The Seaman's Medical Advocate: Or, an Attempt to Shew that Five Thousand Seamen Are, Annually, During War, Lost to the British Nation through the Yellow Fever

by Elliot Arthy

Overview

Written by a naval surgeon in 1798, this medical treatise provides a frank and harrowing account of life in the British navy. Elliot Arthy started his career as a surgeon's mate in the Africa and West Indies merchant service. He eventually became a surgeon, and worked on a slave ship for many years. In this publication he shows that at least 5,000 seamen were lost to Britain annually through yellow fever and other illnesses, a loss the nation could little afford during wartime. Stressing the 'absolute necessity' for naval surgeons, Arthy's treatise is divided into six parts: the first examines the nature and causes of yellow fever; the second discusses how seamen come into contact with the disease; the third focuses on other causes of the loss of seamen on board ships of war; the fourth on statistics. The fifth and sixth parts suggest methods of prevention.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108028974
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/11/2011
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Naval and Military History
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Of the Nature and Causes of the Bilious or Yellow Fever; Part II. Of the Several Habits, Dispositions, and Employments, of Seamen, in the West-India Merchants' Service, Whereby, They Are Exposed, and Predisposed, to be Affected by the Yellow Fever. And, of the Other Asserted Diseases and Means, Which Contribute to the Loss of Seamen: 1. Of the production of the Yellow Fever, and consequent loss of seamen, in the West-India merchants' service, through their desertion from one ship to another; 2. Of the production of the Yellow Fever, and consequent loss of seamen, in the West-India merchants' service, through their going, in open boats, to distant parts; 3. Of the production of the Yellow Fever, and consequent loss of seamen, in the West-India merchants' service, as stated in the two preceding sections, the effects of which are not manifest until they are on their passage from the West-Indies to Europe; 4. Of the loss and sufferings of seamen, in the West-India merchants' service, through the want of proper medical and surgical assistance; 5. Circumstances that may be adduced by others, as tending to lessen and ameliorate the before said loss and sufferings; Part III. Causes of the Loss of Seamen On-Board Ships of War on the West-India Station: 1. Of the production of the Yellow Fever, and consequent loss of seamen, on-board ships of war on the West-India station, through impressing seamen on-shore and out of merchantmen; 2. Of the loss of seamen on-board ships of war on the West-India station, through improper medical treatment of the Yellow Fever; 3. Of the loss of seamen on-board ships of war on the West-India station, through the want of a sufficient quantity of the Peruvian Bark, for the relief of the sick of the Yellow Fever; Part IV. Means of Preventing and Ameliorating the Before-said Loss and Sufferings of Seamen in the West-India Merchants' Service: 1. Of regulating merchants' seamen's wages, and preventing them from desertion; 2. Suggestions for the abolition of the impress service, on the West-India station, and for preventing merchants' seamen leaving their ships, and going on-shore in the West-Indies, to avoid being impressed, in order to their preservation from the Yellow Fever; 3. General means of preserving seamen from the Yellow Fever, during the loading and continuance of merchantmen in the West-Indies; 4. Means of providing, in the speediest manner, medical and surgical assistance, and other requisite help; Part V. Means of Preventing and Ameliorating the Before-said Loss and Sufferings of Seamen On-board Ships of War on the West-India Station: 1. Of recruiting ships of war on the West-India station, with seamen, by other means than impressing them on-shore and out of merchantmen, and of causing merchants' seamen to become impressed out of their ships as soon as they arrive in the West-Indies, in order to prevent the introduction of the Yellow Fever; 2. Of the necessity for appointing, and the means of obtaining, surgeons for ships of war on the West-India station, properly experienced in the nature and treatment of the Yellow Fever. Also, of the education requisite for a naval surgeon; 3. Of increasing the emoluments of naval surgeons on the West-India station, so that they may be enabled to provide a sufficient quantity of the Peruvian Bark; General conclusion.