PRESERVATION
OF MARINERS.
o f fowcrkrout on the firfi layer o f it is always continued, till the
whole calk be full. Then it is necefiary to bring the calk, containing
the lliced and damped cabbage, into a place which has a
moderate temperature, and, i f pofiible, above 50 or 60 degrees o f
Fahrenheits thermometer : becaufe the warmth greatly promotes,
and accelerates its vinous fermentation. As Coon as it becomes
acidulated, which will happen in io , 12, or 14 days, according
to the degree o f warmth, in which the calk is kept, the vat may
be removed to a cellar, and there preferved. In the beginning 3
quantity o f juice is found Handing on the top o f the fermenting
cabbage, and with a Hick a hole is made in the middle o f the calk
for the better circulation o f the fermenting liquor. I f this - cabbage
be deflined for a long fea voyage, the cabbage is taken out of
its juice, and in this dry ftate clofely packed in empty calks : but
i f it be intended to be confumed at home, a clean board "fitting the
calk, and loaded with weights for deprefling the fermented cabbage,
is put on the top o f it. O f fuch fermented cabbage or fower-
krout, about a pint was ferved to every individual o f our Ihip's
company, twice or three times in, a week -, and it is to this moll
excellent antifeptic, that we chiefly afcribe the little progrefs which
the fcurvy made on board our Ihip. Our Ihip’s company grew at
lall very fond of it, efpecially when they obferved its falutary effects
in preventing the fcurvy. We had 60 calks o f it on board,
I and
and about a month before we reached the Cape o f Good Hope, in p k e s e r -
March 1775, the whole quantity was: apprehended to have been
confirmed; and the lofs of it was feverely felt by our Ihip-mates: n e r s .
However, when we arrived at tire Cape, and all the hold was
cleared, we Hill found two calks, o f one o f which a part was left,
when we arrived at Fayai, in the WeHernJflands, in July 1 7 7 3 ,
and was given away by Captain Cook, to the Britifih Conful, who.
relilhed it very much, and it was then found to be as good as when
firfl made in Odlober, 177-1.
Another falutary food is wheat and oatmeal, for breakfafi; the
wheat being more nourilhing, is- certainly preferable to the oatmeals
but as the fooins (a kind o f acidulous jelly, and found by experiment
to be very antifeptic J is prepared from the laH article: it will
always be ranked amongfi the falutary food o f a Ihip’s company.
Peafe the common food o f failors is no doubt while frefll and
uncorrupted very falutary j however as they abound in phlogiHon,
and are not fufficiently mixed and rendered analogous to our alimentary
velfels, it would not be amifs to allow fome vinegar to the
failors for their peafe-foup, which by its acidity will correct this -
excellent food, and by intefline fermentation difengage its fixed air,
and render it by this means more antifeptic and falubrious.
It
Infieadi