Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1874-11-05

en- Immediately upon going on board
Herr Emmerich, Dissertatio, &c; Herr
Thiesen, Dissertdtio, &c, f; Ludwig. Disser.
tdtio, &c.; Hev. Dissertatio, &C.; and il
these do not produce sea-sckness before
the harbor is cleared, sea-watcr, mingled
with wine, will go for nothing. Anecdoti
caiiy, however, or even historically, we
are not without some ana relating to this
topic. We are told that when Cicero heard
OF his name having been included among
those of the 300 Senators prescribed by
Mark Antony, he took refuge in vessel,
and put to sea. In this, however, his suffer.
ings were so great that he felt the inevita-
bic fate awaiting him must be preferable
to the horrors of sea-sickness, and so re-
turned to Gaeta to await decaptation, Sit
non zero, &C., it represents no more than
tens of thousands have endured during a
lively passage" from Dover to Calais.
LoSd Nelson, as is we'll known, never ov-
empowered this physical weakness, nor
did Sir James Brooke; Lady Dalhousie
died from its effects on her way home
ward from India.
Coming now to the cause. and affecting
no scientific theory whatever, we find our
selves in marvellous labyrinth of contra
dictions, old and new Notwithstanding
the literature already spoken of, science
has occupied itselfvery little, in serious
sense, with this matter. There are expla-
nations, in great variety. no doubt For
example, the French physician, Bauris,
attributes sea-sickness TO the apparent in
stability of all surrounding objects; but,
in that case, blind people would be ex-
empt. which they notor.ously are not.
Wollaston thought that the laws OF gravi.
ty were Indignantly upset by the ungov-
ernable motions of ship in bad weather !;
and Peter Penne ascribed the evil to .sdev-
elrics' at work on sea as well as on land.
But this army OF spectators is too formi-
dable 10 be dealt with otherwise than by a
flank march, and so guIria epGsSI. As to
our third heading, Greece alone could
give Il name to (which was mo name"
the unnameable. Persons who have look
ed for the improved passage, and who
live in hope, may take note of the Ills
they are not flying from, rs described by
unsparins physiciaus-iear, nausea, pros
tration, giddiness, faintness. apathy, YER
tigo, pailor, heart burn, swoons, cold per-
spiration, sense as OF dying, return of
long-forgottcn pains, and headaches to be-
gin with; a white tongue, loathing stom-
ach, an impeded breathing. aud i genera
sense of wishing to be Immediately drown
ed or hanged. Nor do these torments
cease after land has been safely trodden ::
there Is such thing as express railway
sickness, as bed heaving up and down
at q hotel; As sea-sickness deepening into
fever and proving fatal. But, happily.
there is humorous aspect even to this
dolorous suffering, which Hood reckoned
like tooth ache, among the comic diseas-
e.. Thackeray, sketching white
Squail' in the Levant, describes how
The steward jumps up, and hastens
ith the necessary basins"
10 Hood allusion has already been made
But Dickens was merciless in his sketch
OF Atlantic misery-the frights and pans
The prophetic question on embarkiny.
Are you good sailor:'' the precipitate
retTenents from the first dinner on board :;
the desperate laying in of cognac and
shelter; the silent agonies on sofas, -
and the French ladies' maid "a mere bun
die on the floor, execrating her destiny"
There was the gentleman who informed
his fellow-traveler that a-sickness was
like the drowned returning to lite;' the
other who perpetually asked" What is
sickness the third, who malciouslv
advised course0f hot roast pig and
bottled ale" This brings us to remedies.
plnnlnS our faith TO none. They are num-
erous and miscellaneous but foremost is
command over the nerves, tor a great
authority says. Il have, over and over.
again. observed people arming themselves
with basins, and lying down in a helpless
manner, even before the vessel has lett the
harbor. Those who know, as all ply 81
clans do, the extraordinary effects OF the
Imagination upon the bodily functions will
not hesitate to ascribe to this preJeterini-
nation to be Ill "a very considerable infiu-
ence in bringing about the result which so
generally follows" Perhaps there may be
some connection between this and two or
three other well-ascertained truths-that
women are more liable to the malady than
men, and take a longer time before grow
ing accustomed to the sea; that very Young
children are but slightly susceptble-rare-
ly at all before two years of age; that
such animals as dogs, sheep, and horses,
notoriously nervous, suffer in greater de-
gree than many others. Well, but what
to do! The prescription is large one,
apart from the wine and salt water of the
Salerno Academy; constrasting-belts bags
OF hot salt, applications of ice, hammock
seats, brandy and water, cognac and soda,
champagne and soda, bottled stout. liberal
meals, total abstinence, keeping the deck, i,
seeking your berth Immediately upon go
ing on board, lyiog along the planks, no
matter what the weather may be, with
your head to the stem OF the vessel, swal-
lowing by turns hydro, cyanic acid. creos-
ote, opium, sparkling hockaromatic acids,
toncs. and let us pause-chlorOform, ar
row-root with sherry, and turning in
despair to the American, DR.. Wood, "noth-
ing is SO acceptable to the stomach, under
the circumstances, as raw oysters" 1t is
upon record that of Atlantic passengers
less than one in four escape, and of those
between Newhaven and Dieppe still fewer.
though all doctors do not regard sea-sick.
ness as an unmitigated evil. On the COLI
trary, it has been held efficacious in cases
of impaired appetite, general debility,
asthma, whooping-cough, and even con-
sumption; and one physician positively
recommends mothers to boat their babies
at the seaside until the direful conse-
quences ensue. Now, between raw oys-
ters and iced champagne, .'determina-