WIREDGOV

An exciting new project to fully catalogue the journals of Royal Navy Medical Officers 1793 -1880 has been launched following funding from the Wellcome Trust.

Over a thousand journals prepared by Medical Officers of the Royal Navy between 1793 and 1880 will be comprehensively catalogued to make this under-used resource available to medical historians and other researchers. The first tranche of enhanced catalogue entries for medical officers' journals from 1793 to 1819 will be uploaded to the catalogue by February 2009.

The journals relate to Royal Navy, convict and emigrant ships, and provide detailed information on such issues as diseases, patients, injuries, treatments and living conditions on board. Opening up access to this material via The National Archives' electronic catalogue will enable medical historians to define and pursue lines of enquiry, test hypotheses and explore the awareness, spread and practical application of the findings and theories of the period´s great health reformers.

An example of how these enhanced catalogue entries will look can be found at ADM 101/148.

Extraordinary cases

One such record documents the extraordinary case of 29-year-old seaman John Cummings, who was taken ill at Spithead on 6 December 1805. On board HMS Isis, he began complaining of 'excessive pain in the stomach and intestines'.

Upon further investigation the ship's surgeon, Benjamin Lara, was able to determine that Cummings, who was incapable of retaining anything in the stomach and who experienced a 'smart pain' on standing and walking, had recently swallowed 14 clasp knives and one penknife case! The surgeon confesses in his journal to 'have been perfectly incredulous...and totally at a loss...on how to act in this unparalleled case.´

This case can be found at ADM 101/105/3 folios 70 and 79.

Records on Nelson

Another document included in this series is the medical officer´s journal from HMS Theseus, which details the amputation of Admiral Nelson´s right arm. The injury took place during the capture of a Spanish treasure ship in Tenerife on 25 July 1797. Amidst heavy fire from local defences, Nelson´s right elbow was hit 'by a musket ball' and was amputated by the ship´s surgeon, Thomas Eshelby. 

A selection of these documents can be viewed online at The National Archives' Nelson