Medical and surgical journal of Her Majesty's corvette Scout for 1 January to 31...

Medical and surgical journal of Her Majesty's corvette Scout for 1 January to 31 December 1873 by Raymond H Carroll, Surgeon, during which time the said ship was employed in the Pacific.

Folio 1: Printed instructions on completion of the journal, nosological table and general remarks.

Folio 2: Nathaniel Dennis, aged 19, Ordinary Seaman; disease or hurt, slight inguinal hernia. Put on sick list, 1 May 1873, on passage from Vancouver to Valparaiso. Issued with a truss and sent to light duty.

Folio 3: George Dean, aged 36, Carpenter's Crew; disease or hurt, phlegmon. Put on sick list, 7 May 1873, on passage from Vancouver to Valparaiso. Discharged, 23 May 1873. About three years previously a needle had been driven into his hand near the little finger and he thought it had worked its way up his arm and was the cause of his trouble.

Folio 4: Joshua Coghlan, aged 30, Gunner; disease or hurt, syphilis and bubo. Put on sick list, 16 April 1873, at Esquimalt [British Columbia]. Sent to the hospital at Valparaiso, 24 June 1873.

Folio 5: William [Munn], aged 23, Marine; disease or hurt, insanity. Put on sick list, 18 May 1873, on passage from Vancouver to Valparaiso. Invalided, 30 June 1873, at Valparaiso and sent home. Had been observed to be in a very unsettled condition and given much to reading, his grog had been stopped because it excited him and made him pugnacious, he spoke wildly and started awake suddenly from his sleep. He was kept in a cell under guard.

Folio 6: Daniel Duggan, aged 18, Ordinary Seaman; disease or hurt, contusion by a fall from aloft. Put on sick list, 26 April 18673, at Esquimalt Harbour. Discharged, 23 May 1873. Slipped stepping from the fore rigging into the foot ropes of the fore yard and fell, his fall being broken by one of the ventilators.

Folios 6-7: Henry [Humber], aged 20, Ordinary Seaman; disease or hurt, rheumatism. Put on sick list, 23 May 1873, on passage from Vancouver to Valparaiso. Discharged, 15 July 1873. He had been treated for severe rheumatic fever in the hospital at Lisbon three years earlier.

Folios 7-8: James Larkin, aged 39, Marine Artillery; disease or hurt, debility. Put on sick list, 23 May 1873, on the passage from Vancouver to Valparaiso. Sent by Mail Steamer to the hospital at Valparaiso, 6 October 1873. Suffering extreme debility and an ash coloured ulcer on the back of the pharynx.

Folio 8: James Birch, aged 41, Stoker; disease or hurt, debility. Put on sick list, 1 July 1873, at Valparaiso. Sent by Mail Steamer to the hospital at Valparaiso, 22 [July] 1873. Suffered dull heavy pain in both temples and back of head, much dyspnoea and debility. He had been invalided from the Australian Station in 1870 for rheumatic fever and from the China Station in 1867 for dysentery.

Folio 9: Charles Johns, aged 47, Armourer; disease or hurt, palpitation. Put on sick list, 12 September 1873, at Coquimbo. Sent to the hospital at Valparaiso, 26 September 1873.

Folio 9: John Hardman, aged 32, Captain of Quarter Deck; disease or hurt, erysipelas. Put on sick list, 23 July 1873, at Coquimbo. Sent by Mail Steamer to the hospital at Valparaiso, 20 September 1873. He was sent to the hospital at Valparaiso where he remained some time regaining strength before returning to the ship, he was still debilitated and was returned to the hospital.

Folio 10: Richard Montgomery, aged 23, Able Seaman; disease or hurt, bubo (lymp). Put on sick list, 14 January 1873, on passage from Esquimalt to Honolulu. Sent to the Queen's Hospital, Honolulu, 20 January 1873. Swelling of the glands of the left groin from a blow from the top sail yard while reefing.

Folio 11: Edward Scobell Class, aged 34, Naval Lieutenant; disease or hurt, palpitation. Put on sick list, 27 August 1873, at Coquimbo. Sent by Mail Steamer to the hospital at Valparaiso, 12 September 1873. He suffered sleepless nights and feared a sudden fatal termination of his illness. His case appeared more a mental than an organic disease.

Folio 11: Patrick [Walsh], aged 26, Able Seaman; disease or hurt, fracture of right clavicle and second and third toes of right foot. Put on sick list, 25 February 1873, at Honolulu. Struck by the fore top gallant studding sail yard on the shoulder and foot while at exercise in making sail. He remained unable to go aloft.

Folio 12: Showing the movements of the ship during the period of this journal. Ports called at; Honolulu, Esquimalt, Valparaiso, Coquimbo, Talcahuano, Juan Fernandez, Tongoi.

Folio 12: Table II, A list of men who, during the period of this journal, have received wounds or hurts which may disqualify them for the Public Service, or subsequently in any way interfere with their earning a livelihood. Patrick Walsh, aged 26, Able Seaman, Fracture of right clavicle and toes, will be given a pension certificate on the ship being paid off.

Folio 13: Table III, not completed.

Folio 14: Table IV, All the cases between the 1 January and the 31 December.

Folio 15: Table V, Table showing the number of cases of diseases, arranged by age ranges.

Folios 16-24: Surgeon's general remarks. The Scout visited Honolulu, 17 January 1873, on news of the death of King Kamehameha V and found two American ships there and a rumour that the Sandwich Islands were to be annexed by the United States of America. Folios 16-18, contain an account of the earthquake in Valparaiso during the night of 7 July 1873, the first shock of which was felt on board ship. A subsequent shock caused panic in the British Hospital. Many houses were left with cracks in their walls and some had to be taken down. The inhabitants stayed in the streets all night and the following day, afraid to return to their homes. There are some remarks on a previous earthquake at Coquimbo. The city of La Serena, its hospital and college, are briefly described, the smelting works at La Compania and the Pacific Navigation Company. Education in Chile is said to be 'at a very low ebb', male children being sent to Europe if their families can afford it and the daughters taught only music and dancing. The difficulty of travelling in Chile is mentioned. The decrease in rainfall in the last twenty years and its consequences are discussed, both in Chile and at the Juan Fernandez Islands. On folios 20-23, the town of Andacollo and its copper mines are described briefly and the shrine of the Virgin, to which thousands make a pilgrimage every year. The story of the statue being brought from Quinto to La Serena about 160 years previously and taken from there to Andacollo, is related. The statue itself is described and the people who visit it, the gifts they make and the festivities and procession on 26 December. On folios 23 and 24 the surgeon summarises the diseases encountered and the relative lack of syphilis at Coquimbo when compared to Valparaiso.

Folios 25-30: Alphabetical Sick List.

Topics

Shipping

Art, architecture and design

Canals and river transport

Mental illness

Asia

Europe and Russia

Pay and pensions

Weapons

Children

Disease

Navy

Americas

Disasters and emergencies

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Mining and quarrying