An essay addressed to captains of the Royal Navy, and those of the merchant's service; on the means of preserving the health of their crews: with directions for the prevention of dry rot in ships / By Robert Finlayson.

  • Finlayson, Robert (Surgeon in the Royal Navy)
Date:
[1825]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay addressed to captains of the Royal Navy, and those of the merchant's service; on the means of preserving the health of their crews: with directions for the prevention of dry rot in ships / By Robert Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    AN E S S A Y. ——aB8K aaBtaMBBBMMMM—w—> PROEMIAL OBSERVATIONS. On taking a retrospective view of the progress of Nautical Medi¬ cine, one cannot help being struck with the rapid improvements which have taken place in Medical Science, within the last forty years, in the Royal Navy. During the first American war, and down to the beginning of the late French war. Sea-scurvy made such dreadful ravages in our fleets, as frequently to enervate the arm of Power j and it was not uncommon in those days, to find 300 men at once on the sick-list of a line of battle ship ; and as many as 250 men have actu¬ ally died in the short space of one year, by this prevailing malady. Hence, it was justly observed, by some of the most experienced officers, “ that the blockading system of warfare, which annihilated the naval power of France, could never have been carried on, unless sea-scurvy had been subdued ; and more than one hundred thousand British seamen have thus been saved to the country, by as many thousand pounds.” Shortly after this disease was subjected in the royal navy, an¬ other very remarkable era took place in the Medical Department, which considerably changed the character and quality of the naval medical officers: viz. the late Lord Viscount Melville, by his generous interposition with Government, obtained an Order in Council, dated the 23d January, 1805, to give the medical officers of the royal navy the same rank and pay as their brethren in the army j and, from that period, better qualifications were insured, by the candidates undergoing severe examinations at the Royal College of Surgeons, and the then Transport Board ; and thus the general character and professional skill of medical officers made rapid advances, under their noble and illustrious patron. Indeed, many, who had been allowed to enter the navy on the spur