A paper on the prevention and treatment of the disorders of the seamen and soldiers in Bengal : presented to the Honourable Court of East-India Directors, in the year 1791 / by John Peter Wade, M.D.

  • Wade, John Peter, -1802.
Date:
MDCCXCIII [1793]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A paper on the prevention and treatment of the disorders of the seamen and soldiers in Bengal : presented to the Honourable Court of East-India Directors, in the year 1791 / by John Peter Wade, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    dilute the liquor before diftribution with a very large proportion of water. This improve- ment, it is prefumed, might take place in the honourable company's military, as well as fhipping fervice, in which the daily allow- ance of fpirits is ferved out unmixed, and the mixture left to the difcretion of a clafs of people fo deficient in felf denial, that where their own health and future comfort are con- cerned, they fcarcely appear endowed with the inftinct of brutes. The additional allowance of what is termed grog, on board of India- men, is perhaps feldom more diluted than with equal parts of water, which ftill affords a dram of confiderable ftrength. In reality, were an allowance of fpirits in any inft.ance indifpenfably neceffary to failors, foreign fhips would labour under very great difadvantages. This allowance is probably unknown to many of them. An opportunity has occurred of afcertaining the exemption from ficknefs which foreign Indiamen enjoy. In one finking inftance, during a voyage of nearly ten months, one cafe only occurred of any diforder, a flight intermittent fever. Towards the end of the ninth month, after the crew had been for fome time on a fhort allowance of proviiions and water, the fcurvy commenced its ravages j but it was very extraordinary that it had not made