Medical Life in the Navy

It might have been that our vessel was launched on a Friday, or sailed on a Friday; or whether it was owing to our carrying the devil on board of us in shape of a big jet-black...

There is one grievance which the medical officers, in common with their combatant brethren, have to complain of--I refer to _compulsory shaving_; neither is this by any means so...

Next morning, while engaged at my toilet--not a limb of my body which I had not amputated that morning mentally, not one of my joints I had not exsected, or a capital operation...

For the space of six weeks I lived in clover at Haslar, and at the end of that time my appointment to a sea-going ship came. It was the pleasure of their Lordships the Commissio...

The fortnight immediately subsequent to my passing into the Royal Navy was spent by me in the great metropolis, in a perfect maze of pleasure and excitement. For the first time...

If the disposing, in the service, of even a ship-load of assistant-surgeons, is considered a matter of small moment, my disposal, after reaching the Cape of Good Hope, needs but...

Of the "gentlemen of England who live at home at ease," very few can know how entirely dependent for happiness one is on his neighbours. Man is out-and-out, or out-and-in, a gre...

I chose the navy. I am not at all certain what it was that determined my choice; probably this--I have a mole on my left arm, which my gossiping old nurse (rest the old lady's s...

The duties of the assistant-surgeon--the modern Roderick Random--on board a line-of-battle ship are seldom very onerous in time of peace, and often not worth mentioning. Suppose...

It is a way they have in the service, or rather it is the custom of the present Director-General, not to appoint the newly-entered medical officer at once to a sea-going ship, b...

It was a dark-grey cloudy forenoon when we "up anchor" and sailed from Simon's Bay. Frequent squalls whitened the water, and there was every indication of our being about to hav...

We will suppose that the reader still occupies the position of assistant-surgeon in a crack frigate or saucy line-of-battle ship. If you go on shore for a walk in the forenoon y...

What if I were plucked? What should I do? Go to the American war, embark for the gold-diggings, enlist in a regiment of Sepoys, or throw myself from the top of Saint Paul's? Thi...