Report on the cholera which visited Her Majesty's Black sea Fleet in the autumn of 1854 / By B.G. Babington, M.D.

  • Benjamin Guy Babington
Date:
[1854?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the cholera which visited Her Majesty's Black sea Fleet in the autumn of 1854 / By B.G. Babington, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    The Banshee, steam-vessel, answers this question by the monosyllable—7io. So also the London, adding that only three men belonging to boats were attacked at all; but unless we knew how many of her men belonged to boats, we could draw no conclusion from this answer. We only know that the whole ship's com- pany, including officers, amounted to 812 souls, and that of these, 1 officer, 14 seamen, and 5 marines, in all 20 persons, were attacked; which is less than one in forty. If, therefore, there were fewer than 120 men belonging to boats, they had more than their average of attacks among these. In the Firebrand, steam-frigate, the ship's company had leave at Constantinople on the 12th of August, and the only man attacked had been on shore all night and returned in- toxicated. It was on the night of the 14th that he fell iU. There was only one other case, that of a boy; who, we are left to conclude, went on shore with the rest, but the date of his attack is not given. Of the Vulcan, steam troop-sloop, the boats' crews were constantly employed at Varna prior to embarking the troops for the Crimea, but the disease did not affect any of them. In the Niger, steam-corvette, no cases occurred among the boats' crews who went on shore in the Danube for fresh meat. In the Highflyer, a large proportion of the men were em- ployed in discharging the cargoes of transports at Balaklava. There were only two cases of cholera in this ship; one was that of a seaman, who had been employed in the working party, and one a stoker, who acted as servant to the Engineer's mess, and had been on shore. Neither of these cases was fatal. The Agamemnon answers no to the question; so also the Queen, the Cyclops, the Megcera, the Wasp, the Albion, the Britannia, and the Trafalgar ; but in this last ship the first case was that of a ship's corporal, who had been on shore on the previous day, and had eaten freely of unripe plums. The answer from the Furious, steam-frigate, is instructive, and shall therefore be given at length.— Boats' crews did not suffer more than the rest of the ship's company, and they certainly did not take the disease earlier. Of the 12 who were attacked on the first two days, 4 were from boats' crews, and 8 were not. In all 26 took the disease, of whom 11 be- longed to boats, and of these 5 died; while of the fifteen others, no fewer than 13 died. As 84 people of the ship's company, which amounted altogether to 217, belonged to
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