Acidosis and acetonaemia in relation to sea-sickness : a communication to The British Medical Journal, issue of January 17, 1925 / by B. Sidney Jones, M.R.C.S., Eng., L.R.C.P., Lond., Surgeon, R.M.S. Aquitania.

  • Jones, B. Sidney
Date:
[1925?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Acidosis and acetonaemia in relation to sea-sickness : a communication to The British Medical Journal, issue of January 17, 1925 / by B. Sidney Jones, M.R.C.S., Eng., L.R.C.P., Lond., Surgeon, R.M.S. Aquitania. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    RELATION TO SEA-SICKNESS B. Sidney Jones, M.R.C.S., Eng., L.R.C.P., Lond. Surgeon, R.M.S. Aquitania. Although I have been going to sea, off and on, for thirty-one years, I never associated acidosis and ace- tonaemia with sea-sickness until I held the appoint¬ ment of surgeon to the steadiest ship I have ever been on, where there are comparatively very few cases of this complaint. What drew my attention to it, I think, were the extraordinary number of cases in women in the mid¬ dle or late stage of pregnancy, who, having ceased vomiting in the early months, commenced vomiting again after coming on board, and some cases of in¬ tractable vomiting in children, when the movements of the ship were so slight as to be out of all propor¬ tion to the illness of the patients. The children often had a previous history of cyclical vomiting. My in¬ vestigations, covering a period of three years, have shown me increased acid and acetone in the urine in all cases of apparent sea-sickness with the exception of two, which came under my notice only recently, and made me doubt the conclusion I had come to, that all cases of sea-sickness were due to or accompanied by acidosis and acetonaemia. It almost made me wonder whether these two cases were simple sea¬ sickness after all. In a great number of cases ace¬ tone can be detected in the breath of the patient. I should like to have the observations of other ship surgeons on the prevalence of acidosis and acetonae¬ mia amongst cases of vomiting at sea. Although sea¬ sickness may not be due to these causes, the pres¬ ence of acidosis and acetonuria in such a very large proportion of cases seems worthy of thorough inves¬ tigation. That the acetone present is not due to