Folios 1-23: case number 1, Thomas Rossiter, aged 18, Convict; disease or hurt, anasarca....

ADM 101/41/6/1

1836

Folios 1-23: case number 1, Thomas Rossiter, aged 18, Convict; disease or hurt, anasarca. Put on sick list, 1 June 1836, Sheerness Harbour. Discharged to the prisoners barracks at Sydney, New South Wales, 17 October 1836. Received from the Ganymede hulk at Woolwich on 27 [May], greatly debilitated and emaciated but with the assurance that he was healthy. The lower extremities were much distended by 'serous effusion' from the toes to the knees. Treatment is recorded in dated entries alongside the case number on nearly every page of the journal.

Folios 2-13: case number 2, Thomas Williams, aged 22, Convict; disease or hurt, staphyloma. Put on sick list, 2 June 1836, Sheerness Harbour. Discharged, 31 August 1836. Of a 'full habit of body and apparently scrofulous', both corneas were prominent and pustular, especially the left, in which the vision was entirely gone. He had had the disease for 6 months.

Folios 3-5: case number 3, Charles Sproson, aged 19, Private of the 80th Regiment; disease or hurt, synochus. Put on sick list, 14 June 1836, at sea. Discharged, 28 June 1836. Had never been at sea before and suffered nausea and loss of appetite.

Folios 5-12: case number 4, Charles Biggs, aged 33, Convict; disease or hurt, phthisis. Put on sick list, 28 June 1836, at sea. Discharged, 22 August 1836. Said that when he joined the Fortitude hulk at Chatham the previous February, he had been bathed and left to stand naked in the open air for a long time. Afterwards he had cough and a severe pain in the chest and was in hospital until 3 weeks before embarkation.

Folios 6-23: case number 5, James Barrett, aged 21, Convict; disease or hurt, phthisis. Put on sick list, 1 July 1836, at sea. Discharged to the prisoners barracks at Sydney, New South Wales, 17 October 1836. Said he had had a severe cough with expectoration for the last 7 months. His treatment is recorded at intervals throughout the journal.

Folios 6-7: case number 6, Thomas Bridges, aged 57, Convict; disease or hurt, scorbutus. Put on sick list, 4 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 11 July 1836. 'A man of phlegmatic habit who has been Post Master in England and used to good living, his spirits since embarkation have been much depressed, and I have no doubt that change of diet and mental anxiety are the exciting causes of his disease'. He was given lemon juice, sugar and water, port wine and a nourishing diet.

Folios 8-11: case number 7, Archibald Little, aged 67, Convict; disease or hurt, atrophia. Put on sick list, 15 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 6 August 1836. His only complaint was extreme debility, apparently from his old age, lack of a nutritious diet and 'irregularities he may have committed in bypast life'. He was given the hospital diet because his stomach rejected the 'ship's rations in every way they can be cooked'.

Folios 8-11: case number 8, Charles Smith, aged 60, Convict; disease or hurt, atrophia. Put on sick list, 13 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 6 August 1836. He had lost all appetite and was given the hospital diet and a glass of port wine daily.

Folios 9-11: case number 9, John Shinner, aged 46, Convict; disease or hurt, scorbutus. Put on sick list, 20 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 6 August 1836. Spongy gums, pains in his extremities and debility.

Folios 9-11: case number 10, William Faircloth, aged 54, Convict; disease or hurt, atrophia. Put on sick list, 24 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 6 August 1836. 'A man of extreme emaciation and debilitated from when embarked', he had the marks of an extensive skull injury from the kick of a horse when he was 14 and was so debilitated he could not walk without being supported.

Folios 9-11: case number 11, William Croxton, aged 65, Convict; disease or hurt, atrophia. Put on sick list, 25 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 6 August 1836. Suffering malnutrition having lost most of his teeth and being unable to chew hard food.

Folios 10-11: case number 12, John Shea, aged 39, Convict; disease or hurt, scorbutus. Put on sick list, 25 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 6 August 1836.

Folios 10-11: case number 13, John Willis, aged 49, Convict; disease or hurt, scorbutus. Put on sick list, 25 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 6 August 1836. 'A man of broken constitution'.

Folios 10-11: case number 14, James Barnes, aged 30, Convict; disease or hurt, dysenteria. Put on sick list, 25 July 1836, at sea. Discharged, 6 August 1836. 'A man of very spare habit, who has been much given to intemperance, and has led a vicious and disorderly life'.

Folio 11: Note that the four cases of atrophia are benefitting from the nourishing diet and the stimulus to their minds from knowing that the surgeon had ordered the ship to call at Bahia for fresh provisions. They anchored on 30 July and on 1 August got fresh meat, vegetables and soft bread for all the convicts.

Folios 13-15: case number 15, John Willis, aged 49, Convict; disease or hurt, scorbutus. Put on sick list, 31 August 1836, at sea. Discharged, 13 September1836. His was the most severe of the cases before calling at Bahia, his symptoms this time were restricted to his gums.

Folios 13-16: case number 16, William Faircloth, aged 54, Convict; disease or hurt, diarrhoea [gyprata]. Put on sick list, 11 September 1836, at sea. Died, 18 September 1836. Previously on the list for atrophia, when no disease could be discovered, on this occasion he admitted his bowels had been 'relaxed' for some years and that he had been passing seven or more whitish stools a day for the last 3 weeks, with some pain before and afterwards.

Folios 14-19: case number 17, James Barnes, aged 30, Convict; disease or hurt, dysenteria. Put on sick list, 12 September 1836. Died, 1 October 1836. His second attack of dysentery since coming on board. He had purging and griping for a week before complaining.

Folios 20-22: case number 18, James [O'Donnel], aged 16, Convict; disease or hurt, rheumatismus. Put on sick list, 10 October 1836, at sea. Discharged to hospital at Sydney, New South Wales, 16 October 1836. 'A boy of spare phlegmatic habit', he complained of severe pain in both knees, there was no swelling or discolouration.

Folio 22: Hugh Lloyd, aged 27, convict; disease or hurt, stricture [of the] urethra. Put on sick list, 16 October 1836, Sydney Harbour. Discharged to hospital at Sydney, 16 October 1836. He had been afflicted with strictures for about 9 years and had not passed water for 30 hours. The opening of the urethra was found to be closed by extensive ulceration which had also destroyed much of the glans penis at some time in the past. Folio 23: Abstract of the preceding journal, being a summary of all the cases contained therein, nosologically arranged.

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