CHAP. II.
Of Aliment.
SECT. I. Of Solid Food.
The most unnatural circumstance in a sea life is the food which men use, and the disease most peculiar to it is one which is owing chiefly to the nature of the aliment; for though other causes conspire in aggravating the scurvy, the depraved state of the INGESTA is the main and fundamental cause of it.
It is this disease that is most fatal to seamen next to fevers. It was formerly as fatal, if not more so; but some modern improvements have rendered it less frequent and violent. The habitual use of salt provisions, besides producing evident symptoms of scurvy, begets such a state of the constitution, that, upon the least scratch being received, particularly on the lower extremities, a large and incurable ulcer ensues; and this circumstance, trifling as it appears, is the cause of losing an incredible number of men to the service, especially in the West Indies. The greater part of the food of a ship’s company is necessarily salted meat. Biscuit and pease, though of a vegetable nature, are hard of digestion; and though they qualify the animal food, they do not answer the purpose of fresh vegetables. Though officers have a supply of live stock even for the longest voyages, it would be impracticable to carry a quantity sufficient to preserve a whole crew from the scurvy. But certain articles have of late been introduced into use, of a durable and portable nature, which so qualify the salt provisions, that they can be used without inducing this disease. These are either such as are articles of common diet, viz. melasses and sour krout, or those which are intended only for the sick and recovering, such as portable soup and the preserved juice of lemons and oranges.
It is one of the most ancient and real grievances in the service, that there has not been a sufficiently ample supply of nourishment and cordials for the weak and recovering. This complaint is made by [66]Dr. Cockburn, who was physician to the fleet in the end of the last century; and it is a complaint that has not yet been entirely redressed, nor has the subject been considered with the attention it deserves. The only improvement in the sea victualling that I know of from that time till of late, has been the use of raisins for puddings, and the occasional use of vinegar, which is an article extremely salutary, and was looked upon as the great preservative of health in the Roman armies.
After the force of disease has been subdued at sea, men are frequently lost by relapses, or pine away in dropsies and other chronic complaints, for want of being supported by some cordial and nourishing diet. It is mentioned in my memorial to the Admiralty, how insufficient the small quantity of surgeon’s necessaries are; and it is recommended that a large quantity of certain species of refreshment should be put in the purser’s charge, which, being substituted for the common sea victualling while men are ill or recovering, would cost Government little or nothing. Besides the articles already mentioned, it was recommended to set apart a quantity of the best wines, and to be provided with brown sugar, dried fruits, barley, rice, sago, and salep. To these might be added eggs, which, if greased and put in salt, may be preserved fresh for a great length of time. Carrots and other roots might also be preserved for the longest voyages by means of sugar; and green vegetables might in like manner be preserved by means of salt. But of all the articles, either of medicine or diet, for the cure of the scurvy, lemons and oranges[67] are of much the greatest efficacy. They are real specifics in that disease, if any thing deserves that name. This was first ascertained and set in a clear light by Dr. Lind. Upon what principle their superior efficacy depends, and in what manner they produce their effect, I am at a loss to determine, never having been able to satisfy my mind with any theory concerning the nature and cure of this disease, nor hardly indeed of any other. An ingenious treatise has been published on this subject by Dr. Milman, to which I refer the reader, meaning to confine myself in this work chiefly to what is practical.
Every person who has beheld with attention and feeling the tedious and languishing series of suffering which the sick and recovering endure for want of the means of supporting and recruiting their strength and spirits, must wish that those who preside in the civil department of the navy would seriously consider this subject, and complete the reform that has already been begun.
With regard to the victualling of men in health, a most commendable attention has been paid to the improvement of it. The ordinary articles of victualling have not only been of excellent quality, but some new articles have been added, from which the greatest benefit has been derived. The chief of these are sour krout and melasses. The latter was first brought into use by Captain Ferguson in the beginning of the late war. He ordered it to be served with rice to the men who were affected, or threatened with the scurvy, in the ship under his command. The benefit experienced from it in this and other instances was so great, that during the last two years of the war it was made a regular article of sea victualling, and substituted in place of a certain proportion of oatmeal[68].
As bread is one of the principal articles of diet, the utmost care should be taken in preserving it, and great advantage would arise from stowing it in casks that are water tight, instead of keeping it in bags, or letting it lie loose in the bread room. Captain Cook, by this method, and by giving it a cast in the oven in the course of the voyage, preserved his biscuit found in every respect for more than three years. But the greatest improvement in this article of diet would be to have, in the form of flour, a greater proportion of what is now allowed in bread. The flour might be made into puddings, and seems, in this form, to be more nutritious and antiscorbutic than biscuit which has undergone a strong force of fire. This sort of mess would be still more proper and agreeable now that melasses is a stated article of diet. Flour, by being well pressed and rammed, will keep as long as biscuit, and it can be stowed in one fifth part of the space; it will, therefore, cost much less in freight than the same quantity of it in that form, and it may be baked abroad if necessary[69]. Malt, by being well rammed, may also be preserved for a great length of time.
Of all the former articles of sea victualling, there was none more abused than oatmeal. The quantity allowed to each man was twice as much as he could consume, and the overplus went to the purser’s profits, or was wasted by being given to the hogs, or even wantonly thrown overboard. Melasses have, with great advantage, been substituted for part of it, in the proportion of eleven pounds for two gallons of oatmeal. The first trial of melasses was in the[70] Foudroyant, and it answered so well, that, in a cruise under Admiral Geary in 1780, this was the only ship free from the scurvy, and out of two thousand four hundred men that were landed at the hospital with this disease, there were none from this ship. It appears to be so similar in its nature and effects to essence of malt, that it seems hardly worth while for Government to be at the expence of providing the latter.
A certain proportion of barley has also of late been substituted for part of the oatmeal, which being more light and palatable, makes a pleasing variety, particularly to the sick and recovering. Captain Cook carried wheat with him, and found it to answer equally well. Might not potatoes also be a proper and salutary substitute, as they will keep a considerable length of time in a warm climate, and they have been successfully employed in their raw state for the cure of scurvy? It would not be right, however, to abolish oatmeal entirely; for there is a certain preparation of it which is an antiscorbutic of equal efficacy with any whatever, except the juice of lemons and oranges. This is flummery, or sowins, which is prepared by letting oatmeal and water stand together till they grow acidulous, and then boiling them into a jelly. I know of some well-attested instances of the crews of ships being saved from the scurvy by this alone.
Butter is a good article of victualling in so far as it renders that part of the diet which consists of grain and vegetables more palatable, and thereby induces men to eat more. But as it is extremely corruptible in a warm climate, hardly any being used by the seamen but what is more or less rancid, it should never be sent to a tropical station. Greater quantities of it are condemned than of any other article of victualling, and it is therefore the most expensive to Government. There are certain articles that are the natural produce of the West-India islands, which may be substituted for it with the greatest advantage. These are sugar and cocoa[71], which, during the last year of the war, were served in place of butter with great success, and this proved an alteration in diet not only salutary, but agreeable to the seamen, whose inclinations are always to be consulted in such changes[72].
When a ship is in port, encouragement should be given to the sale of roots, greens, fruits, and sugar. The men have a good custom of exchanging part of their bread, beef, and pork, for what they can get from the shore; but as they in general prefer spirituous liquors to the above-mentioned articles, the greatest care and vigilance should be used to preclude men from such opportunities of injuring themselves[73]. Every ship should be furnished with a seine, and other implements for fishing, when in harbour.
When captures are made, in which there are such articles as sugar, wine, rice, or fruits, it would be much better in many cases to allow the immediate use of them at sea, where the men may be disposed to scurvy or other diseases, than to wait for the conversion of them into money.
Though it has been my object to introduce as many articles of diet as possible, independent of salt provisions, it does not follow that these are in themselves unwholesome. They are pernicious by being made almost the sole and exclusive article; but if used in moderate quantity, they are even in some respects well adapted for the food of seamen. The nature of their life gives them a strong digestion: in their duties they not only employ violent exercise, but use more muscles and a greater variety of postures and motions than men of any other profession. To such constitutions may not food of a refractory nature and hard of digestion have even an advantage over what is more delicate and digestible?
It does not appear that it is the salt quality of the provisions used at sea that makes them productive of scurvy, but the want of their native juices and of the nutritious principle. A small quantity of salt is necessary to make all food palatable and wholesome, in so much that it is reckoned one of the necessaries of life. All animals have a craving for sea salt, and nature has kindly made it the most abundant and universal of all saline bodies. Food, without this seasoning, not only comes to be loathed, but the want of it renders the animal weak and flabby. As it not only assists digestion, but invigorates all the bodily functions by stimulating and bracing the fibres, it is in some cases a valuable medicine. It is remarkable that men are very apt to tire of a long continuance of fresh provisions[74], but never of what is salt; and even under the scurvy the latter will be relished, and sometimes preferred to most other kinds of food. It has been a practice with some to make the scorbutic men drink sea water; but though it is not attended with any manifest benefit, I never heard that it aggravated the disease.
I was told by the gentlemen of the army at New York in 1780, that the soldiers in cantonments were not near so subject to agues as the people of the country; and the only difference in their mode of life was, that the former had in their allowance a certain, proportion of salt provisions.
In an unhealthy country I should think a free use of salt, as well as spice[75], would be salutary; and when ships are in port it would perhaps be better to allow a certain proportion of salt provisions, because it would not only be wholesome and agreeable, but the men’s constitutions would probably be more reconciled to an entire salt diet when necessary: but I would except from this the crews of such ships as have newly arrived from a long cruise or voyage, in which it may be necessary to alter the constitution as quickly as possible by a diet entirely fresh.
Nothing that I have collected from my own observation, or that of others, has been neglected under this head, except one particular caution with regard to the preparation of the victuals. The large utensils employed to boil the provisions are made of copper, and it sometimes happens from neglect that these are allowed to contract a rust, which is one of the most active poisons we know. The neglect consists chiefly in allowing any thing acid, or what is liable to become acid, such as gruel or burgoo, to remain for a length of time without being washed out; for when victuals have been prepared in the boilers thus uncleaned, they produce the most violent effects, even to the loss of life, as once happened in a ship belonging to our fleet[76].