The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-02 00:00:00

PLSTILEN

Sometimes a ship has become so notoriously
sickly, that her name has become a name of dread,
and has been changed. In the case of one such ship,
the Rosamond, formerly the Eclair, the ventilation
between decks was found to be most imperfect, and
" there was a considerable accumulation of filth
under the magazine." Forty cases of fever broke
out between April and June, 'fifty-six, in the
Eurotas, while in the Mediterranean. Her medi-
cal officer was "unable to account for the disease,
unless it arose from the extreme lowness and close-
ness of the deck on which the men were berthed."
In May, 'fifty-eight, there was an outbreak of fever
in the Valorous, when on the way from Ferrol to
Plymouth : the sole ascertainable cause defective
ventilation. "Air," said Sir G. BI ane, " con tam in ated
by foul and stagnant exhalations, particularly those
from the living body, is the ascertained cause of
typhus fever, which has been a more grievous and
general source of sickness and mortality in the navy
then even the scurvy. The infection of fever is gene-
rated by the breath and perspiration of men, crowded
for a length of time in confined air, and without
the means of personal cleanliness." Freer ablution
is no doubt more practised by sailors than by soldiers,
among whom, with all the enforced regard to
cleanliness of dress, real cleanliness of person is
under our barrack system still impossible. The
smell of a marching regiment is sometimes in-
tolerable. The state of the air where men sleep
in barracks is as serious a cause of invaliding and
death, in the army, as the want of pure air for the
sailors in their berths between decks is of inva-
liding and death in the navy. Lord Herbert put
the country on the road to mighty changes ; and
lives enough to make a brigade of men are now
saved every year through his exertions. There is
still more to be done. "Wholesome air to sleep in is
a first requisite of health certainly not yet secured
in every barrack, or on board of every Queen's ship.
Fever broke out in the Princess Royal when she
was conveying troops from Malta to Alexandria, in
January, '5B. Boisterous weather made it neces-
sary to keep the ports, both on the main and lower
deck, barred in, during nearly the whole of the pas-
sage. The disease was checked by bringing the
men up to the main deck. But the Princess Royal,
though a new ship, had been always sickly ; im-
perfect ventilation of the sleeping space being the
sole assignable reason. Whatever the disease, the
want of fresh air by the sick will beget or
strengthen it. The Megtera, in '5B, put cif from
Calcutta with cholera on board. At sea the cholera
increased. There came boisterous weather, the
main deck ports had to be kept shut, and the.
sick therefore were brought on deck and p.leic_e!
under an awning. Flom that time, though d
the
disease eighth part of the crew had perished,
disease was then making head, the cholera
Ire she
and soon disappeared. In the Britannia, where
of the
was in the Black Sea, just before the sailing anbsided,
days two
expedition to the Crimea, within file
nine
hundred and twenty-nine of a crewand twenty were attacked with cholera, ,and of
n.ine died. There
these one hundred and thirty-nine
rid of the
seemednh to be benefi-
cial put to sea to ge
were also four hundred cases of ddliasrerahsceeao.n Theits ship
had
eshiaruinntgairtsoeulgf,havindeat
e ower deck
outwithall its
ports had to be closed. Then, on the following
fury. As soon
removed into some empty tran-
thheorcboaanufee,
as the crew could
night, oholer
tran-
sports the scourgevanished,ere killed
ianftetrhedeusthro3
as many a broke
b e
the enemy's fire in the attack on the sea battyries
yieinflgeettwibeye
the Year Bound." of Sebastopol.—Lick.ens,s

A letter from Vienna says :—" The amlunt of
the reduction which id announced to take place in the army
is the object of various conjectures. The
.Preas sneaks of
20,000 men and 8,00 horses ; this latter figure is evidently
too high,
unless the saddle horses formerly purchitsed in
Dalmatia are included. On the other hand, it is said tha
there is no intention of fixing a determined number to which
the reduction should be carried, but simply to accord leave
of absence to the extant of several thousands in the various
corps d'arrnee not stationed in Venetia."