SEA-SICKNESS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3692, 15 May 1883, Page 4

SEA-SICKNESS.

AVhat is tho remedy for .-ei-sickness? I Avish I know— most cheerfully Avould I impart tho secret. There are many prescriptions, from the ice of Dr. Chapman to Jack's lump ot fat pork attached to a ropeyarn ; but nothing seems to answer the end designed. Nor it"is xevy remarkable that tho wonderful vessels wliich Avere to put an end to nausea should still leave the " oxpectoroon," oven on their oAvn docks, tho useful piece of furniture passengers luiax for generations found it; for Avhilst clover gentlemen have shown us lioav the effect of the rolling' and pitching movement of a ship upon the head or stomach may bo overcome by pivoted saloons undswinging accommodations, they have entirely failed to produce any kind of mechanism to obviate tlic consequences of those movements of a A-cssel m a seaway Avhich arc alone responsible for sickness; I mean tho heave up and the swoop doAvn. If a. ship oscillated on an immutable basis a cot on a balanced chain Avould effectually stop nausea; like a Avincida.ss on a swinging tray, the passenger could always maintain a posture pcrpeupciulioului'with the horizon. But what is to qualify the sensations which follow the savoop down into tho hollows and the roaring heave up on to the summits of tho seas? Everything' in tho ship must accompany her in her falls and in hor risings ; and it is this motion Avhich sends people rushing to the side, which sets them roaring for the steward which causes them to loathe life, ancl to lie Avith their heads anywhere and their feet anyhow. I cannot help thinking, hoAvever, that imagination contributes something- and often a very great deal to seasickness; otherwise how are avc to account for people suffering from nausea actually before they step onboard tho vessel that is to carry them 'i IE a seasick man could bo sent to sleep his sufferings Avould cease ; yet tho vessel goes on rolling', and if it is this moA'cment, affecting the stomach, that causes nausea, I cannot quite see Avhy the stomach should not bo as sympathetic in sleep as in Avaking. Any Avay, I believe that a person could bo made to forget to bo sea-sick by having- hisima_-ination intensely occupied or his fears excited. Let. a vessel full of sea-sick people drive ashore, or catch fire, or be in collision ; lot fho captain bawl out "AYe are lost" ; itAvnuld be interestingto conjecture how much sickness Avould remain aboard that ship. A good prescription might lie a profoundly exciting- novel; some hideous mystery so distraotiu_ly complicated as to make one sink all the thoughts of waves and stewards in the eagerness to discover Avhether the figure Sir Jasper sees Avas really a ghost or his first Avifo, and Avhether it avus hor ladyship or tho groom she ran away Avith avlio shot Signer Squal-l-din the throat and did the fine aits a real service. But it is better to be seasick than in danger; and, if the novelists can do nothing for us, I am afraid there is no alternative but to go cm fceimr the stewards and building swift vessels.—AY. Clark Russell, in the London Telegraph. ______________