On The Medical And Health Care Of The British Navy In The Eighteenth Century

From 1689 to 1815,Britain had explored and expanded the sea on an unprecedented scale.Relying on its formidable maritime power,Britain was able to defeat its rivals,became the first power in Europe,and established its maritime hegemony.It can be said that the British navy is the most important force in the process of Britain’s rise,and the royal navy’s medical and health care work is undoubtedly an important part of the country’s combat power and the pace of British global expansion.At present,there have been a lot of academic works about the medical and health care work of the British navy in the 18 th century.The subjects of these works include the famous naval doctors,naval diseases,naval hospitals,naval food,naval surgical instruments,naval religious beliefs and daily life on the warship in the 18 th century.In addition to naval food,foreign academic works on the medical and health care work of the British navy in the 18 th century show the diversity of research topics and richness of content.In contrast,the domestic research on the medical and health care of the British navy in the 18 th century is relatively lacking.There is no monograph in this area.The existing research results are concentrated on the growth of military forces,tactical changes,naval policies,and the construction of naval bases.Furthermore,there is no discussion about naval doctors and the treatment and nursing of sick and wounded navy.In view of the differences in research status at home and abroad,basing on the primary sources of British naval medical and health care in the 18 th century and assisting by academic works and papers at home and abroad,this paper mainly study the status of British naval medical and health care in the 18 th century through literature study and comparative study.The primary sources used in this paper chiefly include reports,journals,letters,books,and addresses published by naval doctors;government documents;newspapers and magazines;and memoirs and letters from naval officers and the general navy.If we want to explore the medical and health care work of the British navy in the18 th century,we first need to understand the health problems of the British navy in the 18 th century,so as to have a basic understanding of the challenges faced by the medical and health care work of the British navy in this century.In the wars of the18 th century,most royal navies not killed in battle,but died of illness,unclean food,severe punishment,and excessive drinking.However,no matter how people exaggerated the threat of food,punishment and alcohol to the health of navy in the18 th century,back to the warlike century,we will find that the most fatal and direct killer for the navy is disease.Various factors have different levels of threats to the health of the navy.There are both realistic and traditional reasons.The scale of the navy,which increased in wartime and reduced in peacetime,puts real pressure on the navy’s medical system,victualling system and shipbuilding system.In addition,the tradition of younger age in mariners,mixing use of merchant crews and navy,and not inspecting new recruits also threatened the health of the navy.Frequent overseas wars in the 18 th century pushed the navy to the public’s horizon again and again.Medical practitioners,the general public,and the government gradually realized the importance of naval health to various business of the empire and called for the protection of naval health.As the person directly responsible for naval health,medical practitioners’ knowledge of naval health and diseases is arguably the most worthy of investigation.Naval doctors are the focus of this article,because they are the direct proposers and implementers of various health protection recommendations for the navy.The exploration and efforts of naval doctors had formed a distinctive British naval medicine.Their views on disease,the leading killer in the navy,and their suggestions on preventing diseases and protecting naval health are influenced by their knowledge level and medical practice,as well as by the general background of medical development.Naval doctors believe that many diseases in the navy are the result of a combination of internal and external factors.Due to the limitation of medical development,there is little chance to cure diseases.Therefore,naval doctors suggest various preventive measures and preventive drugs to protect naval health.Browsing through the letters and recollections of 18th-century naval officers,we can easily find that many naval officials have the same understanding of naval diseases and prevention methods as naval doctors.Due to the practical needs at the time and the efforts of the doctors,the recommendations made by the naval doctors to protect naval health were not just in the text,but were put into practice to varying degrees.The concern of the whole society to naval health and the realistic pressure brought by the war led the British government to improve the medical and health care work of the navy in terms of institutions,organizations and practice.At the institutional level,Regulations and instructions relating to His Majesty’s service at sea were promulgated in 1806,which increased and refined the medical and health care tasks of doctors and officers at all levels of the fleet.Organizational adjustment was mainly reflected in the improvement of personnel structure,operation mode,division of responsibilities of the Sick and Hurt Board,the Victualling Board and the administrative system.The change in practice was reflected in the improvement of food,the construction of naval hospital and the adjustment of warship design.In the process of moving towards the ocean at full speed,the medical and health care work of British Navy exposed many problems.These problems were valued by professionals such as naval doctors,the general public and government officials.The British government had offset many deficiencies in the Royal Navy’s medical and health care work through organizational adjustments,system reforms,and practical innovations.The improvement of the overall naval health level,the accumulation of medical knowledge and the development of naval surgeons are commendable achievements of the improvement in the medical and health care work of the navy in the 18 th century.At the same time,naval experience influenced colonial activities and the public health reform in the 19 th century through various channels.However,the medical and health care work of the navy was not as perfect as it should be.The navy was becoming less free,the examination procedures for surgeons were still flawed,and the medical staffing was incomplete.These are deficiencies that cannot be ignored.All in all,by continuously discovering and disclosing the health risks in the royal navy and constantly adjusting the service levels of various government departments,Britain had provided its navy with medical and health care services superior to those of domestic merchant ships and the navies of European countries such as France and Spain.The improvements in the royal navy’s medical and health care work were ultimately aimed at providing a more reliable defense force for the successfully development of the British overseas business.A healthy and powerful deterrent naval force is one of the important reasons why Britain can procure a series of achievements in the 18 th century.