Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the prevention of syphilis in the navy / by Dr. Dickson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![—the men were allowed no leave, and communication with the shore was limited and guarded. The Chesapeake was now ordered to the other extremity of the Asiatic con- tinent, to become the flag-ship in China. The crew had hitherto enjoyed a high state of health. During the eighteen months we had spent in the Indian and Arabian waters we had lost but four men from disease : three from cholera and one from fever ] and of the cases invalided few were of serious or climatic character. This most satisfactory health- condition, seldom attained by vessels in the most favourable circumstances and on the healthiest stations, was mainly due to the admirable hygienic arrangements of the commanding officers. When the Chesapeake arrived at Hong Kong, in May 1859, venereal disease was absolutely extinct on board. The men had not been on leave for nine months, except for a few hours at Aden, and there only two cases, one of gonorrhoea and one of chancre, had ensued. Now all hands were per- mitted to go on shore for forty-eight hours, and about 450 of them availed themselves of the privilege. They behaved very well. Extreme drunkenness was very rare, and they returned to the ship with praiseworthy punctuality. From that single visit, however, forty-six cases of sexual disease resulted, or at least were placed on the sick list, besides, no doubt, several others of slighter character, as gonorrhoea, abrasions, etc., who did not present themselves at all, or whom it was not necessary to withdraw from duty. Whether from the peculiarity of the Chinese climate, or of the morbid poison, or by reason of the debilitated condition of the men, unused to the excitement and debauchery of the shore, the cases were less tractable than hitherto. Many of them bur- dened the list for a long time, chiefly those which were attended with bubo. The abscess after evacuation some- times assumed an unhealthy aspect, degenerating into pha- gedenic ulcer, and slow of reparation. In the summer of 1859 we proceeded to the north of China, and entered on a campaign which, though short, proved very disastrous. At the repulse from the Peiho Forts one-third of our attacking force either fell in action or were disabled by wounds. Besides sustaining this heavy loss, the ship was devastated by a succession of epidemics, viz., fever, cholera, dysentery, small-pox, ophthalmia. For three months, and these the hottest in the year, she became an over-crowded hospital. In that time 840 cases were ad- mitted to the list, and ten of them terminated fatally. The](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21955918_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
