← The Colonial Department18 Jul · 18 min

S8E8 Pacific Sick Ships: Medicine Aboard the Galleons

S8E8 Pacific Sick Ships: Medicine Aboard the Galleons18 Jul18 min

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<html>In the long journeys from Manila to Acapulco, disease was the clingy passenger no one wanted around. But it wandered around the decks, knocked on every cabin, stalked everyone on board—until one day, you woke up, and disease was just everywhere. How could it not be? There was food rotting inside the barrels, slick and moldy woodwork, crew and passengers and officers packed into tight spaces, pests crawling over the meals, the overpowering smell of human waste. And so they came, that grim parade: fever, chills, dysentery, infection, dermatitis, beriberi, the dread scurvy. How did the ships of the Galleon Trade and the trans-Pacific exchange keep up their good health in those arduous sea crossings? Let’s open the medicine chests and find out.Support us: <a href="https://patreon.com/thecolonialdept" target="_blank">patreon.com/thecolonialdept</a>Follow us on IG:<a href="https://www.instagram.com/thecolonialdept/" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thecolonialdept/" target="_blank">@thecolonialdept</a>Follow us on TikTok:<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thecolonialdept" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thecolonialdept" target="_blank">@thecolonialdept</a>Email us: <a href="mailto:thecolonialdept@gmail.com" target="_blank">thecolonialdept@gmail.com</a>References: “Accessions to the Map-Room.” (1869) In the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 39.Arranz, Adolfo; Hernandez, Marco (6 May 2018). “Chapter 3: A journey of dread.” In Adolfo, Hernandez (2018),The China Ship, South China Morning Post. Luque-Talaván, Miguel (2014). “Oceanic deaths aboard the Manila galleons.” In Van Tilburg, H., Tripati, S., Walker Vadillo, V., Fahy, B., and Kimura, J. (eds.), Iberian Global Interactions: the Manila Galleon and the Roteiro, The Museum of Underwater Archaeology (MUA) Collection.Morris, David Z. (17 May 2016). “Cruel ships of prosperity.” Aeon. <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-manila-galleons-that-oceaneered-for-plague-and-profit" target="_blank">https://aeon.co/essays/the-manila-galleons-that-oceaneered-for-plague-and-profit</a>“Unguentum Populeon.” The Poisoner’s Apothecary. <a href="https://www.thepoisonersapothecary.com/shop/p/unguentum-populeon" target="_blank">https://www.thepoisonersapothecary.com/shop/p/unguentum-populeon</a>Matera, Margherita (8 November 2022). “Old Italian Recipes of Medical Ointments in Psalter Manuscript Rahlfs 1759.” Göttinger Septuaginta. <a href="https://septuaginta.uni-goettingen.de/blog/old-italian-recipes-of-medical-ointments-in-psalte/" target="_blank">https://septuaginta.uni-goettingen.de/blog/old-italian-recipes-of-medical-ointments-in-psalte/</a>Stuart, Godofredo U., Jr., (n.d.).“Sandalino/Connarus semidecandrus Jack.” Philippine Medicinal Plants. <a href="https://www.stuartxchange.org/Sandalino" target="_blank">https://www.stuartxchange.org/Sandalino</a>Viena de Souza, Lais (2018). Missionários Do corpo à alma: Assistência, saberes e práticas de cura nas missões, colégios e hospitais da Companhia de Jesus (Goa e Bahia, 1542-1622) [doctoral dissertation]. Universidade de Évora.Klein, Wouter (16 June 2021). “Plant of the Month: Sarsaparilla.” JSTOR Daily. <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/plant-of-the-month-sarsaparilla/" target="_blank">https://daily.jstor.org/plant-of-the-month-sarsaparilla/</a> Kroupa, Šebestián. Georg Joseph Kamel (1661–1706): A Jesuit Pharmacist at the Frontiers of Colonial Empires [doctoral dissertation]. Darwin College, University of Cambridge.Hajar, Rachel (2012). “The Air of History (Part II) Medicine in the Middle Ages.” Heart Views, 13(4), pp. 158–162. <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3573364/" target="_blank