I have been able to calculate the numbers of deaths from disease in this great fleet, both on board and at hospitals, during the period of my own service, which was three years and three months, and they amounted to three thousand two hundred[27] independent of those that were killed and died of wounds.
There died of disease in the fleet I belonged to, from July, 1780, to July, 1781, about one man in eight, including both those who died on board and at hospitals[28]. But the annual mortality in the West-India fleet, during the last year of the war, that is, from March, 1782, to March, 1783, was not quite one in twenty[29]. This difference was partly owing to the general increase of health in fleets as a war advances, partly to some improvements in victualling, and partly to better accommodations as well as regulations in what related to the care of the sick.
Though the mortality in fleets in the West Indies is, upon the whole, greater than in Europe, yet it has so happened, that, in the late war, the fleet at home has, at particular periods, been considerably more sickly than that in the West Indies was at any one time. I was informed by Dr. Lind, that, when the grand fleet arrived at Portsmouth in November, 1779, a tenth part of all the men were sent to the hospital. It appears[30], that in the years 1780 and 1781, a period at which the fleet in the West Indies was most sickly, the medium of the numbers on the sick list was one in fifteen, and many of these were very slight complaints; whereas, in the fleet alluded to in England, the diseases were mostly fevers, and so ill as actually to be sent to the hospital. It appears likewise, that there was the greatest proportion of sick in our fleet when it was on the coast of America in September, 1780[31]. This difference is owing to the greater prevalence of the ship fever, and of the scurvy, in a cold than in a hot climate.
With regard to the mortality at hospitals, the comparison is greatly in favour of those in England. This is owing to the greater regularity, and the better accommodation and diet, which an hospital at home admits of, as well as to the difference of climate. It has also been mentioned, that, on most occasions, the hospitals I attended abroad were so limited as to contain only the worst cases, in consequence of which there would of course be a greater proportional mortality than in the great hospitals of England.
The following is an account of the whole loss of lives from disease, and by the enemy[32], in three years and three months, in the fleets and hospitals with which I was connected:
| Died of disease[33] | 3200 |
| Killed in battle | 648 |
| Died of wounds | 500 |
| Total[34] | 4348 |
PART II.
of the
CAUSES of SICKNESS in FLEETS,
and the
MEANS of PREVENTION.
INTRODUCTION.
In the year 1780 I printed a small treatise for the use of the fleet, containing general rules for the prevention of sickness; and this part of the work is chiefly taken from it.
My own opportunities of experience, as exhibited in the preceding Part, have been sufficiently extensive to suggest many observations on this subject; but as my object is utility, rather than the praise of originality, I shall not confine myself to these. Great part of what is to be advanced is taken from books[35] and conversation, as well as my own experience, my design being to exhibit a concise view of all the discoveries on this subject that have come to my knowledge. I have assumed nothing, however, from mere report or testimony, having had opportunities, from my own observations, of verifying or disproving the assertions of others.