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Afterwards, when the number of cases increased beyond all that we could possibly crowd in the tent, I was obliged (there being no other available space), to put the men in the 'tween decks, under the main hatchway. An hospital was built up there, and partitioned off from the single men's and married compartments, with a separate entrance. In this were twelve beds. The females were placed in the female hospital when the weather became too rough and cold for them to remain in the boat. In all the hospitals disinfectants were constantly and most abundantly used, and the strictest orders given (and I believe complied with) to place chloride of lime in the pan of the night stool before it was used. I have often been in the hospitals when patients have been using the stool, and never found any smell. The stools were thrown overboard immediately. The treatment adopted has been one with which I have had great success previously. It is that recommended by Dr. King Chambers, of St. Mary's, in his " Clinical Lectures." In an epidemic of typhoid at Trinidad, out of ninety cases treated by this plan, I only lost three. This epidemic and its treatment formed the subject of a paper of mine, read before the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, in November, 1868. I had previously treated of the causes of fever and other zymotic or germ diseases in a paper read before the same Society in 1857, entitled a " Statistical Inquiry into the Causes of Fever, Small-pox, Measles, and Scarlatina." The causes of the (in my practice) unusual mortality I attribute to the want of rest for the patients owing to the corstant motion of the vessel, and to the want of a proper diet. G. The measles epidemic afforded a curious and interesting proof that the normal incubation period (if such a term may be used) of germ diseases is modified very greatly by the intensity and dose of the poison. Two children, both of whom had just had measles —from one the rash had hardly disappeared —were admitted on board in the docks, and remained on board two days, mixing with all the other children, my own included. The disorder and confusion during the two days in dock were beyond all description; there was neither order nor discipline. Of all thrown in contact with them, only three of my own children caught the disease (the eldest had had measles previously) ; and a fortnight after we left England (the supposed normal incubation period), three of my children had measles rash. Although they were kept rigorously isolated in their cabin, and not allowed even on the poop until all danger of infection had passed, yet, a fortnight after they were attacked, eight children in the steerage were seized with the disease. Subsequently, at quite irregular times, twenty-two others were attacked. The last case occurred about five weeks ago. Thus, while the dose of contagion was moderate and diluted, it acted at the normal period; but when it became stronger, it varied in duration from eight to twelve days. None of the measles cases had any medicine ; none were fatal. I treated them with nothing, unless the mothers were unusually clamorous, when I gave the children some coloured water —a teaspoonful for a dose. After the rash had gone in, I gave all the children from one to three ounces of wine daily for a week. Their convalescence was all that could be desired. Owing to the unusual pressure of the typhoid epidemic and the fearful amount of sickness on board, I was obliged to suspend all school work, and the schoolmaster, a medical student who chanced to be coming out steerage, assisted me as dispenser. It would have been physically impossible for me to get through the work, and dispense as well. I saw on an average about fifty patients a day during all except the first week of the voyage. My time was occupied from half-past 9 till halfpast 12 or 1, or even later sometimes, in visiting and prescribing. I had writing to do in the afternoon, and in the evening my rounds used to occupy me from an hour to two hours. The wcjrk was most exhausting, owing to the amount of stooping in the tents, climbing, and clinging for one's footing. I trust the New Zealand Government will take these circumstances into consideration, and grant me some additional remuneration. When I undertook the duties of surgeon-superintendent, I of course understood that the number of passengers taken would be in accordance with the Act of Parliament, and not that 318 statute adults would be crammed into a space intended for 208. I also was informed that a careful medical examination was made of each person before he embarked, and that the emigrants were therefore picked lives. Instead of this, I found a miserably unhealthy lot of people. If they had come from the class of ordinary immigrants there would have been very much less sickness, as it is evidently the fact that, with two exceptions, all the serious cases were among the single men and married people, and not among the single girls. Had I known what I should have had to go through in anxiety of mind and hard work, no remuneration that could have been offered would have induced me to undertake the duties. I have had to go round when so ill that I could hardly crawl, and to get up at night when so worn out with fatigue and illness that no fee that could have been offered would have tempted me out of my bed. The illness from which I suffered was a most trifling one at the commencement, and might have been stopped at once by a day or two of rest ; but I could not get this, and consequently inflammation and abscess followed. At one time I was seeing patients very few of whom were so bad as myself. I had to engage to pay nurses to attend the fever cases. I was obliged to take this responsibility upon myself, after consultation with the captain, because we tried volunteer nursing as long as we could get a volunteer. I myself nursed for one night in order to encourage the others. The account of these nurses I will send in certified in a day or two. There are many other points which I shall have to notice in my subsequent report. I have, Ac, • Eoeeet H. Bakewell, M.D., To His Honor the Superintendent of M.E.C.S. Eng., &c, &c. the Province of Otago.
Enclosure 3 in No. 71. Repobt of the Commissionees appointed to inquire into Sickness on board the Ship " Charlotte Gladstone." Sic, — Custom House. Dunedin, 20th March, 1873. In conformity with instructions conveyed to us in a commission under the hand of His Excellency the Governor, dated 7th March, 1873, we have inspected the ship " Charlotte Gladstone,"