Scurvy

876 SCURVY. Dr WM. DOMETT STONE, says, 15th January, 1867. It is a curious fact, and one worth recording, that in the Greenland regions, where the United States' whaling vessels winter, nothing is said to effect a cure so sonn as the eating of seal meat, either raw or cooked, which the Consul states seems to be a specific provided by nature for the contingency of this disease. The owners and masters of vessels employed in the United States' whale fishery say that, as scurvy never occurs when they have a supply of sound potatoes, they therefore take great pains to obtain and keep a quantity when it is practicable. They pack them in tight seasoned new oil-casks, also put some in casks in cider vinegar for use when the fresh ones are exhausted and decayed. Potatoes are preserved for a long time by placing them in a 100-gallon cask, with 15 gallons of molasses, and turning the cask over once a month. In the French and Russian mercantile navies scurvy seldom occurs, owing probably to the general use of the common acidulated wine of France as a drink for seamen.

Robert White Stevens: On the Stowage of Ships and their Cargoes: with Information Regarding Freights, Charter-Parties, &c. &c.
Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, London, 1869. 8vo, (8), 7-712, (8) pp, fold. frontis., 14 plates.

Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius

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