Observations on a recently published work, entitled The fever at Boa Vista, unconnected with the visit of the Eclair to that island, by Gilbert King / by J.O. M'William.

  • MacWilliam, John Ormiston, 1808-1862.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on a recently published work, entitled The fever at Boa Vista, unconnected with the visit of the Eclair to that island, by Gilbert King / by J.O. M'William. 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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    If Dr. King had taken the trouble to glance over some of the principle works on fever since the time of Pringle, he would have found authors, in whose company he needed to feel ashamed, advocating the doctrine of contingent con- tagion,—he would have found detailed the circumstances under which fevers may acquire this adventitious property, and he would have found that all the necessary conditions existed among the crew of the Eclair,—he would have found Dr. Bryson, whose writings he most justly eulogises, asserting that the Eclair fever became contagious (a); and he would also have found Sir William Burnett, in his Re- ports to the Lords of the Admiralty, stating that the disease in the Eclair was originally the “remittent fever of the coast,” exalted by causes which he mentions into a con- tagious yellow fever, (b) At page 9 of his recent work, Dr. King states that “ there was an unwonted combination of circumstances in the Eclair, even in her construction, unfavourable to the health of her crew;” and to this fault in construction, and to mud under the boilers and machinery, he attributes the re- appearance of fever in the vessel on her return to the coast, under the new name of the Rosamond. But Dr. King does not stop here. He is determined that a cause in the ship herself shall account for fever breaking out on board the Rosamond for the third time (on the West Indian station) within the last few months. Like others of Dr. King’s inferences, this inference also is groundless. The Rosamond sailed from Jamaica to Nicaragua, where she arrived on the 9th June, 1852, with her crew quite healthy. After fourteen days, the first case of remittent fever showed itself, and the disease ran through 77 people out of 150 men and officers. She eventually left the place on the 12th July, and nine days afterwards fresh cases ceased to occur, although only 51 per cent, of the people had gone through the disease when it stopped. The Indefati- gable frigate, the Persian brig, and other men-of-war had, some time before, contracted fever in the same locality. To (a) Epidemic Fever of Sierra Leone, etc., p 134. He might have ascertained that the disease, as I stated, had changed for the worse on the passage from Sierra Leone to Boa Vista, and still more so at Boa Vista. Dr. Bryson (p. 121 “ Epidemic Fevers of Sierra Leone,”) says, “the cases of fever which occurred during the stay at Boa Vista, with the exception of being more malignant, and, consequently, of shorter duration, were not different from those that occurred on the passage along the coast from Sierra Leone.” Mr. Machonchy, in his private notes, has remarked, that at first when the fever began to be prevalent, the worst symptoms came on gradually, but now the vomiting commences on the second day, and some- times even on the first, and never ceases until the cold sweat is out, and the patient is moribund. One man was attacked in the afternoon, and had black vomit before midnight. As for medicine, in the really true cases, it can hardly be said to have any effect (b) Admiralty Correspondence on Eclair, p. 55.