A letter to the critical reviewers, on the most effectual means of preventing sickness in His Majesty's fleets and diminishing the expences of maritime service / by William Renwick.

  • Renwick, William, 1740?-1814.
Date:
1794
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the critical reviewers, on the most effectual means of preventing sickness in His Majesty's fleets and diminishing the expences of maritime service / by William Renwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    18/48 (page 18)
    ( ) ' The invention hrft noticed gave purity to rc- fpiration; in the depravity of which, and not that of diet ( as ufually conceived] naval ficknefs was ftiown to be chiefly prevalent.' That ficknefs was alfo demonflrated not to be the feurvy, as had been generally apprehended; and for precluding the lat- ter as well as other maladies, methods were recom- mended that were altogether neWy and in which the lives of a hundred thoufand feamen were frequently interefed. Such was the publication announced to contain little that was new or interefing*\ At the fame time, you did me the favour to obferve I might have known that methods were adopted, for the purification of Ihips of war, which the pages adverted to will be found not only to comprehend, but where they are alfo the fubje61:s of particular difcuflTion. It was from an acquaintance with fuch methods, that the publication was written which had not otherwife appeared. After evincing that thefe are no other than fuch as have been long in ufe, and exhibiting their general infufficiency—r the work propofes, as a more effedlual procefs, the machine which the CommiflTioners of the. Admiralty will teftify are not to be found in the fervice; and for obviating the ufual effedls of faked aliments (fhown to be the foie caufe of feurvy), a daily regimen is further recoiwmended of which the writer has been the firft propofer, and whicli their lord- Ihips will alfo aflirm, has no ellablilhment in his Majefly’s navy. To * The introdufllon has Ihown the Monthly and other courts of literature to be of a different opinion.