Sea sickness

“ SEA-SICKNESS, the symptoms experienced by many persons when subjected to the pitching and rolling motion of a vessel at sea, of which depression, giddiness, nausea and vomiting are the most prominent. They generally show themselves soon after the vessel has begun to roll by the onset of giddiness and discomfort in the head, together with a sense of nausea and sinking at the stomach, which soon develops into intense sickness and vomiting. ”

“ Do not find any one suffering from sea sickness, but find some light cause for their indisposition and be sure and tell them so. I have an idea that the test of changing their minds about the cause of their being in bed will change their physical conditions, too. Will you do this for me? Take your medicine chest and leave each one some melted licorice in water. Tell them to take a tablespoonful of this wonderful tonic every hour—then we’ll see.”
“Why, Mr. Dalken, you would not have me tell these poor people that they are not ill with sea sickness, would you? ”

“ I have been lying in my berth in a state of quiescence, since Wednesday eve, and here it is Friday night-quiescence did I say?─far from it-no-I am not ashamed to acknowledge that I am subject to like frailties with my fellow mortals, I was sea sick. It is impossible to describe the feeling of sea sickness, so I will not attempt it. Every one knows that the malady is a subject of ridicule, and not of commiseration. ”

“ I was always struck with the resemblance of the earliest symptoms of this disorder with those of the sea-sickness. The anxiety, nausea, weariness, dejection, head-ach, are in both cases the same, and only differ in point of duration. It even happens sometimes, when a person is long and violently sick at sea, that some small degree of fever will appear at times, and the pulse shall be heavy and intermittent, as in the first period of the small-pox. ”

“ Sea-Sickness.—The cause of this is a nervous derangement of the internal organs, by which the bile passes into the stomach instead of, as it normally does, passing down into the intestines. A tight bandage round the middle of the body, so as to oppose resistance to this, will help so far. When the sickness has come on, a teacupful of hot water, at intervals, will very largely mitigate, and will often cure it. Even half a teacupful or a tablespoonful will prove sufficient in many cases where the teacupful cannot be taken. ”

“ This does not depend upon any thing peculiar to the climate; for I have known ships arrive without being visited with any sickness. It seems to be owing, for the most part, to that flock of infection and disease imported from Europe exerting its effects, and when this has spent itself, the men remain in good health, unless exposed to the land air or other accidents; for the air at sea in those climates, as well as every where else, is extremely pure and wholesome, and there is no where that seamen are more healthy or comfortable. ”

“ Consequently she tossed like a cork, and, consequently, there was an amount of suffering for two days that was amusing to everybody but the sufferers.
Sea-sickness is probably the most distressing of all the maladies that do not kill. The sickness from first to last is a taste of death. The resultant vomiting is of a nature totally different from any other variety of vomiting known. The victim does not vomit—he throws up. There is a wild legend that one man in a severe fit of sea-sickness threw up his boots, but it is not credible. ”

“ It afterwards proved that we had escaped a heavy gale in the Channel, another at Madeira, and another on [the] Coast of Africa. But in escaping the gale, we felt its consequences—a heavy sea. In the Bay of Biscay there was a long and continuous swell, and the misery I endured from sea-sickness is far beyond what I ever guessed at. I believe you are curious about it. I will give you all my dear-bought experience. Nobody who has only been to sea for twenty-four hours has a right to say that sea-sickness is even uncomfortable. ”

“ The sea-sickness, generally attacks persons unaccustomed to voyages on the ocean, particularly if they embark in a small vessel, which is not deeply laden. On the other hand, passengers in very large ships are less violently affected; as the waves make only a slight impression on the latter. People advanced in years, and also children (especially if they be of a dark complexion) are less liable to this complaint than those who are in the prime of life, and possess a fair skin. ”

“ WHEN such an apparently simple disorder as sea-sickness exists in the midst of mankind for at least two thousand years? claiming yearly more victims, and all in spite of the best efforts of medical mankind to overcome it, it becomes of interest to inquire whether this is because its true nature has never been understood, or because it is essentially incurable. ”

“ For some persons there is no escape, and they will be prostrate in their berths during the whole voyage of the ship, or just able to get around. But, in the majority of cases, sea-sickness may be wholly prevented by a free use of cathartics or anti-bilious remedies a day or two before departure on a voyage. ”

“ I was immediately affected with sea-sickness, which, however, lasted but a short time; I remained on deck constantly, forcing myself to exercise. ”

“ By some it is claimed to be a nervous disturbance, others contend that it is purely a stomachic affair and the nerves have nothing to do with it, and there are others who argue that the brain is the seat of the disorder and disturbs the stomach by sympathetic action. There are wise men who charge sea-sickness to the spleen, the liver, or other internal organs, and it is not impossible that we may yet hear of a savant who attributes it to corns on the toes. Sea-sickness is a mystery, and the more we study it the more are we at sea as to its exact operation. ”

“ I do not think you would be likely to be ill so long as you might have been had you encountered a gale directly we got out of the river, but I think that if it comes on rough all those addicted to sea-sickness are likely to suffer more or less. Some people are ill every time rough weather comes along, however long the voyage. ”

“ The vomiting is liable to exacerbations according to the amount of oscillation of the ship; but seasons of rest, sometimes admitting of sleep, occasionally intervene. With the sickness there is great physical prostration, as shown in the pallor of the skin, cold sweats and feeble pulse, accompanied with mental depression and wretchedness. In almost all instances the attack has a favourable termination, except in the case of persons weakened by other diseases. ”

“ On the other hand, some high authorities have recommended the employment of nerve stimulants, such as a small cupful of very strong coffee, to be taken about two hours before sailing, which will frequently prevent or mitigate the sickness. When the vessel is in motion, or even before starting, the recumbent position with the head low and the eyes closed should be assumed by those at all likely to suffer, and, should the weather admit, on deck rather than below—the body, especially the extremities, being well covered. ”

“ Other contributory causes may be mentioned, such as the feeling that sickness is certain to come, which may bring on the attack in some persons even before the vessel has begun to move; the sense of the body being in a yielding medium, the varied odours met with on board ship, and circumstances of a like nature tend also to precipitate or aggravate an attack. ”

“ Swinging couches or chambers have not proved of any practical utility. No doubt there is less risk of sickness in a large and well-ballasted vessel than in a small one; but, even though the rolling may be considerably modified, the ascending and descending movements which so readily produce nausea continue. None of the medicinal agents proposed possess infallible properties: a remedy which suits one person will often wholly fail with another. ”

“ One ov the best temporary cures for pride and affektashun that i hav ever seen tried iz sea sickness; a man who wants tew vomit never puts on airs. ”

“ All the diseases incident to a fleet, except the scurvy, are more apt to arise in a harbour than at sea, and particularly the violent fevers peculiar to hot climates. There are generally woods and marshes adjacent to the anchoring places in the West Indies, and the men are exposed to the bad air proceeding from thence, either in consequence of the ship’s riding to leeward of them, or of people’s going on shore on the duties of wooding and watering. ”

“ This advantage is still greater in the tropical regions, where the land air, especially such as proceeds from woods and marshes, is so fatal, and where the heat is also considerably less at sea than on shore. But this superior purity of the air at sea is 226 more than counterbalanced by the artificial means of propagating diseases on board of a ship. Since a sea life, however, has this great natural advantage to health, the causes of disease peculiar to it are chargeable rather to the mismanagement of men than to any thing unavoidable in nature ”

“ It certainly cannot be accounted strange that infectious diseases, once started among them, should have run through their ranks like fire, taking both old and young. Nor is it strange that—though more inured to hardship and the conditions of sea life—with the extreme and unusual exposure of boat service on the New England coast in mid winter, often wading in the icy water and living aboard ship in a highly infected atmosphere, the seamen should have succumbed to disease in almost equal ratio with the colonists. ”

“ Though contagion is not so apt either to arise or to spread in this climate as in colder ones, there were several circumstances about this time tending to prove that it may exist in a hot climate. Those ships which had their men returned to them from the French prizes, in all of which fevers prevailed, had an increase of sickness not only in the men that were returned, but in the rest of the crew. There was another presumption of contagion, from the proportion of mortality among the surgeons and their mates, who were by their duty more exposed to the breath, effluvia, and contact of the sick. ”

“ We are far safer here than in the boat; it is as if God had sent us deliverance."
"Yet we face disease—cholera?"
"I do not hold that a peril—not to us, if we use precautions. That is an ever-present sea danger, and I have read every book treating of the disease. So long as we are well fed and keep in the fresh air, we are not liable to suffer. The dead are overboard and every hatch closed. I will have the deck scoured from end to end. The bedding we need, and the food, is being brought up from the boat; we shall come in contact with nothing to spread the disease. ”

“ The diseases most frequent and prevalent at sea have this advantage, that they are more the subjects of prevention than most others, because they depend upon remote causes that are assignable, and which increase and diminish according to certain circumstances, which are in a great measure within our power. ”

“ The weather kept pleasant, but with a heavy wind blowing, compelling us to take a reef in the canvas, but the schooner was an excellent sea boat, and all alike felt the exhilaration of rapid progress. Dorothy and I glanced over the log, but gained little information. The vessel had been driven into the northwest by a succession of storms, and lack of provisions had weakened the crew, cholera broke out among them the third day at sea, the first victim being the cabin steward. With no medicine chest aboard and everything below foul, the disease spread rapidly. ”

“ Thus the exhalations of the earth from marshes are more apt to produce fevers; and mere excesses of heat and cold, or moisture, are more apt to produce fluxes; just as in Europe a catarrh, which may be considered as a local febrile affection, as well as a dysentery, will be excited by exposure to cold or damp, without any specific bad quality in the air. 45
The Ajax and Montague are the only two ships of those left in the West Indies, which are included in the estimate of sickness and mortality in November and December, and they bear a very great proportion to the whole ”

“ One great source of the diseases of sea-faring people is excess. When they get on shore, after having been long at sea, without regard to the climate, or their own constitutions, they plunge headlong into all manner of riot, and often persist till a fever puts an end to their lives. Thus intemperance, and not the climate, is often the cause why so many of our brave sailors die on foreign coasts. Such people ought not to live too low ”

“ The surgeon of the Ardent told me about the same time, that one third of the crew of that ship was ill of fevers.
The second cause of the prevalence of sickness, while the fleet was at Jamaica, was, the watering duty, which was carried on at Rock-fort, about three leagues from Port Royal. It was the practice of many of the ships to leave the water casks on shore all night, with men to watch them ”

“ It has appeared in the preceding part of this work, that the diseases most prevalent among seamen are fevers, fluxes, and the scurvy. These are indeed some of the most fatal that can attack the human body; but there is a numerous tribe of complaints, which are also some of the most severe scourges of human nature, from which they are in a manner entirely exempt.—These are the diseases to which the indolent and luxurious are subject, and which so far embitter their life as to render their portion of worldly enjoyment nearly on a level with that of the poor and laborious. ”

“ What is called the land-scurvy, however, is seldom attended with those highly putrid symptoms which appear in patients who have been long at sea, and which, we presume, are rather owing to confined air, want of exercise, and the unwholesome food eaten by sailors on long voyages, than to any specific difference in the disease. ”