Medical and Surgical Journal of Her Majesty?s Hired surveying vessel Beaver for 25...

Medical and Surgical Journal of Her Majesty’s Hired surveying vessel Beaver for 25 March to 8 June 1863 by Dr Edward B Bogg, Assistant Surgeon in charge, during which time the said vessel was employed in the North Pacific.

Folio 1: Title page. Folios 2 – 3: Mr E R Blunden, aged 21, Acting Second Master; disease or hurt, abscess in the right upper arm. Put on sick list, 3 April 1863, Esquimalt Harbour, Vancouver Island. Discharged, 20 April 1863. He abraded the skin of his right index finger a month earlier at rifle practice but thought nothing of it. Powder must have got into the wound and infected it, causing it to take a long time to heal. His arm became inflamed.

Folios 3 – 4: Vincente Domenico, aged 21, Ship’s Cook; disease or hurt, gonorrhoea. Put on sick list, 1 May 1863, at sea. Discharged, 31 May 1863. Contracted through ‘connexion with an Indian squaw at Nanaimo’ on 26 April 1863.

Folios 5 – 11: Blank. Folio 12: A nosological synopsis of the sick book. Contains only 3 cases.

Folios 13 – 14: Table II and Table III, not completed.

Folios 14 – 15: Table IV, for period 25 March to 8 June 1863. Mean numerical strength of the Ship’s Company 29.

Folios 15 – 21: Surgeon’s general remarks.

Folios 15 – 16 contain remarks on the general health of the crew while the Assistant Surgeon was in charge. The crew were made up of volunteers from HMS Hecate and men draughted from HMS Topaze. There were few cases but they included an abscess, an unexplained spasmodic action of the arm and a case of tine sycosis arising from microsporon mentagrophytes. The salt diet was supplemented with shellfish and nettles. There is a description of measures taken to avoid lead poisoning while painting the ship.

Folios 16 – 20 contain a description of the Hydah Indians at Nanaimo, their way of life, their intermarriages with miners, prostitution, their hunting and fishing methods, houses, religion, the custom of flattening the heads of children and mode of burial. On folio 17 are illustrations of a canoe, paddle, spear and fishing rake, and of a ‘Patagonian wigwam’. On folio 18 is an illustration of the ‘Lodge of Edensaw, Chief of the Hydah Indians’ and an illustration of the ‘Skull of a Northern Indian from the Stikee River, drawn from actual measurements’.

Folio 19 has an illustration of the ‘Indian mode of burial’. On folio 20 is a sketch map of ‘Beaver Creek’ showing soundings in fathoms.

Folios 20 – 21 contain a description of Beaver Creek [off Loughborough Inlet], described as a good anchorage, its surrounding countryside and wildlife, there is a transcription in musical notation of the call of the Oregon Piping Robin. They also visit Topaze Harbour, where there was an abandoned Indian village, and Otter Cove on the way back to Esquimalt. The Assistant Surgeon rejoined HMS Devonshire for her voyage to Mazatlan.

Folio 21 – 23: Lists and classifies zoological and botanical specimens seen or procured by Dr Bogg in British Columbia. Folios 24 – 26: Contain meteorological tables.

Folio 27: Table giving the mean barometric and thermometric observations for different times of day. Note listing instruments used; Service Aneroid Barometer, No 38; Schonbein’s Ozonometer; Thermometer by Casella, KO 2387. Folio 27: Table giving places visited and dates of arrival and departure.

Folios 27 – 28: Charts of the tides at Beaver Creek from 2 to 15 May 1863.

Folio 29: Table of ‘Tides observed at Beaver Creek, Loughborough Inlet, British Columbia’ showing times and height of high and low water, wind direction, pressure, moon’s transit and lunitidal interval. Folio 29: Daily Sick List (names and details follow). Mr E R Blunden, aged 21, Acting 2nd Master; disease or hurt, abscess in right arm. Put on sick list, 6 April 1863. Sent to Esquimalt Hospital, [8 April 1863]. Vincente Domenico, aged 21, Ship’s Cook; disease or hurt, gonorrhoea. Put on sick list, 31 May 1863. Discharged to duty, [30 June 1863]. William Ward, aged 38, Quarter Master; disease or hurt, catarrh. Put on sick list, 24 May 1863. Discharged to duty, [30 May 1863].

Topics

Hunting

Maps and plans

Weapons

Children

Disease

Navy

Crime

Fishing

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Sex and gender