CHOLEEA ON SHIP-BOAED.
37
cholera as it occurred on board a twenty-six gun ship, while she lay in the harbour of Bombay : — Six of her officers went on shore "for a spree;" they remained there a day or two, and " had no sooner returned to the ship than' three of them were seized with cholera;" they all three died.* A few days afterwards a part of the crew were allowed to land ; no less than forty of them were attacked with cholera, and ^.ve died. Mr. Boyle goes on to observe that" in April, 1819, although cholera was in the town of Bombay, the crew of the " Malabar " were healthy. The ship sailed for England, and on the second night after her departure, cholera made its appearance among the sailors, and continued its ravages for five days ; in fact, until the vessel reached Cochin ; during this time some forty or fifty men were attacked, and eleven of them died.
Mr. Boyle relates another interesting case, that of H. M. Ship "Minden." " On the 5th of November, 1819, as she was on her passage to Bombay, between that place and Cochin, in precisely the same track as the former ships, she was visited with chalera, which continued with unrelenting violence to the 12th of the month. A few cases occurred after this period, but generally speaking they were of a mild and tract- able nature ; altogether there were fifty cases on board the " Minden," and of that number nine died. For some months previous to this the crew had* been comparatively healthy, and from the circumstance of having been for some time at sea, had no evident oppor- tunity of predisposing themselves by debauch ; but on interrogating those aff'ected with the complaint, it was
- ' A Treatise on the Epidemic Cholera of India,' p 31 By J
Boyle. London, 1821.
