man who can work best at the pump, and it will continue to be so as long as ships are insured to their full value!

The A. Bs., or real seamen, should pass an examination. But I have more to say, about clothing sufficient for a winter's passage down the channel, about cooks, and about stewards, that must be reserved for another opportunity, as this letter is getting too long. From yours, VERITAS.

To the Editor of the Nautical Magazine.

SLAVE CRUISING ON THE SOUTH-EAST COAST OF AFRICA, FROM A MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.

AN Army Medico-Chirurgical Society appears to have been established at Portsmouth, at which an interesting paper on the Slave Trade of the Eastern coast of Africa was read, at one of its monthly meetings, on Wednesday, the 2nd of February, by Dr. Stone, R.N. There is so much interesting and important information in it that we gladly transfer it to our own pages from the columns of that old established paper the Hants. Telegraph. Such papers indeed tend to promote the cause of christian commiseration, and will materially contribute to put down this unholy traffic.

The author says:

A brief account of slavery as it is carried on in this part of the world may be acceptable before entering into the medical details of the subject.

At present the principal actors in this traffic are Arabs from the Persian Gulf, who being too lazy and indolent to grow their own corn, make their own clothes, or, in fact, do anything whatever for themselves which they can avoid, have from time immemorial been slave owners. These generally leave the Persian Gulf in dhows early in the year and make for Zanzibar, which is about the chief market. Here they take in their cargoes and then make their way back by the S.W.

monsoon.

The supply of slaves is principally kept up from the interior of Africa. A strong chieftain conquers a weaker neighbour, takes his subjects prisoners, and transports them to the markets along the coast, where they are purchased by dealers, generally Arabs, who, in turn, sell them to the northern Arabs in the season. The prisoners are generally utilized on their journey from the interior, being made to carry elephants' tusks on their shoulders for the ivory market. arrival at one of these markets, Zanzibar for instance, they are sorted into lots according to sex, age, size, and physical capacity, and disposed of accordingly.

On

The slave market at Zanzibar is a curious place. You come suddenly upon it on turning a corner from a narrow street. It is an open space

of about an acre in extent, and here the slaves are arranged in rows, old men by themselves, old women by themselves, young men, young women, children (male and female), all in separate lots, stand in rows, waiting listlessly until some purchaser bids for them.

The Arabs examine their purchases very critically, walking up and down the lines, looking at their eyes, ears, teeth, tongues, skins, etc., with a sort of professional minuteness. If they wish to examine a valuable purchase with more than ordinary care they withdraw into a private enclosure set aside for the purpose. Often as many as 500 or 600 slaves change hands daily; many of them look jaded and tired after their long journey from the interior, but as a rule they have not been much pressed, and their condition is generally very favourable so far.

Their miseries begin when they are packed in the dhows, which are small vessels averaging from 70 to 150 tons burthen, and carrying from 150 to 250 slaves. There is a sort of half deck running round the dhow, below which the slaves are stowed in a sitting posture, each one closely squeezed between the legs of the slave behind. During the voyage their diet consists of millet seed pulped and water, and this, coupled with their miserable condition on board the dhows, reduces them to a wretched plight in a few days. On one occasion we captured a dhow containing about 170 slaves, who had been three weeks on board. They were all reduced to mere skeletons, and in many instances could not totter on their cramped limbs. Most of them had large, sluggish ulcers, chiefly on prominent parts, elbows, buttocks, and knees, from being so closely packed, and they were all enveloped in their own excreta, having to perform all demands of nature as they crouched huddled together. Nearly all of them suffered from aggravated scabies and many from large anthraces. A few had a species of low fever, and some two or three suffered from acute pulmonary affections. They were regarded however by our officers as rather better off than cargoes captured the year before, being free from cholera, small-pox, or other epidemic.

The smell from a slave dhow even at a mile distance is very offensive, and is of course very conclusive evidence as to the nature of her cargo before boarding, as the slaves cannot be seen, being below the gunwale. Our first procedure on getting them on board was to cleanse them, which was done by gently playing a hose over the whole mass. They were then dried and made as comfortable as the limited area of our deck would admit. A very few days' treatment brought their sores into a healthy condition, and from crawling along the deck in a short time they were able to walk and run.

The horrors of an epidemic of choleraic diarrhoea amongst upwards of two hundred liberated slaves, crowded and huddled together on our small upper deck, are more easily imagined than described, most of them being too weak to move from the spot where they lay. This state of things was brought about by our omitting, as we afterwards learned, to make them separate the husks from the millet seed which they used for food before pounding it. The husk, by irritating the

intestinal canal, brought on violent diarrhoea, whereby we lost a considerable number by death. Small pox, too, sometimes occurs amongst liberated slaves on board a man-of-war. On liberation the cargoes are usually brought to Aden, where some are kept as domestic servants compulsorily for a period of years, after which they are freed; others are sent to Bombay, and some go to Seychelle.

From the foregoing account it will be observed that the greater part of the first half of the year is spent by cruisers on the cruising ground, so that vessels thus engaged are prevented from getting regular supplies of provisions and necessaries for lengthened periods. Aden or Zanzibar are the two places where vessels chiefly get supplies, and at neither of these is there a regular naval depôt. The result is that provisions, soups, tobacco, lime juice, rum, biscuit, and even medicines have to be purchased from Parsee dealers, who charge an exhorbitant price, and supply inferior articles. The rum is simply modified arrack, a not very wholesome stimulant. The lime juice is generally execrable stuff, the basis of which is some mineral acid. It is quite useless as a remedial agent, having quite failed to arrest the tendency to scurvy, which sometimes developed itself on board. All the other things supplied are likewise of inferior quality.

Notwithstanding this the health of ships' crews employed there is tolerably fair. However, there can be little doubt but that the health standard, to say nothing of the comfort of the men might be considerably raised by a good supply of the necessaries mentioned above, particularly lime-juice, so much required owing to the difficulty of having a constant supply of vegetables whilst cruising. Medicines are often much wanted. Even at Aden they can only be procured at considerable expense from the Parsee merchants or from the army medical authorities, who kindly oblige us occasionally. A naval depôt at Zanzibar or Seychelles, from the central position of either of these places, would obviate all this; a sick quarter, too, in so healthy a place as Seychelles, might not be out of place. Such a measure would not only be beneficial to the cruisers, but would also prove peculiarly economical, as really good necessaries might then be issued at a much lower cost.

A naval depôt could always afford a constant supply of really good salt beef, which, when tolerably decent, is by no means deficient in nutritive matter. It is only after continued immersion that the albuminous and nitrogenous elements are completely absorbed by the brine. Many of the diseases occurring on board ships serving on this station will be found to be the direct results of a deficient tone of constitution, brought about by want of a uniformly nutritious diet, and from the deficient supply of fresh vegetables, or an efficient substitute in the shape of good lime-juice. Thus chronic, indolent ulcers are frequent. These, no doubt, owe their long delay in healing to want of tone in the system, produced by imperfect nourishment. Scurvy, traces of which often present themselves, is due to the same cause.

Moon-blindness is probably another manifestation of deficient nutrition. A good proof of the direct influence of good diet is evidenced

here, as the disease usually disappears after a few days' generous living. Dr. Mansfield, serving in her Majesty's ship Racoon, first drew my attention to this fact, which he told me he had seen verified in several instances whilst serving on the Cape station and south east Coast of Africa. Remittent fever is frequent, and although not usually fatal, leaves debility, which lasts a long time. Here nutritious diet would no doubt be an incalculable benefit in influencing the subsequent effects of the disease. Rheumatism is frequent, and is probably the direct result of sleeping on deck, which practice is necessitated by the confined space and impure air below in small ships during the hot

weather.

In conclusion, our sending out cruisers to suppress the traffic is believed by those well acquainted with the subject to be productive of some good and also of much evil. The close packing of cargoes, the avoidance of the shore during the voyage, and consequently the scanty supply of water and provisions allowed to the slaves, has all arisen since we sent ships to suppress the slave trade. Formerly the owners found it to their advantage to keep their cargoes in good health during the voyage. They, therefore, ran more dhows, and crowded them less. They also called into places along the coast as often as they required water and provisions, the result being that the slaves had a tolerably good time of it on board. Now, of course, they run great risk of capture by going in shore, and moreover they find it pays better to crowd one large dhow densely, though they may lose half the cargo through death, than to run the chance of shipping the same number comfortably in two or three vessels. No doubt a large number is liberated annually by the cruisers, but they are few in proportion to those annually transhipped.

Moreover, it is a question whether the condition of the released is much better than that of those who continue in slavery. If one might judge from the demeanour of liberated slaves, I should be inclined to think that it is almost a matter of indifference to them, particularly as their Arab masters are reputed to treat them tolerably well when once they get them on shore-in fact their position as slaves is said to bear a fair comparison with the compulsory servitude which awaits them in the event of our capturing them. I have been informed by European residents at Zanzibar, that all the miseries to which slaves on passage are now subjected are directly attributable to our well meant but certainly misdirected efforts to suppress the trade. Formerly they were conveyed leisurely to their destination-no overcrowding, no deficient diet, no want of water,-simply because their owners found it paid them better to keep their cargoes in health, leaving out of the question any motives of humanity which may possibly have influenced them. Now, the reverse is the case; they find it pays better to make a swift passage, avoiding the shore, and reducing the number of dhows engaged in transport to a minimum-hence the overcrowding and other evils.

The Honorary Secretary read the report by Surgeon-Major Leitch, 46th Regiment, of a case of bayonet wound in the chest in the person

of a soldier of that corps. The weapon had deeply penetrated the chest and left lung; a large quantity of blood escaped by the mouth, and for a time death appeared imminent; but by careful treatment the subject of the injury has made a complete recovery.

The Chairman read a paper by Assistant-Surgeon Maunsell on the presence of hydatid cysts in the beef used by soldiers in some parts of India, the object of the report being to support the generally received opinion that these cysts are nothing more than one condition of the parasite, which, when situated in the intestines, becomes developed into tapeworm. He observed that the subject was by no means attractive; and that, inasmuch as it has already been shown that the air we breathe and the water we drink contain living organic germs, so now it appears that the beef we eat is by no means free from them. The proceedings then terminated.

THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION.

A MEETING of this Institution was held on Thursday, 3rd February, at its house, John Street, Adelphi-Mr. Thomas Chapman, F.R.S., V.P., in the chair. There were also present, Sir E. Perrott, Bart., Mr. W. H. Harton, Sir F. Arrow, deputy-master of the Trinity House, Admiral Ryder, Colonel Palmer, Admiral M'Hardy, Captain de St. Croix, Mr. George Palmer, Captain Ward, RN., and Mr. Richard Lewis.

The minutes of the previous meeting having been read, the silver medal of the society, and a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum, were granted to its local honorary secretary at Abersoch, North Wales, the Rev. O. Lloyd Williams, and £42 9s. to the crew of the life-boat stationed there, in acknowledgment of their gallant services in putting off in the boat on the 14th and 15th January, and, after much difficulty, saving thirteen of the crew of the ship Kenilworth, of Liverpool, which was wrecked on St. Patrick's Causeway, in Cardigan Bay, during a N.W. Gale and in a heavy sea. The sum of £36 was also granted to the crew of the Barmouth life-boat for going off on the 14th January, to the same wreck, and saving eight of the crew. The two life-boats of the Society thus saved the whole of the officers and men, twenty-one in number. This ship, a most valuable one, was bound to Liverpool from New Orleans with a cargo of cotton, and her captain, who is an American, publicly testified his gratitude for the determined courage of the life-boat crews in saving the lives of himself and crew amidst the greatest dangers. The sum of £8 8s. was also voted to pay the expenses of the Porthdinllaen life-boat in bringing ashore the crew of three men from the schooner Gronant, of Carnarvon; the sum of £7 9s. to the Padstow life-boat for saving ten persons from the wrecked barque Suez; and £6 10s. to the crew of the Buddon Ness