[73] Instead of leaving this to the management of the men themselves, it might be done with greater advantage to them by instituting short allowance in the following manner:--Let a certain proportion, suppose one third, of the salt provisions, bread, and pease, particularly the first, be stopped, and let the amount of this, for the whole crew be thrown into one estimate. Let the agent victualler pay into the purser’s hands the value of these provisions in money, at the contract price, with such a discount as will allow for the use of the money. Let the purser, in return, give him a receipt, as if for so much provisions checked. This money, being distributed in the name of short allowance, will enable the men to purchase vegetables, and the provisions will be saved for a time of want, or for a cruise. [74] The sailors in the squadron of Commodore Anson never murmured more under any of their hardships than when they were fed with fresh turtle for a length of time in the South Sea. [75] Since the first edition of this work was printed, I have met with a book published by Mr. Fletcher, a navy surgeon, in which he mentions that spices, being antiseptic bodies, might be substituted for part of the salt in curing provisions, and this would, no doubt, be an improvement in the sea victualling. The quantity of spice he proposes for every barrel of beef or pork is four ounces of black pepper, and as much allspice, and also eight ounces of nitre in powder. It may be farther alledged as an advantage of spice over salt, that it would be less apt to run into brine, which robs the meat of the greater part of its nourishment. [76] This accident happened in the Cyclops frigate in September, 1780. Mr. Gordon, the surgeon, favoured me with the following account of it: “Mr. Smith, an officer, John Barber and Anthony Wright, seamen, having eat some victuals prepared in a foul copper, complained soon after of violent gripes, giddiness, and vomiting, and they had a few loose stools. There was intense heat; the pulse was quick, full, and hard; a tremor of the hands and tongue, and wildness of the eyes. The looseness was soon succeeded by obstinate costiveness, tension of the abdomen, difficult breathing, and loss of deglutition. In the night, towards the morning, there came on insensibility, with an increase of all the symptoms, except the heat. The body was violently convulsed, with cold clammy sweats and coldness of the extremities. The abdomen subsided a short time before they died, and, before they expired, a small quantity of greenish matter, mixed with phlegm, issued from the mouths of two of them. Thirty three other men were put upon the sick list with similar symptoms in a less degree, and some of them continued on the list for five or six weeks before they perfectly recovered.”