Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Background
- From Surgeon's Mate to Physician to the Fleet
- 3 HMS Berwick
- 4 Surgeon of a Slaver
- 5 Northumbrian Interlude
- 6 Recalled to the Colours
- 7 The Royal Hospital, Haslar
- 8 Physician to the Channel Fleet
- 9 The Conquest of Scurvy
- 10 Shore-Based in Plymouth
- 11 Honours and Half-Pay
- The Newcastle Years
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - The Conquest of Scurvy
from From Surgeon's Mate to Physician to the Fleet
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Background
- From Surgeon's Mate to Physician to the Fleet
- 3 HMS Berwick
- 4 Surgeon of a Slaver
- 5 Northumbrian Interlude
- 6 Recalled to the Colours
- 7 The Royal Hospital, Haslar
- 8 Physician to the Channel Fleet
- 9 The Conquest of Scurvy
- 10 Shore-Based in Plymouth
- 11 Honours and Half-Pay
- The Newcastle Years
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
WHILE HOWE AND BRIDPORT played cat and mouse with the French in the Channel, the greatest potential threat to health at sea continued to be scurvy. For decades the navy's operations had been undermined by the disease, which would appear after only six weeks and steadily turn the crew into enfeebled invalids. Even on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, memories of its devastating impact during the Siege of Gibraltar and Rodney's campaigns in the West Indies were fresh. Yet within a decade, scurvy had been all but overcome and consequent improvement in the navy's health was an important factor in its victories in the Napoleonic Wars. How this came about, and what role Thomas Trotter played in the transformation, will be the subject of this chapter.
‘Observations on the Scurvy’
When the Revolutionary War began, Trotter was one of the leading public voices discussing the problem of scurvy. His views had recently been published to favourable reviews in the second, 1792, edition of what he now called Observations on the Scurvy with a review of the opinions lately advanced on that disease and a new theory defended. The book ranged over a number of naval diseases, but scurvy remained Trotter's special interest. The revision of the book had given him the opportunity to present his current thinking on the disease.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Physician to the FleetThe Life and Times of Thomas Trotter, 1760–1832, pp. 110 - 123Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011