OCR Text |
Show 664 LEMON. to England. Deptford, a LEMON, They remained in Portsmouth harbour till the navy transport, was ordered to convey them to 665 spongy gums, livid spots on different parts, and contractions of the hams, &c. This last symptomhas generally been accounted The sloop for from blood effused in the interstices of the muscles, or into and transport went to sea, and were obliged to put back to the cellular texture. Such an explanation is, indeed, very mechanical, but it is not a good one. Had this rigidity and contraction been owing to pieces of coagulated blood, there must have been some perceptible swelling or distention of the parts; but none is to be observed : the thigh is shrivelled andless in cire cumference than in a healthy state; the tendinons fibres are also to be traced by their hardness, till they are gradually lost in the belly of the muscles. Besides, if that explanation could be admitted, we might with equal propriety say, that the Trismus and Tetanus, which were met with among the black people, were produced by the same means, viz. Jumps of clotted blood, distending the temporal, masseter, and other muscles, which move the lower jaw upwards. And in tetanus howcan it be supposed that the whole muscles of the body could be thrown into a rigid contraction from any cause of this kind? These conditions of the muscular fibre are certainly much better explained from the diminished nervous energy: it is this torpor of the vis vite, which produces the hebetudo animi, and renders the mind as well as the bodysolittle disposed to be affected by the usual stimuli; and is a state of the nervous influence more peculiar to scurvy than anyother disease*. Bedding and clothing being immediately furnished to the convicts by their lordships’ orders, the cure of scurvy was begun with lemons and oranges. At the same time they had beef and mutton broth, in which were boiled cabbages, onions, &c. In distributing the fresh fruit among them, the only rule that I went Dublin, under convoyof his majesty’s sloop Drake. Cowes Roadin distress of weather about the 20th of December. The master of the transport, at this time, complainedto captain Countess of the Drake, that the convicts were in a very unhealthy state, and begged he would order his surgeon’s mate to visit them, the surgeon of the Drake being then absent. The young gentleman had been a stranger to the diseases of seamen, and immediately pronounced that the gaol fever had brokeout among them. This opinion he conceived from the debilitated state, the fetor about them, but particularly the large livid spots which appeared in different parts of their bedies, andthe desire which many of them expressed for acid fruits and vegetables. Captain Onslow, then commanding at Portsmouth in the room of vice-admiral Roddam, transmitted captain Countess’s report to the lords commissioners of the admiralty, who, by return of post, ordered two surgeons to survey the convicts, and report their situation. The surgeon of the Magnificent, with myself, vas ordered on this business. The first man who made his ape pearance plainly showed that the discase was scurvy ; and when we came to inquire more particularly into their history, as ree lated above, there could be little doubt that the complaint was op pee ee ag A » s'rom } rkedat ; the time that they emba | s, in St. John’ j the island of Newfoundlanc 1, till now, they hadlived on ship’s provisions, without any fresh vegetables w hatever, at the rate of two-t is allowance. wretched fellow-creatures were clothed had not shifted for many months; but the greater part of them were Rynaked, lerid even (Abin without Rett Aal shirt: Gee:Bsaa hammock athe . . shoultied round their ders by a rope-yarn was their only shelter from the cold, aud same time without a at the d to lie upon. It ought to bereme! ubered it was now the middle of winter, and the weatherfor sometime before had been wet and boistero us. In our report to the comma icer of the port, werecommended an immediate supj of recent vegetables, clothing, 1 bedding; all of whic o the credit and humanity of admiralty board, were grat d, with a surgeon, and what by, was to give most to those who had the worst symptoms of the disease. Their recovery, as is commonly remarked in the Scurvy, when plentifully served with acid fruits, was astonishingly rapid ; for on the e ghteenth day of my attendance they ¢d for Dublin, where they arrived in ten days after, in perfect health and spirits. The great desideratum in long sea voyages is some prepara- tion of thecitric acid, that preserves all its virtues for a length of time. Different forms have been tried for this purpose. The assistance he chose to call in to attend them. Few of them were without some symptom of scurvy; suchas Dr, Blane says, he dissected some subjects, aud found no ecchymosis. |