A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Volume 2

by James Cook

[** In these proportions I found the water taste just acidulous and pleasant.]

But if the fixed air and acids are such preservatives against the scurvy, why should Captain Cook make so little account of the rob of lemons and of oranges (for so they have called the extracts or inspissated juices of those fruits) in treating that distemper? This I found was the reason. These preparations being only sent out upon trial, the surgeon of the ship was told, at a conjecture, how much he might give for a dose, but without strictly limiting it. The experiment was made with the quantity specified, but with so little advantage, that judging it not adviseable to lose more time, he set about the cure with the wort only, whereof the efficacy he was certain; whilst he reserved these robs for other purposes; more particularly for colds, when, to a large draught of warm water, with some spirits and sugar, he added a spoonful of one of them, and with this composition made a grateful sudorific that answered the intention. No wonder then if Captain Cook, not knowing the proper dose of these concentrated juices for the scurvy, but feeing them fail as they were given in the trial, should entertain no great opinion of their antiscorbutic virtue. It may be also proper to take notice, that as they had been reduced to a small proportion of their bulk by evaporation upon fire, it is probable, they were much weakened by that process, and that with their aqueous parts they had lost not a little of their aerial, on which so much of their antiseptic power depended. If, therefore, a further trial of these excellent fruits were to be made, it would seem more adviseable to send to sea the purified juices entire in casks; agreeably to a proposal I find hath been made to the Admiralty some years ago by an ingenious and experienced surgeon of the navy. For in truth, the testimonies in favour of the salutary qualities of these acids are so numerous and so strong, that I should look upon some failures, even in cases where their want of success cannot so well be accounted for, as in this voyage, not a sufficient reason for striking them out of the list of the most powerful preservatives against this consuming malady of sailors.

It may be observed, that Captain Cook says not more in praise of vinegar than of the robs; yet I would not thence infer that he made no account of that acid, but only that as he happened in this voyage to be sparingly provided with it and yet did well, he could not consider a large store of vinegar to be so material an article of provision as was commonly imagined. And though he supplied its place in the messes of the men with the acid of the sour-crout, and trusted chiefly to fire for purifying his decks, yet it is to be hoped that future navigators will not therefore omit it. Vinegar will serve at least for a wholesome variety in the seasoning of salted meats, and may be sometimes successfully used as a medicine, especially in the aspersions of the berths of the sick. It is observable, that though the smell be little grateful to a person in health, yet it is commonly agreeable to those who are sick, at least to such as are confined to a foul and crowded ward. There the physician himself will smell to vinegar, as much for pleasure as for guarding against infection.

Now the wort and the acid juices were only dispensed as medicines, but the next article was of more extensive use. This was the Sour-Crout (sour cabbage), a food of universal request in Germany. The acidity is acquired by its spontaneous fermentation, and it was the sour taste which made it the more acceptable to all who ate it. To its further commendation we may add, that it held out good to the 1ast of the voyage.

It may seem strange, that though this herb hath had so high encomiums bestowed upon it by the ancients (witness what Cato the elder and Pliny the Naturalist say on the subject), and hath had the sanction of the experience of nations for ages, it should yet be disapproved of by some of the most distinguished medical writers of our times. One finds it yield a rank smell in decoction, which he confounds with that of putrefaction. Another analyzes it, and discovers so much gross air in the composition as to render it indigestible; yet this flatulence, so much decryed, must now be acknowledged to be the fixed air, which makes the cabbage so wholesome when fermented. Nay it hath been traduced by one of the most celebrated physicians of our age, as partaking of a poisonous nature: nor much better founded was that notion of the same illustrious professor, that cabbage being an alcalescent plant, and therefore disposing to putrefaction, could never be used in the scurvy, except when the disease proceeded from an acid. But the experiments which I formerly laid before the Society evinced this vegetable, with the rest of the supposed alcalescents, to be really acescent; and proved that the scurvy is never owing to acidity, but, much otherwise, to a species of putrefaction; that very cause, of which the ill-grounded class of alcalescents was supposed to be a promoter*.

[* See this remark more at large, in my Observations on the Diseases of the Army, App. Pap. 7.]

Among other of the late improvements of the naval stores we have heard much of the Portable-Soup, and accordingly we find that Captain Cook hath not a little availed himself of it in his voyage. This concentrated broth being freed from all fat, and having by long boiling evaporated the most putrescent parts of the meat, is reduced to the consistence of a glue, which in effect it is, and will, like other glues, in a dry place, keep sound for years together. It hath been said, that broths turn sour on keeping, though made without any vegetable*. Now, whether any real acid can be thus formed or not, I incline at least to believe that the gelatinous parts of animal substances, such as compose these cakes, are not of a nature much disposed to putrefy. But however that may be, since Captain Cook observes, that this soup was the means of making his people eat a greater quantity of greens than they would have done otherwise, in so far we must allow it to have been virtually antiseptic.

[* La feule matiere qui s'aigriffe dans le sang est la matiere gelatincuse, etc. Senac, Structure du Coeur, 1. iii. ch. 4. para. 5.]

So much for those articles that have of late been supplied to all the king's ships on long voyages, and in which therefore our worthy brother claims no other merit than the prudent dispensation of them; but what follows being regulations either wholly new, or improven hints from some of his experienced friends, we may justly appropriate them to himself.

First then, he put his people at three watches, instead of two, which last is the general practice at sea; that is, he divided the whole crew into three companies, and by putting 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 sleep, and when exposed to wet, they have not time to get dry before they lie down. When the service requires it, such hardships must be endured; but when there is no pressing call, ought not a mariner to be refreshed with as much uninterrupted rest as a common day-labourer?