Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Melissa Yeo

  • Sea sick: Naval surgery and sanitation in eighteenth-century Britain

    Melissa YeoOntario, Canada Scurvy, yellow fever, and typhus were considered “the three Great Killers of seamen.”1 Hygiene and diet were very poor aboard eighteenth-century sailing vessels, as ships were often overstocked with men to account for ensuing losses while at sea.2 The sanitation on board these ships was considered as bad or worse than the slums…