Page 7 - Pharmacy History 03 Sept 1997

Another of the major problems in the sailing ship days was maintaining a supply of potable water, which was usually carried in barrels in the hold and therefore acted as ballast. As the fresh water was consumed, the barrels were refilled with sea water to maintain the balance of the ship. Wherever the ships sighted land, the first objective was to find fresh water, and if they were lucky, the barrels had to be taken ashore in the long boats, rinsed free of salty water and then refilled with freshwater before being stowed aboard again.
The Western Australian coastline in particular was barren and generally waterless, and imposed many hardships on the visitors to its shores.
The French navigator Freycinet even carried an apparatus to distil sea water, but this could only be operated on shore to prevent any accidents from fire.
Other health
hazards
• Scurvy
• Venereal diseases from places like the Canary Islands, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Timor and Tahiti.
• Consumption (TB)
• Tropical fevers
• Contaminated drinking water
• As the ship is an unstable platform, other hazards were falls, falling overboard, sea sickness and the ever present threat from indigenous people attacking landing parties.
Medical help
On the French ship “Uranie”, under the command of Louis-Claude de Freycinet, the surgeons were also appointed naturalists and the ship’s pharmacist Gaudichaud, was appointed botanist.
In addition saline purgatives like magnesium sulphate were also used.
Other agents that increase or hasten intestinal evacuations include figs, prunes, olive oil and belladonna. Simple purgatives like senna, aloes, castor oil and cascara.
However the most commonly used drug in those times, whether a-ship or ashore was laudanum or opium.
Many more treatments for a whole raft of diseases were presented in this paper, and they make fascinating reading for those familiar with modern medical treatments and practices.
In summary
“In reality, the physician could only treat two diseases at sea definitively; malaria, with the bark of the cinchona tree that contained quinine; and scurvy with foods containing ascorbate, usually limes and other fruit in diluted rum or grog.” Dr John Rice.
More about this paper
Jim Howard used his collection of slides to illustrate the story he was telling about life at sea under canvas and if any member would like an electronic copy of the complete slide show, which includes some very informative data such as comparing crew rations and diets in some of the world’s navies and more information about medicines, diseases and the treatments available, please forward an e-mail address to gcmiller@iinet.net.au
Bibliography
1. Appleyard R T, Manford T. The Beginning; European Discovery and early settlement of Swan River, Western Australia. University of Western Australia Press, 1979.
2. Baudin, N. The Journal of Post Captain Nicholas Baudin, Commander in Chief of the Corvettes “Geographe” and “Naturaliste”. Translated by Christine Cornelle, Adelaide, Libraries Board of South Australia 1974.
3. Bowen S R. Scurvy. Viking 2003.
4. Chittleborough A et al. Alas, for the Pelicans, Flinders, Baudin
and Beyond. Wakefield Press 2002.
5. Clode D. Voyages to the South Seas. Miegunyah Press 2007. 6. Estensen M. The Life of George Bass. Allen & Unwin 2005.
7. Gordon E C. Sailors Physicians: Medical Guides for Merchant Ships & Whalers, 1774-1864. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1993;48.
8. McHugh E. 1606, An Epic Adventure New South 2006. 9. Parkin R. HM Bark Endeavour: Her Place in Australian
History. Melbourne University Press 1997.
10. Peron F, de Freycinet L. Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Lands 1824, Vol. 1 translated C Cornell. Republished Friends of the State Library of South Australia 2006.
11. Porter R. The Greatest Benefit to Man Kind. Norton 1997. 12. US Navy Department Library. Living Conditions in the 19th
Century US Navy.
volume 5 no 36 FEBRUARY 2009
Pharmacy History Australia 7
Medicine in
the late 1700s –
early 1800s
At this time the traditional therapies were
• Bleeding
• Blistering
• Purging
• Poulticing
• Sweating, clysters and enemas.
Medical help on board ship depended on the numbers of officers and crewmen on board, as well as the ship’s mission and expected length of the voyage.
The hierarchy was usually:
• Physicians
• Surgeons
• Apothecaries
• Surgeon’s mates
• Captain or designated crew
• Medicine chests.
Photo shows the interior of a ships medicine. Box circa 1850. The contents were supplied by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. After its life at sea, the medicine box was used for emergency treatment on Arcoola Station in the far north of South Australia. It now resides in the Woomera Museum.
Treatments
As an example of the drug treatments available to the medical personnel
on board the exploratory ships from both France and England let us look at cathartics which were used for purging to cleanse the body of noxious substances.
The drug of choice was mercurous chloride or calomel. Other drastic purgatives were podophyllin, aloes, jalap, scammony and colocynth.