Folios 1-6: Cornileus Barratt, aged 44, Prisoner; disease or hurt, dyspepsia, or...

Folios 1-6: Cornileus Barratt, aged 44, Prisoner; disease or hurt, dyspepsia, or rather indigestion, scirhus ventriculi. Put on sick list, 28 February 1834, Portland Roads. Died, 15 April 1834. Had been unwell since being in a damp ward in Warwick Gaol, on arrival on the York hulk in August he was assigned to work but sent to the Alonzo Hospital ship the next day and then transferred to the Racoon, and received medical treatment for nine weeks. He was returned to the York only the Monday before the inspection prior to his embarkation. He admitted that he concealed his symptoms, on the advice of someone on board the hulk named Wood, and gave a bribe of one pound to ensure his being sent on board the Arab. His body was examined after death and his abdomen found to be full of fluid and his liver 'a dense, large mass of disease, weighing nine pounds and a half'.

Folios 7-10: George Ridgewell, aged 31, Prisoner; disease or hurt, peritonitis. Put on sick list, 6 April 1834, at sea. Died, 10 April 1834. Had been on the sick list the previous month for slight rheumatic and catarrhal affection, from which he had recovered and was convalescing. He had suffered similar symptoms to the present ones about 18 months earlier but had 'cheated the Doctor' by not taking his medicine. The weather was 'distressingly hot and sultry' throughout his illness. With a description of his internal organs examined after death.

Folios 10-12: William Kerr, aged 22, Corporal, 58th Regiment; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 28 February 1834, off Portland. Discharged, 30 April 1834.

Folios 12-14: Arrow Smith, aged 25, Seaman; disease or hurt, hydrothorax et anasarca. Put on sick list, 3 March 1834, Portland Roads. Discharged, 28 March 1834. He had suffered cholera followed by bilious remittant fever about 15 months before, while in Bengal, and had had a lingering recovery. For the last five months he had had an almost constant pain at the pericordia and symptoms of indigestion.

Folios 14-15: James Smith, aged 20, Prisoner; disease or hurt, pneumonia. Put on sick list, 10 March 1834, off Portland. Discharged, 21 March 1834. Stated that he had been subject to this complaint for 12 months and had taken medicine from a 'water doctor'.

Folios 15-16: John Smith, aged 28, Prisoner; disease or hurt, cephalaea. Put on sick list, 21 March 1834, at sea. Discharged, 31 March 1834. Had suffered pains in his head since receiving a kick to it from a horse about 18 months previously.

Folios 17-23: Samuel Harvey, aged 22, Prisoner; disease or hurt, phlogosis phlegmone. Put on sick list, 20 April 1834, at sea. Disembarked convalescent, 2 July 1834. 'Of a spare habit and rather sallow complexion', he complained of a pain in one of his sub-cutaneous glands near the inferior margin of the right axilla. On disembarkation he was sent to the hospital to convalesce for a week before being sent to work.

Folio 23: Abstract of the preceding journal, being a summary of all the cases contained therein, nosologically arranged.

Folios 24-28 Surgeon's general remarks. On 18 February 1834, 230 prisoners were taken on board at Portsmouth. They were examined on board the York hulk by the surgeon in the presence of Dr Porter and those whose health was 'materially deranged' were refused, with the exception of Cornilius Barrett, in whose case the surgeon's objections were overruled. The sick list of the Arab is very similar to that of the Surry in 1831, except there were more cynanche tonsillaris and less cephalaea in the Surry. The most important difference, however, is that there was no trace of scurvy on the Arab while there were many with symptoms at the end of the voyage of the Surry. The Arab had 310 aboard and 252 on the sick list, as opposed to 260 on board the Surry and 240 sick. In the Arab there were 2 deaths among the prisoners and 1 guard's child and 2 births, in the Surry 1 death and 1 birth. The case of Samuel Harvey is related not for the phlegmonic inflammation he first suffered but because of the variety of perplexing and serious ailments that followed. George Ridgewell was 'evidently under the influence of the icy hand of death' when admitted to the hospital. The dissection showed the reasons for the obstinacy of his symptoms and the manifestation of the facies hippocratica. The circumstances of Cornilius Barrett's embarkation are similar to those of James Welsh on board the Surry [in 1831, ADM 101/70/2], both concealed illnesses to be taken on board. In the case of Barrett it also appears that he bribed someone on board the York hulk to ensure he was put forward for transportation on the Arab. The other prisoners stated to the surgeon that it was common practice on board the York hulk to give bribes to ensure embarkation, or, more rarely, to remain in England. Neither Barrett or Ridgewell could have lived much longer in any place but the excessive heat in the tropics may have shortened their lives. There were a lot of cases of cephalaea because of the rapid change from the 'bleakness of an English March' to the tropics. Many physicians distinguish between cephalaea and cephalalgia but this seems only to be a difference of degree of intensity. Both are treated by the same general principles. The surgeon goes on to discuss the nature of cephalaea and its causes on board the Arab, mainly 'increased irritability, or mobility, of the nervous system' because of the sudden change of climate. It is classed under 'diseases of the nervous functions' in the nosological report, as in Dr Good's classification, although Dr Cullen places it under neuroses. The condition has seldom been cured without bloodletting, either moderate, if there is a weak pulse, or more freely and repeatedly if the pulse is more full. Mercurial purgatives have also been used freely and in some cases the head was shaved and cold lotion applied. In one case the disease threatened to degenerate into a 'low, ill defined typhus' because the patient refused to be bled, eventually he agreed to allow cupping at his neck. The surgeon speculates on the possible relation between headaches and the education of prisoners during voyages. The surgeon's measures for occupying the minds of prisoners are set out in his general journal and these remarks should not be seen as an argument against education, which he strenuously advocates. Catherine Boyle, whose name appears in the sick list but is not in the journal, was the daughter of one of the 'children' on board and the grand-daughter of one of the guard. She was 'of a highly scrophulous diathesis, of the most peevish and irritable disposition I ever knew in a child' and showed symptom of tabes mesenterica and generally depressed health at the time of embarkation. Branches of both temporal arteries were opened and a little blood obtained, blisters applied, purgatives used, and 'most active measures were adopted to produce salivation, by the administration of mercury externally and internally', digitalis, squills and antimony were also employed. She died 12 days after being placed on the sick list. The surgeon goes on to complain about the quantities of medicines supplied, particularly purgatives and antimonials, and the absence of 'the large [locked] pot', which caused great inconvenience and annoyance to the patients and the attendants. He also mentions a discrepancy between the 'alleged receipts at Deptford' and what was received by the Colonial Surgeon and the theft of a yard of calico.