He was fortunate enough
to find Dr. Simon, nephew of the celebrated surgeon of the same name,
installed as head physician at the civil hospital here. He came off at
once with the hospital boat, and, having visited the invalid, declared
his illness to be a very mild case of small-pox. He had brought off
some lymph with him, and recommended us all to be re-vaccinated. He
had also brought sundry disinfectants, and gave instructions about
fumigating and disinfecting the yacht. All the men were called upon
the quarter-deck, and addressed by Tom, and we were surprised to find
what a large proportion of them objected to the operation of
vaccination. At last, however, the prejudices of all of them, except
two, were overcome. One of the latter had promised his grandfather
that he never would be vaccinated under any circumstances, while
another would consent to be inoculated, but would not be vaccinated.
We had consulted our own medical man before leaving England, and knew
that for ourselves the operation was not necessary, but we
nevertheless underwent it _pour encourager les autres_. While the
Doctor was on shore we had been surrounded by boats bringing monkeys,
birds, ratan and Malacca canes, fruit, rice, &c., to sell, and as I
did not care to go ashore, thinking there might be some bother about
quarantine, we made bargains over the side of the yacht with the
traders, the result being that seven monkeys, about fifty birds of
sorts, and innumerable bundles of canes, were added to the stock on
board.
Pages:
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550