Medical and surgical journal of the Government Emigrant ship Neptune between for...

ADM 101/78/4

1839

Medical and surgical journal of the Government Emigrant ship Neptune between for the 1 June to 3 October 1839 by Mr D Geddes, RN Surgeon, during which time the said ship was employed on a voyage to Port Jackson, New South Wales.

Folios 1-2: F W Newman, aged 35, Gardener; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 2 June 1839, at sea. Discharged, 13 June 1830. Had been affected for 6 days with a vesicular eruption on the right shoulder and upper thorax with a degree of febrile action.

Folios 3-4: John Boots, aged 4; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 12 June 1839, at sea. Discharged, 18 June 1839.According to his mother he had been affected with nausea and sickness for several days. Anything taken into the stomach was rejected almost immediately, his bowels were constipated and his abdomen hardened and tumified, pulse quick, skin hot and dry, tongue dry and covered with a brownish coating.

Folios 4-6: Fanny Hawkins, aged 22, wife of James Hawkins; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 2 August 1839, at sea. Died, 8 August 1839.Complained of cold shiverings alternating with flushes of heat during the night, restlessness, headache, sense of fullness in the stomach and abdomen with pain of back and limbs.

Folios 6-8: Spencer Butlin's child, Thankful Butlin, aged 16 months; disease or hurt, acute phrenitis. Put on sick list, 3 August 1839, at sea. Died, 3 August 1839. Brought to the hospital in the morning by his mother to show an eruption on the surface of his body which had appeared some days previously. He had also been very much purged but had continued to be playful and move about. The cutaneous affection was of a papular character and several of the papulae on the breast were 'in a state of imperfect suppuration'. He was given calomel, put in a warm bath, his head was shaved and a blister applied, the temples were cupped and synapisms applied to the soles of the feet. At 10pm he died. His body was examined the following day and 'there was much turgessence in the brain and its membranes and venous congestion to a considerable degree in the ventrales with about three ounces of a fluid resembling water in the base of the brain and commencement of the spinal cord'.

Folios 8-9: Mary Kemp, aged 37, wife of Richard Kemp; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 6 August 1839, at sea. Died, 13 August 1839.

Folios 9-10: Emily Kemp, aged 5, daughter of Richard Kemp; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 13 August 1839, at sea. Died, 19 August 1839.

Folio 10: Lucy Hyland, aged 7, daughter of Thomas Hyland; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 16 August 1839, at sea. Died, 2 September 1839.Had symptoms similar to the previous cases on 14 August but her parents did not report her sick until 16 August.

Folios 10-13: Elizabeth King, aged 19, wife of William King; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 18 August 1839, at sea. Died, 31 August 1839. Described as 'of a very gross habit of body... slovenly and careless about her person'. She was berthed in the part of the ship where the fever appeared to originate. On 20 August she miscarried a four month foetus.

Folios 13-16: Lucy Windsor, aged 21, wife of Alfred Windsor; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 3 September 1839, at sea. Died, 13 September 1839. She had been on the sick list for a slight attack of fever on 25 August but seemed to recover, although she never regained her strength.

Folios 16-20: Mary A Friend, aged 18; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 4 August 1839, at sea. Discharged, 24 September 1839. Had felt unwell for 2 or 3 days and occasionally affected with shivering alternated with heat and accompanied with pains of back and limbs. On 15 September she was still suffering from slight fever but was sent out of the hospital to make room for a woman in labour.

Folios 21-23: James Foster, aged 20; disease or hurt, 'complains of flatulence and occasional pains across the abdominal region'. Put on sick list, 23 August 1839, at sea. Died, 26 September 1839.Complained of flatulence, abdominal pains, loss of appetite and general uneasiness. He had felt uncomfortable for several days but thought he had caught a cold so did not complain. His symptoms gradually became more febrile and he became emaciated and exhausted.

Folio 23: Mrs Baker, aged 41; Mrs Watkins, aged 28; Mrs Martin, aged 20; all convalescent from a complaint resembling Foster's, being debilitated were landed and conveyed to the General Hospital at Sydney, 30 September 1839.

Folio 23: A nosological synopsis of the sick book kept during the period of this journal, in conformity with the 30th article of the surgeon's instructions.

Folios 24-25: Surgeon's general remarks. Continued fever and diarrhoea were for a time epidemic. The former appeared in Latitude 32 12 S and longitude 15 16 W before which there was no disease of any importance aboard. It generally began in a very insidious way, the person affected suffering only slight indisposition, with regular bowels and no disturbance of sleep. There was generally giddiness and a sense of weight in the head, dullness of the eye and when the disease had continued for some weeks, deafness prevailed. Ultimately diarrhoea and dysenteric purgings came on and death followed about the end of the third or fourth week after symptoms started. The fever and diarrhoea was confined almost entirely to the women and children and, with one exception, all the women who died were nursing. The disease broke out in 'a part of the ship where the people were particularly disposed to indolence, filth and insubordination'. Every means was used to enforce cleanliness and ventilation but the complaints continued until all but the men had suffered severely and many were dead. Quinine was given when remissions were clearly marked but it affected the bowels so violently it had to be discontinued. Blue pill and powder of rhubarb in small repeated doses were most effectual in alleviating the symptoms. Signed D Geddes RN. Surgeon Superintendent.

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Topics

Nursing

Australia and Pacific

Children

Navy

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Sex and gender