{"id":"01KG8AMDK6XMGBFVJR6SV0KJS1","cid":"bafkreiathjkzcm5w6jfhv5rcwy2jswpew2c5aalihswd2ema7qraibmwku","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12614,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":12575,"text":"not know whether it was the wide roll of the ship, as felt in that\r\ngiddy perch, that occasioned it, but I always got sea-sick after taking\r\nmedicine and going aloft with it. Seldom or never did it do me any\r\nlasting good.\r\n\r\nNow the Surgeon’s steward was only a subordinate of Surgeon Cuticle\r\nhimself, who lived in the ward-room among the Lieutenants,\r\nSailing-master, Chaplain, and Purser.\r\n\r\nThe Surgeon is, by law, charged with the business of overlooking the\r\ngeneral sanitary affairs of the ship. If anything is going on in any of\r\nits departments which he judges to be detrimental to the healthfulness\r\nof the crew, he has a right to protest against it formally to the\r\nCaptain. When a man is being scourged at the gangway, the Surgeon\r\nstands by; and if he thinks that the punishment is becoming more than\r\nthe culprit’s constitution can well bear, he has a right to interfere\r\nand demand its cessation for the time.\r\n\r\nBut though the Navy regulations nominally vest him with this high\r\ndiscretionary authority over the very Commodore himself, how seldom\r\ndoes he exercise it in cases where humanity demands it? Three years is\r\na long time to spend in one ship, and to be at swords’ points with its\r\nCaptain and Lieutenants during such a period, must be very unsocial and\r\nevery way irksome. No otherwise than thus, at least, can the remissness\r\nof some surgeons in remonstrating against cruelty be accounted for.\r\n\r\nNot to speak again of the continual dampness of the decks consequent\r\nupon flooding them with salt water, when we were driving near to Cape\r\nHorn, it needs only to be mentioned that, on board of the Neversink,\r\nmen known to be in consumptions gasped under the scourge of the\r\nboatswain’s mate, when the Surgeon and his two attendants stood by and\r\nnever interposed. But where the unscrupulousness of martial discipline\r\nis maintained, it is in vain to attempt softening its rigour by the\r\nordaining of humanitarian laws. Sooner might you tame the grizzly bear\r\nof Missouri than humanise a thing so essentially cruel and heartless.\r\n\r\nBut the Surgeon has yet other duties to perform. Not a seaman enters\r\nthe Navy without undergoing a corporal examination, to test his\r\nsoundness in wind and limb.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKWJQFGKKZ5KFZQKDNTQ3","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMDK9QSZ94RTT3KYP59GG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMDK9XNSY2PK3BP22DPYR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.454Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.526Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}