On the 20th of this month Alonso Madroe from Cadiz came to me with complaints. He had pain in all his limbs, a fever and I also found out that he had an overall stiffness over his body. Because he had also a fever, mainly every other day, I prescribed a sudorific mixture (prescription 2). I also gave him something pulverized against the fever (prescription 1). Furthermore I boiled an extract (prescription 7) for him, and for several days he used a stomach elixir. He took his shift again on the 9th of November. Some days before our departure from DemeraraGuyanaDemerary, this person ran away from the ship and got lost in the woods. Because he found nothing there to live off, he came back after twelve days and was completely emaciated. After not having had food in all that time he looked like a Lazarus. He had two serious defects on each leg accompanied by a serious, sometimes gangrenous, putrefaction. I wetted it with an ointment plaster against gangrene with a mixed sunflower ointment of camphorated spirits. I did my utmost in order for the person to be cured, but it stayed as it was. With no change occurring, I could not judge differently than that it was caused by the cold: he had had little cover, and that during the winter time.

On the 1st of this month Pieter Geerolf, from Middelburg in Zeeland, came to me. He had been under carpenter but due to the death of the master carpenter he had been promoted. This person had been on the shore of ShamaGhanaFort St. Sebastian to repair the sloop with his mate. Even though it was forbidden by the captain, he had drunk a lot of palm wine. Because of that he came aboard with malaria with a severe headache and a bad edema in his legs. The edema set itself in the stomach, and it seemed like a bad dropsy would follow it. Some voyages I prescribe pulverized mirabilis jalapa, therefore now also two scruples of pulverized mirabilis jalapa and one scruple of ginger. This made his stomach a lot thinner. Some voyages I had also made the patient vomit using a pulverized emetic, and also now this made it better. I prescribed other things (prescription 18) against the fever, which limited it. He had also a blister in the neck, as well as behind the ears. I gave him some of the elixir (prescription 19), of which he drank a small glass in the morning and in the evening. This made him seem recovered after every drink, but he relapsed constantly. I tried everything to make him recover: laxation through a clyster, bleedings with painkillers. This gave him horrible pains, which made me believe that the Africans had given him something. It lasted like this into the month of November, sometimes he improved, sometimes he relapsed again. Twice I gave him another clyster (prescription 25), which made him lose nothing but slime while the pain remained. Since he could not relief himself, I gave him a laxative twice in a row. He got relief due to the purgatives, which made it seem like he lost all the nastiness and relieved him from pain. I then gave him the painkillers and in the evening two grains of opium. This made him rest all night and it seemed as if the seizures disappeared, after which he seemed recovered the 15th of this month. But since then he has often had the same disease. I helped him every time with the above-mentioned means, which have luckily made him recover now.

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– medical care
– all prescriptions of surgeon Couperus