Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/776

756 very differently from cholera. We shall pass in review an instance of a severe epidemic of cholera on board ship, notwithstanding that it favors the views and theories of the contagionists. The following specimen is chosen, for the reason that it occurred on a man-of-war, and as there are many such vessels the advantage of comparison exists: The Britannia was in the spring of 1852 equipped as an admiral's ship, and was generally stationed off Malta for the first year; in August, 1853, it went to Besika Bay, and in October to Constantinople, where it remained the whole winter; and, after the declaration of war, went in March, 1854, to Varna. With the exception of a brief expedition to Odessa and Sebastopol, it remained at Varna all through the summer. In August cholera broke out, and first of all among the troops on shore. The ship and the whole fleet were up to this time perfectly healthy. It was believed that the French had brought the cholera with them from the Dobrudja, whence some regiments had been sent from Varna. A few of these returned, but the majority met with their death either from cholera, typhus, or marsh-fever in the low country of the Danube. After the cholera had begun to subside on land it appeared in the fleet, among which it was, however, unequally distributed. At Varna there were assembled fifty-four ships-of-the-line, belonging to the English, French, and Turkish fleets, without reckoning the smaller craft. The Britannia lay, on August 20th, in the Bay of Cavarna, fifteen miles by water from Varna. About one hundred paces from it were lying two other English three-deckers, the Trafalgar and Queen, both, like the Britannia, manned by 1,040 sailors. The Britannia lost one hundred and thirty-nine from cholera, the Queen and Trafalgar four and six respectively. On the French and Turkish ships it was the same. Strange to say, the French admiral's ship, the Ville de Paris, like the Britannia, was most numerously affected; there were one hundred and sixty-two deaths, of which three were of officers. During the disease the French vessel lay at anchor off the coast with the rest of the fleet. The Britannia went to sea in the delusive hope of staying the course of the disease. That cholera should rage on the Britannia without causing the death of, or even attacking, one of the sixty officers on board, is for the contagionists an inexplicable circumstance. We must now inquire into the reason why cholera was so rife on the Britannia while the Trafalgar and the Queen were so mildly attacked. If the outbreak were due to the presence of cases of cholera, or to the linen from cases of cholera, on the ship, it might be urged that this circumstance was common to all the ships. Dr. Milroy has attempted to explain the epidemic on the notion that it was not due to the specific infective material, but to the individual predisposition to cholera. In the night it was found necessary, on account of the cases of diarrhœa and cholera, to close the hatchways on the lower decks while the ship was at sea. Dr. Milroy says: "The men appeared to be poisoned by the foul air which they had to breathe at night. . ..