trefadtion. Another analyzes if, and difeovers Co much gxofs
air in the compoficion as to render it indigeltibie; yet this
flatulence, Co much decryed, muft now be acknowledged
to be the fixed air, which makes the cabbage Co wholefome
■ when fermented. Nay it hath been traduced by one of the
moft celebrated phyficians of our age, as partaking of a
poifonous nature; nor much better founded was that notion
of the fame learned profeJTor, that cabbage being an
alcalefcent plant, and therefore difpofing to putrefaction,
it could never be ufed in the fcurvy, except when the diteal'e
proceeded from an acid. But the experiments which I formerly
laid before the Society evinced this vegetable, with
the reft- of the fuppofed alcalefcents, to be really acefcent;
and proved that the fcurvy is never owing to acidity, bur,
much oth.erwife, to a fpecies of putrefaction ; that v ery
caufe, of which the ill-grounded clafs of alcalefcents was
fuppofed to be a promoter *.
Among other of the late improvements of the naval flores
we have heard much of the portable foup, and accordingly we
find that Captain Cook hath not a little'availed himfelf of it
in his voyage. This concentrated broth being freed from
all fat, and having by long boiling evaporated the moft pu-
trefcent parts of the meat, is reduced to the confiftence of a
glue, which in effeft it is, and will, like other glues, in a
dry place, keep found for years together. It hath been faid,
that broths turn four on keeping, though made without any
vegetable j\ Now, whether any real acid can be thus formed
or not, I incline at leaft to believe that the gelatinous parts
of animal fubftances, fuch as compofe thefe cakes, are not
• See this remark more at large,', in my Qbfervations on the Difeafes. o f the Army, App. Pap. 71
t La feule matiere qui s’aigriiTe dans lefang eft la matiese gelatineule^ &c. Senac, Stru&ure
'o f a nature much difpofed to putrefy. But however that
may be, fince Captain Cook obferves, that this foup was
the means of making his people eat a greater quantity of
greens than they would have done otherwife, in fo far we
muft allow it to have been virtually antifeptic.
So much for thofe articles that have of late been fupplied
to all the King’s {hips on long voyages, and in which therefore
our worthy brother claims no other merit than the prudent
difpenfatron o f them; but what follows being regulations
either wholly new, or improved hints from fome of
his experienced' friends, fve may juftly appropriate them to
himfelf.
Firft then, he put his people at three watches, inftead of two,
which laft is the general practice at fea; that is, he divided
the whole crew into three companies, and by ordering each
company upon the watch by turns, four hours at a time, every
man had eight hours free, for four of duty: whereas at
watch and watch, the half of the men being' on duty at
once, with returns of it every four hours, they can have
but broken fleep, and when expofed to wet, they have not
time to get dry before they lie down. When the fervice
requires them, fuch hardfhips muft be endured; but when
there is no preffing call, ought not a mariner to be refrefhed
with as much uninterrupted reft as a common labourer ?
I am well informed, that an officer diftinguifhes himfelf
iq nothing more than in preferving his men from wet and
the1 other injuries o f the weather. Thefe were moft effential
points with this humane Commander. In the torrid zone
he {haded his people from the fcorching fun by an awning
over his deck, and in his courfe under the antardlic circle
he had a coat provided for each man, of a fubflantial woollen
D d d 2 fluff,