Robert W. Lovett

“ Whether or not the individual is to be sick, and the duration and extent of his sickness, seem to depend to a certain extent on the general condition of the system, and also somewhat upon wholly unknown conditions, in many cases the most robust yielding the first. In this connection it is an interesting fact that children under three or four years are almost invariably exempt from sea-sickness, although ordinarily they vomit so much more readily than adults. ”

“ The phenomena of sea-sickness are too well known to need detailed description. Violent and persistent vomiting is associated with it in most minds, and is the prominent symptom in most cases; but there are also a cold, clammy skin, headache, continuous nausea, great prostration, and indifference, the whole being accompanied by nervous irritability, and, in most cases, intense mental depression. ”

“ Why such gradual motions should cause sea-sickness, while much more violent ones, such as horseback-riding, do not, can only be explained by saying that in the more violent ones the individual has a stimulus to adapt his positions to the motion, which he has not in the often unnoticed pitching of a ship. At any rate, this theory explains why lying down should afford relief, as the otoliths then rest at the back and less sensitive part of the canals ”

“ The belt to support the abdomen seems a rational remedy, but it was first proposed for that use in 1814, and but few to-day have even heard of it, and it seems fair to assume that suffering mankind would not have discarded a really efficient remedy. ”