the state of war involved so frequently the
sudden placing of crews under unhealthy
conditions, that the death-rate in 'fifty-eight was
twice what it had been in 'fifty-six. Unless
especial care be taken and the right season
for operation happen to suit the political
conditions of the case, there is always a very
great additional mortality produced by the sickness
that will take fleets and armies at a
disadvantage in the time of war. The last
"operations" in China, following the attack on the
Peiho forts, were made in a favourable month,
May, and under special provision for the health
of troops; the consequence was that, when
in the beginning of July, after conclusion of
the treaty, the troops re-embarked, there had
been among them very little suffering from sickness.

Apart from causes of sickness lying ashore
that produce indeed too much destruction of the
sailor's health, but of which the prevention
depends rather on wholesome provisions that
should be made, and usually are not made, by
the authorities of seaports than on anything
that can be ruled or done on shipboard, the
great causes of death in the navy are fevers,
diseases of the bowels (dysentery, cholera, &c.),
and diseases of the lungs, foremost among which
is consumption. Ships themselves vary, of
course, very much in sickliness. Whatever the
sailors suffer from the influence of climate, or
the miasma of river-mouths under hot latitudes,
bears small proportion to the suffering by
imperfect sanitary condition of the ships
themselves. The trimmest and cleanest ship may be
a place in which health, strength, life, is assailed
every hour. The cleanest and handsomest house
may have under it some lurking cesspool, or
damp unaired basement, to account for the pale
cheeks of its inmates, the closed shutters, and
the mutes at the door. An unsuspected heap of
rotten matter in the hold, may yield the fever
poison that shall waste a fine ship's crew. The
emanation from the bodies of men—hard working,
moreover, and less than half washed—
packed too closely together in their berths in an
ill-ventilated space between decks, yields a sure
and not slow poison. This is the one great
defect left to be remedied in our well-managed
men-of-war. It is a main source of fever, and the
chief source of the consumption which, in spite
of every other influence that tends to check it,
makes fearful head among our seamen.

In 'fifty-five, the crew of the Hannibal,
numbering eight hundred and thirty, when in the
Black Sea, besides suffering especially from
bowel complaints, had a fourth part of the men
down with typhus fever. She suffered five
times more than other ships of her size on the
same duty. In the year following, fever clung
to the ship in the Mediterranean, for it depended
on a cause within. The Conqueror and Centurion,
with crews of nine hundred and seven hundred
and forty, respectively, served together in the
Mediterranean for two years, during which one
ship had ten times more fever in it than the other.
The Dauntless, which had lost nearly seventy of
her crew in a few weeks from yellow fever when
on the West Indian station three years before,
had a high fever rate during the whole time of
her service in the Baltic and the Black Sea.
Sometimes, a ship has become so notoriously
sickly, that her name has become a name of
dread, and has been changed. In the case of
one such ship, the Rosamond, formerly the
Eclair, the ventilation between decks was found
to be most imperfect, and "there was a
considerable accumulation of filth under the magazine."
Forty cases of fever broke out between
April and June, 'fifty-six, in the Eurotas, while
in the Mediterranean. Her medical officer was
"unable to account for the disease, unless it
arose from the extreme lowness and closeness of
the deck on which the men were berthed." In
May, 'fifty-eight, there was an outbreak of fever
in the Valorous, when on the way from Ferrol
to Plymouth: the sole ascertainable cause,
defective ventilation. "Air," said Sir Gilbert
Blane, "contaminated by foul and stagnant
exhalations, particularly those from the living body,
is the ascertained cause of typhus fever, which
has been a more grievous and general source of
sickness and mortality in the navy, than even the
scurvy. The infection of fever is generated by
the breath and perspiration of men, crowded for
a length of time in confined air, and without the
means of personal cleanliness." Freer ablution
is no doubt practised by sailors than by soldiers,
among whom, with all the enforced regard to
cleanliness of dress, real cleanliness of person is
under our barrack system still impossible. The
smell of a marching regiment is sometimes
intolerable. The state of the air where men
sleep in barracks, is as serious a cause of
invaliding and death, in the army, as the want of
pure air for the sailors in their berths between
decks, is of invaliding and death in the navy.
Lord Herbert put the country on the road
to mighty changes; and lives enough to make
a brigade of men, are now saved every year
through his exertions. There is still more to
be done. Wholesome air to sleep in, is a
first requisite of health, certainly not yet
secured in every barrack, or on board of every
Queen's ship. Fever broke out in the Princess
Royal when she was conveying troops from
Malta to Alexandria, in January, 'fifty-eight.
Boisterous weather made it necessary to keep
the ports, both on the main and lower deck,
barred in, during nearly the whole of the passage.
The disease was checked by bringing the men
up to the main deck. But the Princess Royal,
though a new ship, had been always sickly;
imperfect ventilation of the sleeping space,
being the sole assignable reason. Whatever the
disease, the want of fresh air by the sick will
beget or strengthen it. The Megæra, in 'fifty-
eight, put off from Calcutta with cholera on
board. At sea the cholera increased. There
came boisterous weather, the main deck ports
had to be kept shut, and the sick therefore were
brought on deck and placed under an awning.
From that time, though an eighth part of the
crew had perished, and the disease was then