In the course of this passage the dysenteries came to prevail over the fevers, as we have found to be commonly the case at sea. It appears by the former table, compared with the next, that the mortality in fevers was much the same, and that in the dysentery it was greater than while the fleet was at Jamaica. This does not argue, however, that the diseases were equally malignant, but was owing to the want of an hospital, and of those comforts of diet which the sick enjoyed on board while in harbour. This last was particularly felt in the dysenteries, in the cure of which more depends upon diet than in most other diseases. In all the calculations of mortality on board of ships, if any have been sent to the hospital, they are to be deducted from the number; and these make a greater difference in the mortality on board than their numbers simply would indicate; for only the worst cases, and those therefore who were most likely to die, used to be sent to the hospital. But as the fleet was at sea during the whole of this month, no allowance of this kind is to be made. TABLE, shewing the proportional Sickness and Mortality in August. +-----------------------------------------+ | Transcriber’s Keys | | | | A Proportion of those taken ill in the | | Course of the Month. | | | | B Proportion of Deaths, in relation to | | the Numbers of the Sick. | +-----------------------+--------+--------+ | | A | B | | DISEASES. | | | | | ONE IN | ONE IN | +-----------------------+--------+--------+ | Fevers | 31 | 17 | | | | | | Fluxes | 46 | 35 | | | | | | Scurvy | 25 | 66 | | | | | | Other Complaints | 27 | 43 | +-----------------------+--------+--------+ | General Proportion | 7½ | 31 | +-----------------------+--------+--------+ The mortality this month, in relation to the whole numbers on board, was one in one hundred and sixty-nine.