mortality went on at so great a rate (I still speak of the Commodore's ship) that before they arrived there she had buried two hundred; and at last could muster no more than six of the the common men in a watch capable of doing duty.

This was the condition of one of the three ships which reached that island; the other two suffered in proportion.

Nor did the tragedy end here for after a few months respite the same fatal sickness broke out afresh, and made such havock, that before the Centurion (which now contained the whole surviving crew of the three ships) had got to the island of Tinian, there died sometimes eight or ten in a day; insomuch that when they had been only two years on their voyage, they had lost a larger proportion than of four in five of their original number; and, by the account of the historian, all of them, after their entering the South Sea, of the scurvy. I say by the account of the elegant writer of this voyage; for as he neither was in the medical line himself, nor hath authenticated this part of his narrative by appealing to the surgeons of the ship or their journals, I should doubt that this was not strictly the case; but rather, that in producing this great mortality, a pestilential kind of distemper was joined to the scurvy, which, from the places where it most frequently occurs, hath been distinguished by the name of jail or hospital-fever*. But whether the scurvy alone, or this fever combined with it, were the cause, it is not at present material to inquire, since both, arising from foul air and other sources of putrefaction, may now in a great measure be obviated by the various means fallen upon since Lord Anson's expedition. For in justice to that prudent as well as brave commander, it must be observed that the arrangements preparatory to his voyage were not made by himself; that his ship was so deeply laden as not to admit of opening the gun-ports, except in the calmest weather, for the benefit of air; and that nothing appears to have been neglected by him, for preserving the health of his men, that was then known and practised in the navy.

[* Dr. Mead, who had seen the original observations of two of Commodore Anson's surgeons, says, that the scurvy at that time was accompanied with putrid fevers, etc. See his Treatise on the Scurvy, p. 98. et seq.]

I should now proceed to enumerate the chief improvements made since that period, and which have enabled our ships to make so many successful circ.u.mnavigations, as in a manner to efface the impression of former disasters; but as I have mentioned the sickness most destructive to mariners, and against the ravages of which those preservatives have been mainly contrived, it may be proper briefly to explain its nature, and the rather as, unless among mariners, it is little understood. First then, I would observe that the scurvy is not the ailment which goes by that name on sh.o.r.e. The distemper commonly, but erroneously, in this place, called the scurvy, belongs to a cla.s.s of diseases totally different from what we are now treating of; and so far is the commonly received opinion, that there are few constutions altogether free from a s...o...b..tic taint, from being true, that unless among sailors and some others circ.u.mstanced like them, more particularly with respect to those who use a salt and putrid diet, and especially if they live in foul air and uncleanliness, I have reason to believe there are few disorders less frequent. This opinion I submitted to the judgment of the society several years ago, and I have had no reason since to alter it. I then said, contrary to what was generally believed, but seemingly on the best grounds, that the sea-air was never the cause of the scurvy, since on board a ship, on the longest voyages, cleanliness, ventilation, and fresh provisions, would preserve from it; and that upon a sea-coast, free from marshes, the inhabitants were not liable to that indisposition, though frequently breathing the air from the sea*. I concluded with joining in sentiments with those who ascribed the scurvy to a septic resolution, that is a beginning corruption of the whole habit, similar to that of every animal substance when deprived of life**. This account seemed to be sufficiently verified by the examination of the symptoms in the s...o...b..tic sick, and of the appearances in their bodies after death***. On that occasion I remarked, that salted meats after some time become in effect putrid, though they may continue long palatable by means of the salt; and that common salt, supposed to be one of the strongest preservatives from corruption, is at best but an indifferent one, even in a large quant.i.ty; and in a small one, such as we use at table with fresh meats, or swallow in meats that have been salted, so far from impeding putrefaction, it rather promotes that process in the body.

[* Diseases of the Army, part I. ch. 2. Append. Pap. 7.]

[** Woodall's Surgeon's Mate, p. 163. Poupart. Mem. de l'Acad. R. des Sc.

A. 1'99. Pet.i.t. Mal. des Os, tom. II.p. 446. Mead on the Scurvy, p. 104.]

This position concerning the putrefying quality of sea-salt, in certain proportions, hath been since confirmed by the experiments of the late Mr.

Canton, Fellow of this Society, in his Paper on the Cause of the luminous appearance of sea-water*.

[* Phil. Transact. vol. lix. p. 446.]

It hath been alleged, that the scurvy is much owing to the coldness of the air, which checks perspiration, and on that account is the endemic distemper of the northern nations, particularly of those around the Baltic*. The fact is partly true, but I doubt not so the cause. In those regions, by the long and severe winters, the cattle dest.i.tute of pasture can barely live, and are therefore unfit for use; so that the people, for their provision during that season, are obliged to slaughter them by the end of autumn, and to salt them for above half the year. This putrid diet then, on which they must subsist so long, and to which the inhabitants of the south are not reduced, seems to be the chief cause of the disease.

And if we reflect that the lower people of the north have few or no greens nor fruit in the winter, scarce any fermented liquors, and often live in damp, foul, and ill-aired houses, it is easy to conceive how they should become liable to the same distemper with seamen; whilst others of as high a lat.i.tude, but who live in a different manner, keep free from it. Thus we are informed by Linnaeus, that the Laplanders, one of the most hyperborean nations, know nothing of the scurvy*; for which no other reason can be a.s.signed than their never eating salted meats, nor indeed salt with any thing, but their using all the winter the fresh flesh of their rain-deer.

[* Bartholin. Med. Danor. Domestic p. 98.]