The Common Nature of Epidemics, and their relation to climate and civilizationSmith, Southwood
History
The Common Nature of Epidemics, and their relation to climate and civilization
Smith, Southwood
Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Quarantine
To this advice, Sir William Pym objected, and instead of allowing the
removal of the sick, he ordered the vessel, with the whole of her crew,
to proceed from the Motherbank to the Foul Bill Quarantine Station at
Standgate Creek, which place she did not reach until the afternoon of
the 2nd of October, that is, four days after her arrival at the
Motherbank, where they remained six days more before their removal into
another vessel. Thus were all on board detained close prisoners in a
pestilential atmosphere on the shores of their native land; their
anticipations that at length they should quit the scene of such terrible
sufferings, and of so many horrors, their hopes of life and health,
totally destroyed. The consequence was, that within these ten days, five
more deaths took place, nor was it until the Lords of the Admiralty
declared their conviction that the only means of preserving the lives of
the survivors of the crew would be the entire removal of every
individual from this ill-fated ship, that they were permitted to quit
it. Their removal took place on the 8th of October, after which event
two more deaths occurred, one of them being that of the pilot who took
the vessel from the Motherbank to Standgate Creek.[32]
Footnote 32:
A striking contrast to this treatment of the crew of the “Eclair” is
exhibited in the case of Her Majesty’s frigate, the “Arethusa,” which
recently (Feb. 14, 1852) arrived at Plymouth from Lisbon, having on
board cases of small-pox. Instead of putting the ship in quarantine,
and confining the healthy in the same poisonous atmosphere with the
sick, wiser counsels on this occasion prevailed, and more humane
measures were adopted. On the advice of Dr Rae, Inspector of the Royal
Naval Hospital, the sick, twelve in number, were immediately removed
to that establishment, and of these two died, without any
communication of the disease.
As already stated, official inquiries were directed to be made into the
causes of this extraordinary mortality, from which it appears:—
That there was nothing peculiar in the disease itself. The medical and
other officers of the ship, as well as the medical and other officers at
Boa Vista, that is, all competent witnesses who actually saw the
disease, concur in stating that it was nothing more than an aggravated
form of the common endemic fever of the African coast; a view which is
decisively confirmed by the original description of the disease in the
medical journal of the ship, and by post-mortem examination.
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