The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-07-28 00:00:00

MONTE VIDEO,

Dates from Monte Video are to the 27th April. General
Lavalle had beaten and entirely dispersed the Buenos Ayrean
under Echegue. General Rosas had accepted the Presidency
for six months only. Flour was quoted at 19 dollars. Ex-
change 45d. Another emission of twelve millions funds at 60
Or cent. was sanctioned, which caused a further depreciation
of the currency, although the emission does not take place
immediately, but in all the year, as may be required.
Doubloons were sold at 360 dollars currency each. The
quantity of hides held by German houses alone, was estimated
at 450,000, besides many other large parcels by other foreign
houses. The quantity of wool, skins, and other produce also
very large, and sufficient to load two hundred and fifty or
more average sized vessels.

THE HEALTH OF THE NAVY

(From the Morning Chronicle.)

We have received infinite gratification by statistical reports
on the health of the navy, for the years 1830, 1831, 1832,
1833, 1834, 1835, and 1836, from the South American, West
Indian and North American, Mediterranean, and Peninsular
commanders, ordered by the House of Commons to he printed
2d March, 1840. _ _ _ _ _

The improvement in the health of seamen of late years is
so surprisingly great as almost to stagger belief. On the
West Indian and North American station, for instance, the
mortality for 1836 was only at the rate of 72 per cent., little
more than seven per thousand of mean force of squadron.
In latitudes with respect to which the notion of great un-
healthiness is associated, it appears that in the navy, in
consequence of excellent arrangements, the mortality is
actually less than in England. The changes in the system
of the navy which have led to these results only began in
1797.

" It cannot be questioned," says Dr. Wilson, in a well-
written introduction, " that the abundant and excellent pro-
visions supplied to ships of war, contributed largely to the
high degree of health now enjoyed in the Royal Navy. For-
merly a ship of war was, on many accounts, an object of
aversion : destructive disease under various forms, being
one. Scurvy, putrid ulcer, malignant dysentery, and fever
allied to that of gaols, suddenly swept off the greater por-
tions of many ships' crews, and well nigh depopulated fleets.
Many causes, no doubt, concurred to occasion those mala-
dies ; but in the production of the first and worst, the most
fertile and constant, was insufficient nutrition, resulting
from scanty and unwholesome food. It is matter of sur-
prise not less than of regret now, that the pervading agency
which led to such disastrous results on health in those days,
should not have been known, or, if suspected, was not
counteracted. Till the year 1796, scurvy continued to in-
fest the fleet, to cripple its power by the number it affected,
and in many instances to produce a large amount of mor-
tality. In 1797 the victualling was changed, greatly im-
proved, and strictly regulated; and consequent, immediately
to the change, the health of seamen improved strikingly.
Scurvy, typhus fever, dysentery, and ulcer, which up to the
period of change had produced great havoc, became compara-
tively rare in occurrence and light in impression. Some
ships in particular circumstances suffered from one or more
of those diseases ; but the sweeping epidemics of former
years, which often rendered individual ships, and sometimes
entire fleets totally ineffective, became unknown. Since 1797,
various improvements have been introduced into the victual-
ing of the navy ; such as giving cocoa in lieu of gruel (Hugo)
for breakfast, issuing salt meat at a much earlier period after
being cured, the supply of better articles, and the substitu-
tion of tea for the afternoon alloWanee'of spirits ; and with
every improvement in these respe4s, as a general result has
there been further improvement in health, till the four forms
of disease at no distant date so destructive, are scarcely known
except by name."
_

One of the means of improving the health of the seamen,
which has been resorted to with admirable effect, is the es-
tablishment of libraries on board her Majesty's ships. The
healthful state of the mind is necessary to the healthful state
of the body, and without agreeable mental occupation, the
mind necessarily droops.
" By an admiralty order, dated August 1838, libraries are
directed to be established in each of her Majesty's ships, for
the use of the crew, furnished at the public expense, and
placed in the charge of the schoolmaster. The books, amount-
ing to 270 volumes for large, and 100 for smaller ships, ex-
clusive of bibles, are judiciously chosen, with the view of
combining amusement and instruction, and making the first
subsidiary to the last. Besides the accomplished men now
appointed to instruct the junior officers, it is further directed
by an order from the Admiralty, May, 1837, that a fit person
shall be appointed to give elementary education, comprehend-
ing reading, writing, and arithmetic, to the sailor boys, and
other seamen and marines, who may require it.

Boring for coal in many parts of the North Riding of York-
shire has commenced, and in some instances that valuable
mineral has been found, and at no great depth from the sur-
face. _ . . .

COLLECTION OF NEWSPAPERS.—We inserted a naragraph,
last week, extracted from the Derr.v Journal, stating that a
Mr. Jackson, of Moy, Ireland, had in his possession a very
large and curious collection of about 800 copies of different
papers. We have since been informed that a gentleman in
our own immediate neighbourhood, Mr. P. L. Sinimonds,
of Chichester, Sussex, has collected in the progress of a work
on which he is engaged, treating of the history of newspapers
of every country, a much larger and more valuable collection,
amounting nearly to 5,000 separate numbers of different
papers, from almost every island and country on the face of
the globe, in addition to many old and very curious foreign
and other files. So valuable has this large collection of news-
papers been deemed for the illustration of contemporaneous
commercial enterprise, and comparative civilization of diffe-
rent countries, that the trustees of the British Museum have
concluded an arrangement with Mr. Simmonds for the pur-
chase of his collection, and a large portion has already been
transferred to the library of that public institution for the
benefit of posterity. The work on newspapers, on which
Mr. Simmonds is engaged, will, we feel convinced, from the
research and labour which he has bestowed upon it, and the
popularity of the subject, prove of a very useful and interest-
ing description.—Salisbury and Wiltshire Herald.