CHOLERA ON SHIP-BOARD.
35
the lascars were fed merely on rice and salt-herrings, with only half a pint of water per diem, and the sani- tary arrangements of that part of the ship in which they lived were fearfully bad. During the month of January 1814', the disease in question commenced, " being sudden in its attacks, and more so in its fatal termination ; there were no premonitory symptoms : it at once began in all its terror and violence, and terminated in from twelve to thirty ho*urs. The finest Malay men were the first to suffer, and generally fell victims to the disease.* It commenced with a swelling and hardness about the epigastric region, with a sense of constrictive pressure of the thorax ; violent vomit- ing; the excretions from the intestinal canal were equally disordered, as exhibited by continual watery stools, coldness of the extremities, with a sense of numbness and cramp in some cases. The feet oede- matous ; pulse low, and sometimes hardly perceptible ; the skin dry and cold, with a sense of burning heat in the bowels and stomach ; 'the countenance soon became melancholy, sad, and fallen, but the most predomi- nant and distressing symptom was general s|)asm ; the extreme spasmodic rigidity of the abdominal muscles, and then of the neck and face, produced the most painful contortion of the mouth; a film seemed to cover the vision, and exhausted nature soon sank under such accumulated and dreadful suffering. During the short period of six weeks, sixty-five bodies were thrown overboard, and five men died four minutes subsequent to each other, just as we had cast anchor m Table Bay." The vessel was cleaned and purified
- ' Treatise on the late Epidemic as it appeared in the Central Divi-
sion of the Grand Army in the month of November, 1817.' Bv F Corbjn. 1818. '
