372 SIR JOHN PRI NGLE ’S DISCOURSE.
fleet, and the opening of fo many new ports to the trade of
this country, whilft fo little advancement was made in the
nautical part of medicine !
But paffing from thofe old dates to one within the remembrance
of many here prefent, when it might have been expected
that whatever tended to aggrandize the naval power
of Great Britain, and to extend her commerce, would have received
the higheft improvement; yet we^fhall find, that even
at that late peiiod few meafures had been taken to preferve
the health of featnen, more than had been known to our
uninftruCted anceftors. Of this affertion the victorious, but
mournful, expedition of Commodore Anion, affords too convincing
a proof. It is well known that foon after palling
the Streights of Le Maire, the fcurvy began to appear in his
fquadron ; that by the time the Centurion had advanced but
a little way into the South Sea, forty-feven had died of it in
that Ihip; arid that there were few on board who had not,
in fome degree, been affeCfed with the diftemper, though they
had not been then quire eight months from England, That in
the ninth month, when Handing for the illand of Juan Fernandez,
the Centurion loft double that number; and that the mortality
went on at fo great a rate (I ftill fpeak of the Commodore’s
fbip,) that before they arrived there' fhe had buried
two hundred; and at laft could mufter no more than two
quarter-matters and fix of the foremaft-men in a watch
capable of doing duty. This was the condition of one of
the three fhips which reached that illand ; the other two
fuffered in proportion.
Nor did the tragedy end here; for after a few months,
refpite the fame fatal ficknefs broke out afrelh, and made
fuch havock, that before the Centurion (which now contained
the whole furviving crew o f the three fhips) had got to
2 the
1
the illand of Tinian, there died fometimes eight or ten in a
day; infomtich that when they had been only two years bn
their voyage, they had loft a larger proportion than of four in
five of their original number; and, by the account of the
hiftorian, all of them, after their entering the South Sea, of
the fcurvy. I fay, by the account of the elegant writer of
that voyage; for as he neither was in the medical line him-
felf, nor hath authenticated this part of his narrative by appealing
to the furgeons of rhe Ihip, or to their journals, I
fhould doubt that this was not ftriftly the cafe; but. rather,
that in producing this great mortality, a peftilential kind o f
diftemper was joined to the fcurvy, which, from the
places where it moft frequently occurs, hath been diftin-
guifhed by the name of the ja il or hojpitalfever *. But whether,
the fcurvy alone, or this fever combined with it, were the
caufe, it is not at prefent material to inquire, fince both
arifing from foul air and other fources of putrefa&ion, may
now in a great meafure be obviated by the various means-
fallen upon fince Lord Anfon’s expedition. For in juftice to
that prudent as well as brave Commander, it mull be ob-
ferved that the arrangements preparatory to his voyage
were not made by himfelf; that his Ihip was fo deeply laden
as not, except in the calmeft weather, to admit of opening
the gun-ports for the benefit of air; and that nothing appears
to have been negledted by him, for preferving the
health of his men, that was then known and pradifed in
the navy.
* Dr. M-tad, who had? feen the original obfervations of two of Commodore Anfon’s furgeons,
lays, that the fcurvy at that time was accompanied, with putridfevers, &c. See his Treatife oa>
«she Scurvy, p. 98, 13 feq.
I fhouldi