PRES ERV
A T IO N
OF M A R I NERS.
difeafes muft be the natural confequences. I with to be underftood,
without mifconftrudtion j I pretend not to fay that an acidulated
diet is the only caufe o f convullive and fpafmodic fynyptoms, or the
phlogiftic o f inflammatory difeafes, or the alkaline o f putrid : for
there are no doubt many other caufes productive of the lame effedts,
under various circumftances; nay, there are external caufes which
throw the whole habit into the fame morbific Hate that may originate
from a certain kind of food.
Frelh food, both o f the animal and vegetable kind, contains a
proportionate falubrious mixture o f acids, phlogifton and alkalies ;
efpecially i f it be dreffed without any difguife o f rich fauces, full
o f fpice and other ingredients, not properly aflimilated to our
habits; it is therefore no wonder, that cceteribus farihus, . frelh
food is not lb pernicious as falted. But if we examine the water, the
flefti, and all the aliments eaten by the people in fhips during long
voyages; we find that they have loft that equal mixture o f parts,
which alone entitled them to the rank o f falubrious food. Th e
water, i f ever fo good when frelh, commonly in a few weeks ltinks
intolerably, efpecially in hot climates, and is often full o f aquatic
infedts, and in cafe thofe infedts perilh in the water, they putrefy,
that is, their organic parts are again reltored to a mixture o f their
integrant elementary parts; and they form commonly a real liver
of
619
o f fulphur, * whofe noxioufnefs and feptic quality is well known, p r e s e r -
Th e jie jh is falted in order to preferve it the longer; but common q^ jJa r i -
falt is by no means fan antifeptic, when mixed with animal fub- n e r S.
fiances. Th e latter when dead, by an inteftine motion o f their elementary
integrant parts are gradually diflolved ; the volatile parts
o f phlogifton, and acids volatilized by phlogifton fly o ff; then
the volatile alkaline parts leave the mafs; and the remainder is- a
magma, nearly related to a hepar fulphuris ; which after a: ftill
longer period o f time becomes an alkali, or an abforbent earth1.
Th e addition o f the large quantity o f fait cannot prevent the flefh
from real putrefadlion, but only retards its progrefs. W e found,
that our meat, which had been really the heft o f its kind, wak
become in fadt very little better than putrid; all its fa t '
had been corroded by the fait, and its fmell, both in a
raw and boiled- ftate, was extremely offenfive, though it had
been towed in a net o f .ropes for* twenty-four ' hours, at the
ftern of the fhip; by which operation a great proportion' o f the
faltnefs, together with part o f the ftench had been carried off, and
the bare tough mufcular fibres-ftrongly impregnated with fait'alone"
remained. The.gelatinous part, which is the chief nutriment'in
flefli, was all loft, and nothing was left- but a ftrongly alkaline part,
4 K 2 which
* Mr. Sage Analyfe des blés. Paris, 1776, Svo, p. 106. feq.