On sea sickness / by J.R. Stocker.

  • Stocker, James Reginald.
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On sea sickness / by J.R. Stocker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    six days I canuot tell. I thought tliat I should die overy moment, and lay in my hammock or on the chest for the whole of that time, incapable of eating, drinking or walking about. O'Brien came to me on the seventh morning, and said, that if I did not exert myself I never should get well, that he was very fond of me, and had taken me under his protection, and to prove his regard, he would do for me what he would not take the trouble to do for any other youngster in the ship, which was to give me a good basting, which was a sovereign remedy for sea sickness. He suited the action to the word and drubbed me on the ribs without mercy, until I thought the breath was out of my body, and then he took a rope's end and thrashed me until I obeyed his orders to go on deck immediately. Before he came to me I could never have believed it possible that I could have obeyed him ; but somehow or another I did contrive to crawl up the ladder to the main deck, where I sat down on the shot-racks and cried bitterly. What would I have given to have been at home again ! It was not my fault that I was the greatest fool in the family, yet how was I punished for it! If this was kindness from O'Brien, what ha.l I to expect from those who were not partial to me ? But, by degrees, I recovered myself, and certainly felt a great deal better, and that night I slept very soundly. The next morning O'Brien came to me again. ' It's a nasty slow fever, that sea sickness, my Peter, and we must drive it out of you and then he commenced a repetition of yester- day's remedy until I was almost a jelly. Whether the fear of being thrashed drove away my sea sickness, or whatever might be the real cause of it, I do not know, but this is certain, that I felt no more of it after the second beating, and the next morning when I awoke, I was very hungry. 1 may add that this is a mode of treatment per- fectly well known in the merchant service, and found to be of inestimable value even at the very commencement of the complaint.