The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-07 00:00:00

YELLOW FEVER.

At the meeting of the Epidemiological Society on
the 2d inst., Dr. Babington, P.R.S., president, in
the chair, a paper was read on the recent prevalence
of yellow fever in some of her Majesty's ships of
the West India squadron on their arrival at Hali-
fax, communicated by Dr. Slayter, the health offi-
cer of the port. These ships, all of them steamers,
were the Firebrand, Spiteful, Jason, Racer, Barra-
(mute, and Mersey. Many of the details respecting
the large amount of sickness and death among the
crews of several of these vessels are of painful
public interest. When the Firebrand reached
Halifax from Jamaica at the beginning of last July
it was found that she had lost 10 of her men
during the passage, and that no fewer than 79
were on the six :list, many of them moribund.
The attendants were of course exhausted from
constant watching, and there was general
dejection among all on board. Several fresh eases
and 18 deaths occurred after the ship's arrival.
Altogether the Firebrand lost 49 of her crew
since the first appearance of the disease on board.
Its malignancy had been much aggravated by the
bad state of the atmoshere in her 'tween decks,
where there could be no ventilation, as the port-
holes had been closed in consequence of the stormy
weather which had prevailed. The Spiteful fared
nearly as ill as the Firebrand, for she lost 10 of her
crew during the passage from the Bahamas, and
there were 46 on the sick list on reaching Halifax.
Her total loss amounted to 36. The Racer had 61
of her crew attacked with the fever, and of these
attacks 20 were fatal. Five of the deaths occurred
on the passage from Nassau. The case of the Jason
is especially worthy of notice. She arrived at Ha-
lifax on the 2d Sept., 1861, after a voyage of 19
days from the Gulf of Mexico, where yellow fever
had appeared on board about the end of July.
During the passage 46 fresh attacks and 10 deaths
took place. While at Halifax the ship was cleansed
out, and accumulations of filth removed from her
hold. Her ventilation, too, was considerably im-
proved by taking down obstructive bulkheads and
by cutting fresh hatches in the upper and lower
decks. She sailed from Halifax in the middle of
November on her return to the Gulf of Mexico.
Within 10 days of her departure fever of a typhoid
character began to manifest itself among the crew.
During the next three months or so occasional
cases of the fever occurred, and the general state of
health on board was not satisfactory. In
March,
while the ship was off the Mexican coast, and after
asudden weather, the northerly
winds havi change
ceased,and the
e a
state of
the atmosphere supervening, the fever cases assumed
c
closemuggy
the malignant type of decided yellow fever. In
consequence of this she had again to leave the
tropics for a cooler latitude, and she returned to
Halifax a second time within six months. Notwith-
standing her former purification the bilges of the
ship were never perfectly sweet, and at times were
very offensive. These brief statements indicate
that the sanitary and hygienic condition of many
of our ships of war is anything but what it ought
to be, and they point, moreover, to some obvious
defects in their condition.