It is of the first importance to enlist a healthy crew for long voyages, free from previous syphilitic, scorbutic, or other constitutional taint; then, by observing proper hygienic precautions, to maintain their health. One of the prime factors in securing this result is a suitable dietary. The improved methods of preserving food afford facilities for storing up adequate quantities of both kinds, animal and vegetable, to last the cruise. To economize these stores it will be well to start with a stock of live animals and recent vegetables, such as can be now had in almost any quantity in any considerable maritime city, and not until these are consumed are the canned and preserved supplies to be opened. All the ordinary meats, as beef, mutton, veal, and lamb; most vegetable products, as asparagus, beans, peas, potatoes, and a great variety of fruits, as peaches, plums, berries, etc., are obtainable at moderate expense, and should form an integral portion of the ration. Eggs can be easily preserved so as to keep for months by simply packing them in plaster or in salt, and they furnish a valuable and acceptable article of diet. Among articles of great nutritive value milk takes high rank, and it can be preserved sweet and pure indefinitely. Sauer-kraut is an antiscorbutic of considerable virtue, and should not be overlooked in laying in stores for a distant cruise. Cheese and oatmeal will be found useful additions to the ordinary ration.
It may be proper to state in the event of the occurrence of scurvy and the exhaustion of the fresh vegetable stores that various quickly-growing vegetables, such as mustard, radishes, turnips, and cresses, could be cultivated on shipboard if seeds are provided.
With such a varied dietary, comprehended in the above enumeration, it would be impossible for scurvy to invade the ship's company, especially when aided by other wholesome agencies, as cleanliness, well-ventilated and dry sleeping rooms, and clothing adapted to the weather. The antiscorbutic virtues of lime-juice were known long ago, being mentioned by { 184} Albertus in 1593, but it was not until many years later that it became an integral part of the English navy-ration. The law requires it to be carried on board all merchant vessels, and to be served out ten days after the crew has been living on salt rations. The juice keeps well if properly prepared and preserved from contact with air, especially when fortified with a small quantity of alcohol, the usual strength being about 10 per cent. It should be carried in vessels containing just enough to furnish a few days' rations to the whole crew, by which plan only a small amount need be exposed to the decomposing influence of the air. The juice can be reduced by evaporation to a very small bulk. This method was adopted in supplying the Arctic cruiser Rodgers.[20] The juice was reduced to a paste, each pound of which represented one gallon of the solution of the ordinary strength. It has also been used in the form of lozenges and biscuit. It may be stated that great reliance has been placed upon malt, the acid wines, and cider as good antiscorbutics.
