Of the Numbers and Mortality of different Diseases sent to Hospitals. CHAP. I. Hospital at Gibraltar, 1780--at Barbadoes, 1780--Causes of Mortality from various Diseases--Accidents--the Hurricane--Wounds--Amputations--Scorches--Fluxes very apt to arise at the Hospital--Proportion that were received and died at Antigua--St. Christopher’s--St. Lucia, and at Barbadoes, 1782--at Jamaica, 1782--at New York, Autumn, 1780--1782--General View of the Admissions and Mortality at all the Hospitals during the War. In order to judge of the loss sustained by disease, in the course of that service of which a relation has been attempted, the sick sent to the hospitals must be taken into account. I shall, therefore, give a short view of the different diseases admitted, and their mortality, at the several hospitals connected with the fleets in which I served. This will serve also to illustrate the different effects that different situations have upon the health and recovery of men[22]. The fleet which effected the first relief of Gibraltar, under the command of Lord Rodney, consisting of twenty ships of the line, arrived there in the third week of January, 1780, after a passage of three weeks and a few days from England, in which they had an action with the Spanish fleet, and obtained a victory over them, on the 16th of that month. The whole fleet, except one ship, sailed from Gibraltar on the 13th of February, and while it lay there, the diseases sent to the hospital, and their respective mortality, were as follows[23]: +--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+ | DISEASES. | Admitted. | Died. | Proportion. | +--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+ | | | | ONE IN | +--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+ | Fevers | 622 | 65 | 9½| | Fluxes | 17 | 0 | 0 | | Scurvy | 13 | 1 | 13 | | Ulcers | 20 | 3 | 7 | | Wounds | 29 | 9 | 3 | | Other Complaints | 12 | 3 | 4 | +--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+ | Total | 713 | 79 | 9 | +--------------------+-----------+-------+-------------+ [24]This comprehends not only the deaths in the time the fleet remained there, but all that happened afterwards. The mortality, from wounds and ulcers, is greater than might be expected in so fine a climate, and at the coolest season of the year; but as the place was then besieged, the sick and wounded could not be supplied with those refreshments that were necessary to the recovery of the men, and wounds and ulcers are complaints very apt to be affected by the quality of the diet.