One of the most interesting inferences to be drawn from
the records of the Arctic Expedition appears to be that the total abstainers,— at least, those of the total abstainers who had been in the habit of total abstinence for some time before the Arctic Expedition, were apparently much less liable to scurvy, and able to do much more work under exposure to great cold, than those who took the ordinary proportion of alcohol The total abstainers on the Alert',—the ship whose crew suffered the greatest privations,—surpassed the rest of the crew in the work they did. Ayles had been out 110 days and Malley ninety-eight, and neither of them was attacked by scurvy, indeed, both enjoyed good health. Yet Ayles (who is a teetotaller of many years' standing) was absent on one occasion eighty-four days from the ship in one expedition. Indeed, scurvy attacked every member of this ship's party except Ayles and Lieutenant Aldrich, and Lieutenant Aldrich, though not a total abstainer, was the next thing to it, so greatly did he dilute his grog. So, too, Henry Petty, of the Discovery,' a total abstainer of some years' standing, entirely escaped scurvy, in spite of great exertions. On the whole, the evidence of the expedition is decidedly unfavourable to the supposed utility of alcohol. Captain Nares, on Thursday, threw some doubt on the inference as to alcohol, but he did not deny that the above statements were true.
Previous page
