PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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Visit your sick as often as is necessary to watch the progress of the disease or you think you can do good, but remember that these people are fatalists, and if the "Daktur Sahib" visits them very often, will at once think that they are very ill, and often without just cause.
A coolie under treatment will often become despondent and tell you he knows he is going to die, and sometimes will do it in spite of you. The only thing to be done under these circumstances is to encourage him; tell him he shan't die, &c. Sometimes judicious stimulation, with an occasional
dlose of chloral, does wonders in these cases.
The crisis of every disease must be very closely watched. These people will not bear the use of depressing medicine for any length of time, and, if you miss the proper time for tonics and stimulants you lose your patient.
I know that many die from Nostalgia pure and simple quocunque alio nomine vocetur vel vocari possit." And can it be wondered at with all their caste prejudices, their leaving their native land, perhaps never to see it again, and being thrown among people strange in habits, language, and even colour? The excitement of the newness of everything keeps them up for a time, but soon dies away, and is followed by depression when they realise what they have done; and to prevent this I would urge their heing employed as much as possible while on board, and encouraged in every available means of entertainment. If I had ever had any doubts about the advantage of exercising the men and women as before described, they would have been dispelled by seeing the different expression on their faces after exercise.
Remember that, like all vegetarians, they are very liable to have intestinal parasites, especially the children, and if you find any coolic suffering from irregularity of the bowels, foul tongue, and general malaise which
you cannot account for, a dose of calomel and santonine followed by purgative will often relieve your mind and his "tumjack."
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I have seen it stated that coolies only go to the hospital to die, meaning, I suppose, that the mere fact of sending them there has a prejudicial effect upon them. My own experience does not bear out this theory, and I believe that the only proper place for a case of any importance, which must be preserved if possible from a fatal termination, is the hospital. Even the slighter cases I do not allow to remain in the 'tween decks for several reasons, as, for instance, they cannot be properly examined there or properly watched to see that they do not get anything that may be hurtful to them, but keep them in the shade on the quarter-deck under the eye of the Senior Compounder during the day, and send
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them to their berths at night. How is it possible to have the "tween decks properly cleaned and aired as they should he every day if you have them littered with sick people ! In the case of infectious or contagious disease breaking out, cases of other disease must, of course, be treated separately; but then I should have part of the 'tween decks, with as much air and light 45 possible, for instance near one of the hatches, screened off for the purpose.'
DISCIPLINE.
I believe it is allowed that the "greatest good of the greatest number" in any community temporarily and pro- miscuously thrown together can only be attained by some sort of discipline, and this is especially the case with coolies, among whom there is sometimes a large admixture of those who have been failures in their own country, and of bad bargains, whom, to say the least, magistrates are not averse to getting out of their districts. Then in Regulations and instructions the Surgeon Superintendent is told what he is not to do, but not a word as to what he is to do; he is told that his means of coercion are limited, and that he must depend upon the moral influence which he may acquire, &c. These very words imply that time will be required, but, generally at the outset, trouble will arise and commonly from complaints about work and food, and it is to these that I would call the attention of the Surgeon Superinten- dent, and I say to him look out for some return coolic as the instigator. They will often give themselves airs among the other coolies, who will naturally believe that they know all about it from having been on previous voyages, and they are generally too knowing or too great cowards to complain themselves, but put some other coolic up to doing so. When return coolies are presented for examination at the depôt, I always ask them whether they will promise to behave them- selves on the voyage, which of course they do readily, and the promise is only of value in case of future misconduct. Perhaps I can best illustrate my meaning by giving a case from my own experience. A day or two after sailing in one of my voyages the senior compounder reported to me that the men would not come up to breakfast, which was of biscuit and sugar that Sunday morning. On going below I found a return coolie holding the rails of the ladder and preventing the men from coming up, and saying that if they
N.B. The pulse (radial artery) is sometimes very small and hardly to be felt in these people even when in perfect health, which used to startle me considerably till I found it was natural.
1:|1:: £ ?4. ས
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
885/
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON: ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO