Causes of death of British Emigrants on Voyages to South Australia, 1848-1885

Social History of Medicine

Volumn 16, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 193-208

  Haines, Robin ^a   Shlomowitz, Ralph ^b  

^a FLINDERS UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^b FLINDERS UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Epidemiology; Infant mortality; Maritime health; Mortality decline; Public health; Seasonality

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; AUSTRALIA; DEATH CERTIFICATE; HISTORY; MEDICINE; MIGRATION; MORTALITY; UNITED KINGDOM;

AUSTRALIA; DEATH CERTIFICATES; EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; MORTALITY; NAVAL MEDICINE;

EID: 0141763792     PISSN: 0951631X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/shm/16.2.193     Document Type: Review

References (60)

1. P. D. Curtin, 'Epidemiology and the Slave Trade', Political Science Quarterly, 83 (1968), 190-216.
2. O. MacDonagh, A Pattern of Government Growth 1800-60 (London, 1961).
3. R. Haines and R. Shlomowitz, 'Explaining the Modern Mortality Decline: What Can We Learn from Sea Voyages?', Social History of Medicine, 11 (1998), 15-48.
4. For surveys of the literature on mortality at sea, see R. L. Cohn, 'Maritime Mortality in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Survey', International Journal of Maritime History, 1 (1989), 159-91; R. Haines, R. Shlomowitz, and L. Brennan, 'Maritime Mortality Revisited', International Journal of Maritime History, 8 (1996), 133-72; Haines and Shlomowitz, 'Explaining the Modern Mortality Decline'; H. S. Klein, S. L. Engerman, R. Haines, and R. Shlomowitz, 'Transoceanic Mortality: The Slave Trade in Comparative Perspective', William and Mary Quarterly, 58 (2001), 93-117;
5. For surveys of the literature on mortality at sea, see R. L. Cohn, 'Maritime Mortality in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Survey', International Journal of Maritime History, 1 (1989), 159-91; R. Haines, R. Shlomowitz, and L. Brennan, 'Maritime Mortality Revisited', International Journal of Maritime History, 8 (1996), 133-72; Haines and Shlomowitz, 'Explaining the Modern Mortality Decline'; H. S. Klein, S. L. Engerman, R. Haines, and R. Shlomowitz, 'Transoceanic Mortality: The Slave Trade in Comparative Perspective', William and Mary Quarterly, 58 (2001), 93-117;
6. For surveys of the literature on mortality at sea, see R. L. Cohn, 'Maritime Mortality in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Survey', International Journal of Maritime History, 1 (1989), 159-91; R. Haines, R. Shlomowitz, and L. Brennan, 'Maritime Mortality Revisited', International Journal of Maritime History, 8 (1996), 133-72; Haines and Shlomowitz, 'Explaining the Modern Mortality Decline'; H. S. Klein, S. L. Engerman, R. Haines, and R. Shlomowitz, 'Transoceanic Mortality: The Slave Trade in Comparative Perspective', William and Mary Quarterly, 58 (2001), 93-117;
7. For surveys of the literature on mortality at sea, see R. L. Cohn, 'Maritime Mortality in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Survey', International Journal of Maritime History, 1 (1989), 159-91; R. Haines, R. Shlomowitz, and L. Brennan, 'Maritime Mortality Revisited', International Journal of Maritime History, 8 (1996), 133-72; Haines and Shlomowitz, 'Explaining the Modern Mortality Decline'; H. S. Klein, S. L. Engerman, R. Haines, and R. Shlomowitz, 'Transoceanic Mortality: The Slave Trade in Comparative Perspective', William and Mary Quarterly, 58 (2001), 93-117;
8. R. Haines and R. Shlomowitz, 'Explaining the Mortality Decline in the Eighteenth-Century British Slave Trade', Economic History Review, 53, 2 (2000), 262-83.
9. R. Haines and R. Shlomowitz, 'Nineteenth Century Government-Assisted and Total Immigration from the United Kingdom to Australia: Quinquennial Estimates by Colony', Journal of the Australian Population Association, 8 (1991), 50-61. For the wider context, see R. Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor: Australian Recruitment in Britain and Ireland, 1831-1860 (London, 1997).
10. R. Haines and R. Shlomowitz, 'Nineteenth Century Government-Assisted and Total Immigration from the United Kingdom to Australia: Quinquennial Estimates by Colony', Journal of the Australian Population Association, 8 (1991), 50-61. For the wider context, see R. Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor: Australian Recruitment in Britain and Ireland, 1831-1860 (London, 1997).
11. J. McDonald and R. Shlomowitz, 'Mortality on Immigrant Voyages to Australia in the 19th Century', Explorations in Economic History, 27 (1990), 84-113; R. Shlomowitz and J. McDonald, 'Babies at Risk on Immigrant Voyages to Australia in the Nineteenth Century', Economic History Review, 44 (1991) 86-101. These articles are reprinted in R. Shlomowitz (with L. Brennan and J. McDonald), Mortality and Migration in the Modern World (Aldershot, 1996).
12. J. McDonald and R. Shlomowitz, 'Mortality on Immigrant Voyages to Australia in the 19th Century', Explorations in Economic History, 27 (1990), 84-113; R. Shlomowitz and J. McDonald, 'Babies at Risk on Immigrant Voyages to Australia in the Nineteenth Century', Economic History Review, 44 (1991) 86-101. These articles are reprinted in R. Shlomowitz (with L. Brennan and J. McDonald), Mortality and Migration in the Modern World (Aldershot, 1996).
13. J. McDonald and R. Shlomowitz, 'Mortality on Immigrant Voyages to Australia in the 19th Century', Explorations in Economic History, 27 (1990), 84-113; R. Shlomowitz and J. McDonald, 'Babies at Risk on Immigrant Voyages to Australia in the Nineteenth Century', Economic History Review, 44 (1991) 86-101. These articles are reprinted in R. Shlomowitz (with L. Brennan and J. McDonald), Mortality and Migration in the Modern World (Aldershot, 1996).
14. From the first voyage in 1836, surgeons were required to submit their logs and journals to colonial authorities who forwarded them to the Colonial Office agency responsible for monitoring government-assisted voyages, for auditing. Most of the few surviving logs are for voyages to New South Wales in the late 1830s; the logs include information on causes of death but they do not enable an analysis of cause of death by age and sex. See M. Staniforth, 'Dirt, Disease and Death at Sea on Voyages to Australia, 1837-1839', International Journal of Maritime History, 8 (1996), 119-56. From 1847 surgeons were also required to submit a summary report of births and deaths and most of these reports for South Australian voyages have survived. For supplementary data, we drew upon a manuscript register of deaths on emigrant voyages to all British colonies in Australasia and South Africa, which was compiled from surgeons' journals by British authorities. Surgeon's reports are on microfilm in State Records (South Australia), GRG 35/48, while the 'Register of Deaths on Emigrant Ships, 1847-1869' is housed at the Public Records Office, Kew, CO 386/170-172, in manuscript form and on PRO Microfilm 6887-8. For a detailed discussion of the provenance and reliability of these and other records forming our database, see R. Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low, Harry is in a Parlous Way, a Great Many Children Has Death on their Faces": Mortality and its Causes on Voyages to Colonial South Australia, 1848-1885', Working Paper, Flinders University (2001), Appendix I. We have supplemented these data, where necessary, from individual shipping lists held at various South Australian archives.
15. Individual level data for emigrants embarked are available from passenger lists, many of which are extant. This would involve, however, an extensive research exercise for which the benefits would probably be marginal.
16. During the 38-year period, there were changes that could have influenced mortality at sea. These include a change in the composition of immigrants: from those mostly officially 'selected' for their health and occupational status following initial self-selection, to those mostly 'nominated' by family and friends already in the colony. This change occurred c. 1860 once the colony enjoyed enhanced control over its own affairs under the rubric of 'responsible government', enabling the appointment of an Agent General to oversee the mobilization of emigrants in Britain. This administrative transition, however, meant that the Agent General had less control over the 'quality' of nominated emigrants, as measured by their age and occupation, when colonial nominees paid part of their fare. Hence their collective health status may have been worse than that of emigrants selected under the stricter criteria imposed earlier. There were, furthermore, technological innovations, most notably an increase in the average tonnage of sailing vessels, and an associated increase in the average number of passengers carried. The greater size and capacity, however, meant a lower passenger/tonnage ratio, and a general decrease in the duration of the passage. Other innovations included improved distillation of water, and minor modifications to the statutory diet. There were, however, no significant innovations in preventing or curing illness. While average death rates of adults and children decreased, the infant death rate increased slightly, as on land. Despite these variations, we treat the overall period as reasonably homogeneous for our study, as our main findings hold for both the overall period and for sub-periods within it. On variations within the period, see Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low"', 1-129; McDonald and Shlomowitz, 'Mortality on Immigrant Voyages'.
17. During the 38-year period, there were changes that could have influenced mortality at sea. These include a change in the composition of immigrants: from those mostly officially 'selected' for their health and occupational status following initial self-selection, to those mostly 'nominated' by family and friends already in the colony. This change occurred c. 1860 once the colony enjoyed enhanced control over its own affairs under the rubric of 'responsible government', enabling the appointment of an Agent General to oversee the mobilization of emigrants in Britain. This administrative transition, however, meant that the Agent General had less control over the 'quality' of nominated emigrants, as measured by their age and occupation, when colonial nominees paid part of their fare. Hence their collective health status may have been worse than that of emigrants selected under the stricter criteria imposed earlier. There were, furthermore, technological innovations, most notably an increase in the average tonnage of sailing vessels, and an associated increase in the average number of passengers carried. The greater size and capacity, however, meant a lower passenger/tonnage ratio, and a general decrease in the duration of the passage. Other innovations included improved distillation of water, and minor modifications to the statutory diet. There were, however, no significant innovations in preventing or curing illness. While average death rates of adults and children decreased, the infant death rate increased slightly, as on land. Despite these variations, we treat the overall period as reasonably homogeneous for our study, as our main findings hold for both the overall period and for sub-periods within it. On variations within the period, see Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low"', 1-129; McDonald and Shlomowitz, 'Mortality on Immigrant Voyages'.
18. The secondary literature is too vast to rehearse here but see, for example, Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor, idem., '"The Idle and the Drunken Won't Do There": The New Poor Law and Nineteenth Century Government-assisted Emigration to Australia from the United Kingdom', in J. Samson (ed.), British Imperial Strategies in the Pacific, 1750-1900 (Aldershot, 2002), 183-204; idem., '"It is with Plasure I Take My Pen in Hand": Opportunity, Skill, and Colonial Australia's Immigrant Workers', in D. Palmer, M. Shanahan, and R. Shanahan (eds), Perspectives in Labour History (Adelaide, 1999), 176-90; E. Richards (ed.), Visible Immigrants, 6 vols (Canberra, 1990-2002); D. Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia (Cork, 1994).
19. The secondary literature is too vast to rehearse here but see, for example, Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor, idem., '"The Idle and the Drunken Won't Do There": The New Poor Law and Nineteenth Century Government-assisted Emigration to Australia from the United Kingdom', in J. Samson (ed.), British Imperial Strategies in the Pacific, 1750-1900 (Aldershot, 2002), 183-204; idem., '"It is with Plasure I Take My Pen in Hand": Opportunity, Skill, and Colonial Australia's Immigrant Workers', in D. Palmer, M. Shanahan, and R. Shanahan (eds), Perspectives in Labour History (Adelaide, 1999), 176-90; E. Richards (ed.), Visible Immigrants, 6 vols (Canberra, 1990-2002); D. Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia (Cork, 1994).
20. The secondary literature is too vast to rehearse here but see, for example, Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor, idem., '"The Idle and the Drunken Won't Do There": The New Poor Law and Nineteenth Century Government-assisted Emigration to Australia from the United Kingdom', in J. Samson (ed.), British Imperial Strategies in the Pacific, 1750-1900 (Aldershot, 2002), 183-204; idem., '"It is with Plasure I Take My Pen in Hand": Opportunity, Skill, and Colonial Australia's Immigrant Workers', in D. Palmer, M. Shanahan, and R. Shanahan (eds), Perspectives in Labour History (Adelaide, 1999), 176-90; E. Richards (ed.), Visible Immigrants, 6 vols (Canberra, 1990-2002); D. Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia (Cork, 1994).
21. The secondary literature is too vast to rehearse here but see, for example, Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor, idem., '"The Idle and the Drunken Won't Do There": The New Poor Law and Nineteenth Century Government-assisted Emigration to Australia from the United Kingdom', in J. Samson (ed.), British Imperial Strategies in the Pacific, 1750-1900 (Aldershot, 2002), 183-204; idem., '"It is with Plasure I Take My Pen in Hand": Opportunity, Skill, and Colonial Australia's Immigrant Workers', in D. Palmer, M. Shanahan, and R. Shanahan (eds), Perspectives in Labour History (Adelaide, 1999), 176-90; E. Richards (ed.), Visible Immigrants, 6 vols (Canberra, 1990-2002); D. Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia (Cork, 1994).
22. The secondary literature is too vast to rehearse here but see, for example, Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor, idem., '"The Idle and the Drunken Won't Do There": The New Poor Law and Nineteenth Century Government-assisted Emigration to Australia from the United Kingdom', in J. Samson (ed.), British Imperial Strategies in the Pacific, 1750-1900 (Aldershot, 2002), 183-204; idem., '"It is with Plasure I Take My Pen in Hand": Opportunity, Skill, and Colonial Australia's Immigrant Workers', in D. Palmer, M. Shanahan, and R. Shanahan (eds), Perspectives in Labour History (Adelaide, 1999), 176-90; E. Richards (ed.), Visible Immigrants, 6 vols (Canberra, 1990-2002); D. Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia (Cork, 1994).
23. J. McDonald and R. Shlomowitz, 'Passenger Fares on Sailing Vessels to Australia in the Nineteenth Century', Explorations in Economic History, 28 (1991), 192-207.
24. F. J. A. Broeze, 'The Cost of Distance: Shipping and the Early Australian Economy, 1788-1850', Economic History Review, 28 (1975), 582-97.
25. R. Haines, Life and Death in the Age of Sail: The Passage to Australia 1820-1950 (Sydney, 2003).
26. See Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low" '. At this stage of our project, our totals for births and deaths include 14 stillbirths that were registered as births and deaths by surgeons. As these represent less than 1 per cent of births, it appears that surgeons either did not report most stillbirths or simply incorporated them with live births and other deaths. This topic requires further study. On the relationship between stillbirths and perinatal mortality, see G. Mooney, 'Still-births and the Measurement of Urban Infant Mortality Rates c. 890-1930', Local Population Studies, 53 (1994), 42-52.
27. See Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low" '. At this stage of our project, our totals for births and deaths include 14 stillbirths that were registered as births and deaths by surgeons. As these represent less than 1 per cent of births, it appears that surgeons either did not report most stillbirths or simply incorporated them with live births and other deaths. This topic requires further study. On the relationship between stillbirths and perinatal mortality, see G. Mooney, 'Still-births and the Measurement of Urban Infant Mortality Rates c. 1890-1930', Local Population Studies, 53 (1994), 42-52.
28. Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low"', Table 3.
29. Ibid., p. 13, n. 37.
30. J. McDonald and R. Shlomowitz, 'Mortality on Convict Voyages to Australia, 1788-1868', Social Science History, 13 (1989), 285-313; Haines and Shlomowitz, 'Explaining the Mortality Decline in the Eighteenth-Century British Slave Trade'.
31. J. McDonald and R. Shlomowitz, 'Mortality on Convict Voyages to Australia, 1788-1868', Social Science History, 13 (1989), 285-313; Haines and Shlomowitz, 'Explaining the Mortality Decline in the Eighteenth-Century British Slave Trade'.
32. R. Haines, 'Medical Superintendence and Child Health on Voyages to South Australia in the Nineteenth Century', Health and History, 3 (2001), 1-29.
33. G. Mooney, 'Did London Pass the "Sanitary Test"? Seasonal Infant Mortality in London 1870-1914' Journal of Historical Geography, 20 (1994), 157-74.
34. Of the 1,829 individual causes of death recorded by surgeons relating to those embarked and born on the voyage, many causes (such as diarrhoea, measles, scarlatina, etc.) were repeatedly reported, reducing the actual number of causes to 324. To enable us to manage this number of deaths, we have classified the causes into 22 groups. The individual causes that make up the 22 categories are presented in Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low'". Table 1 lists the causes under their group heading: 1-8 are grouped as non-infectious, 10-22 are infectious diseases, while 9 covers unknown or unclassifiable causes. There are thus two classifications for maternal mortality: one for a non-infectious group (such as death during confinement), and the other an infectious group including, for example, puerperal fever. We have not presented causes of infant deaths separately for the neonatal and post-neonatal periods, as for only 278 of the 658 infant deaths did surgeons report the specific age of the infant at death (say, 10 months) and this sub-set is unlikely to be representative of all infant deaths. Our attempt to classify causes of death this way is, of course, open to debate. Some scholars, for example, have suggested that deaths returned under convulsions, atrophy, debility, marasmus, and dentition should be entirely, or in part, included under diarrhoeal disease. See M. Lewis, 'Sanitation, Intestinal Infections, and Infant Mortality in Late Victorian Sydney', Medical History, 23 (1979), 325-38; P. B. Smith, The People's Health 1830-1910 (London, 1979), pp. 86-100; P. Mein Smith, Mothers and King Baby: Infant Mortality, Survival and Welfare in an Imperial World: Australia 1880-1950 (London, 1997), pp. 39-43. It is also well understood by scholars cited here, and as discussed in the text below, that on land (as on these ships) multi-causal deaths were common, and that there was a symbiosis between various infections including whooping cough and measles and underlying conditions (such as diarrhoeal disease, poor nutrition, rickets, etc.) among children on shore. Surgeons on voyages to South Australia often reported more than one cause for an individual death (for example, measles, whooping cough, and debility) confirming that they well understood the interaction between various infections, and between various diseases and malnourishment. In her study of mortality on British (and German) emigrant voyages (to Queensland only) between 1860 and 1900, H. Woolcock, however, grouped causes of death using late nineteenth-century nosological classifications. See her Rights of Passage: Emigration to Australia in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1986).
35. Of the 1,829 individual causes of death recorded by surgeons relating to those embarked and born on the voyage, many causes (such as diarrhoea, measles, scarlatina, etc.) were repeatedly reported, reducing the actual number of causes to 324. To enable us to manage this number of deaths, we have classified the causes into 22 groups. The individual causes that make up the 22 categories are presented in Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low'". Table 1 lists the causes under their group heading: 1-8 are grouped as non-infectious, 10-22 are infectious diseases, while 9 covers unknown or unclassifiable causes. There are thus two classifications for maternal mortality: one for a non-infectious group (such as death during confinement), and the other an infectious group including, for example, puerperal fever. We have not presented causes of infant deaths separately for the neonatal and post-neonatal periods, as for only 278 of the 658 infant deaths did surgeons report the specific age of the infant at death (say, 10 months) and this sub-set is unlikely to be representative of all infant deaths. Our attempt to classify causes of death this way is, of course, open to debate. Some scholars, for example, have suggested that deaths returned under convulsions, atrophy, debility, marasmus, and dentition should be entirely, or in part, included under diarrhoeal disease. See M. Lewis, 'Sanitation, Intestinal Infections, and Infant Mortality in Late Victorian Sydney', Medical History, 23 (1979), 325-38; P. B. Smith, The People's Health 1830-1910 (London, 1979), pp. 86-100; P. Mein Smith, Mothers and King Baby: Infant Mortality, Survival and Welfare in an Imperial World: Australia 1880-1950 (London, 1997), pp. 39-43. It is also well understood by scholars cited here, and as discussed in the text below, that on land (as on these ships) multi-causal deaths were common, and that there was a symbiosis between various infections including whooping cough and measles and underlying conditions (such as diarrhoeal disease, poor nutrition, rickets, etc.) among children on shore. Surgeons on voyages to South Australia often reported more than one cause for an individual death (for example, measles, whooping cough, and debility) confirming that they well understood the interaction between various infections, and between various diseases and malnourishment. In her study of mortality on British (and German) emigrant voyages (to Queensland only) between 1860 and 1900, H. Woolcock, however, grouped causes of death using late nineteenth-century nosological classifications. See her Rights of Passage: Emigration to Australia in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1986).
36. Of the 1,829 individual causes of death recorded by surgeons relating to those embarked and born on the voyage, many causes (such as diarrhoea, measles, scarlatina, etc.) were repeatedly reported, reducing the actual number of causes to 324. To enable us to manage this number of deaths, we have classified the causes into 22 groups. The individual causes that make up the 22 categories are presented in Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low'". Table 1 lists the causes under their group heading: 1-8 are grouped as non-infectious, 10-22 are infectious diseases, while 9 covers unknown or unclassifiable causes. There are thus two classifications for maternal mortality: one for a non-infectious group (such as death during confinement), and the other an infectious group including, for example, puerperal fever. We have not presented causes of infant deaths separately for the neonatal and post-neonatal periods, as for only 278 of the 658 infant deaths did surgeons report the specific age of the infant at death (say, 10 months) and this sub-set is unlikely to be representative of all infant deaths. Our attempt to classify causes of death this way is, of course, open to debate. Some scholars, for example, have suggested that deaths returned under convulsions, atrophy, debility, marasmus, and dentition should be entirely, or in part, included under diarrhoeal disease. See M. Lewis, 'Sanitation, Intestinal Infections, and Infant Mortality in Late Victorian Sydney', Medical History, 23 (1979), 325-38; P. B. Smith, The People's Health 1830-1910 (London, 1979), pp. 86-100; P. Mein Smith, Mothers and King Baby: Infant Mortality, Survival and Welfare in an Imperial World: Australia 1880-1950 (London, 1997), pp. 39-43. It is also well understood by scholars cited here, and as discussed in the text below, that on land (as on these ships) multi-causal deaths were common, and that there was a symbiosis between various infections including whooping cough and measles and underlying conditions (such as diarrhoeal disease, poor nutrition, rickets, etc.) among children on shore. Surgeons on voyages to South Australia often reported more than one cause for an individual death (for example, measles, whooping cough, and debility) confirming that they well understood the interaction between various infections, and between various diseases and malnourishment. In her study of mortality on British (and German) emigrant voyages (to Queensland only) between 1860 and 1900, H. Woolcock, however, grouped causes of death using late nineteenth-century nosological classifications. See her Rights of Passage: Emigration to Australia in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1986).
37. Of the 1,829 individual causes of death recorded by surgeons relating to those embarked and born on the voyage, many causes (such as diarrhoea, measles, scarlatina, etc.) were repeatedly reported, reducing the actual number of causes to 324. To enable us to manage this number of deaths, we have classified the causes into 22 groups. The individual causes that make up the 22 categories are presented in Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low'". Table 1 lists the causes under their group heading: 1-8 are grouped as non-infectious, 10-22 are infectious diseases, while 9 covers unknown or unclassifiable causes. There are thus two classifications for maternal mortality: one for a non-infectious group (such as death during confinement), and the other an infectious group including, for example, puerperal fever. We have not presented causes of infant deaths separately for the neonatal and post-neonatal periods, as for only 278 of the 658 infant deaths did surgeons report the specific age of the infant at death (say, 10 months) and this sub-set is unlikely to be representative of all infant deaths. Our attempt to classify causes of death this way is, of course, open to debate. Some scholars, for example, have suggested that deaths returned under convulsions, atrophy, debility, marasmus, and dentition should be entirely, or in part, included under diarrhoeal disease. See M. Lewis, 'Sanitation, Intestinal Infections, and Infant Mortality in Late Victorian Sydney', Medical History, 23 (1979), 325-38; P. B. Smith, The People's Health 1830-1910 (London, 1979), pp. 86-100; P. Mein Smith, Mothers and King Baby: Infant Mortality, Survival and Welfare in an Imperial World: Australia 1880-1950 (London, 1997), pp. 39-43. It is also well understood by scholars cited here, and as discussed in the text below, that on land (as on these ships) multi-causal deaths were common, and that there was a symbiosis between various infections including whooping cough and measles and underlying conditions (such as diarrhoeal disease, poor nutrition, rickets, etc.) among children on shore. Surgeons on voyages to South Australia often reported more than one cause for an individual death (for example, measles, whooping cough, and debility) confirming that they well understood the interaction between various infections, and between various diseases and malnourishment. In her study of mortality on British (and German) emigrant voyages (to Queensland only) between 1860 and 1900, H. Woolcock, however, grouped causes of death using late nineteenth-century nosological classifications. See her Rights of Passage: Emigration to Australia in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1986).
38. See R. Woods and N. Shelton, An Atlas of Victorian Mortality (Liverpool, 1997), pp. 32-3. In making this comparison between our seaborne population and the land-based population of England and Wales, we acknowledge a number of sample selection biases: our emigrants came from the lower strata of the British and Irish populace and they were required to pass a health examination (albeit cursory by modern standards), to be vaccinated against smallpox, and to fulfil the occupational requirements of the colonial governments (who were willing to fund mainly married male agricultural labourers, shepherds, herdsmen, and rural tradesmen, and female domestic and farm servants). Surgeons were instructed and empowered to refuse a passage to an emigrant who was suffering from an infectious disease or appeared weakly and unlikely to survive the voyage.
39. For a comparison of causes, ranked in order of importance, on South Australian ships with England and Wales for all age groups, see Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low"', Appendix VI. The data for England and Wales are extracted from Woods and Shelton, The Atlas of Victorian Mortality, pp. 32-3.
40. For a comparison of causes, ranked in order of importance, on South Australian ships with England and Wales for all age groups, see Haines, '"Little Anne is Very Low"', Appendix VI. The data for England and Wales are extracted from Woods and Shelton, The Atlas of Victorian Mortality, pp. 32-3.
41. I. London, 'The Measurement of Maternal Mortality', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 54 (1999), 324-9.
42. J. Duffin, 'Census Versus Medical Day Books: A Comparison of Two Sources on Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Ontario', Continuity and Change, 12 (1997), 199-220.
43. Haines, 'Medical Superintendence and Child Health', pp. 3-5.
44. Of the 1,510 deaths, five occurred on board prior to departure, 1,408 during the voyage, and 97 on board after arrival in South Australia during the lay days (usually 14 days) when ailing immigrants were allowed to remain on board at the government's expense under the supervision of the surgeon.
45. Our procedure is to plot the combined number of deaths on all voyages to South Australia, 1848-85, for each successive 10 days of the voyage: 1-9 days, 10-19 days, and so forth. This procedure has the advantage of simplicity. An alternative procedure would be to plot the death proportion (the number of deaths divided by the number of passengers at risk) for each successive 10 days of the voyage. As all voyages lasted at least 69 days, the time-paths based on the number of deaths and the death proportion would be the same up to the interval 60-69 days. But as two voyages were completed in the interval 70-79 days and others were completed in later intervals, less passengers were at risk of death in the intervals 70-79, 80-89 days, etc. It follows that, for the time intervals from 70-79 days, the time-path based on the death proportion would decline less steeply than the time-path based on the number of deaths.
46. This hump-shaped distribution of deaths over the voyage is also evident in our preliminary research on British voyages to Victoria during the nineteenth century.
47. See, for example, J. C. Miller, 'Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade: Statistical Evidence on Causality', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 11 (1981), 385-483; R. L. Cohn and R. A. Jensen, 'Comment and Controversy: Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 12 (1982), 317-29; D. Eltis, 'Mortality and Voyage Length in the Middle Passage: New Evidence from the Nineteenth Century', Journal of Economic History, 44 (1984), 301-8.
48. See, for example, J. C. Miller, 'Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade: Statistical Evidence on Causality', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 11 (1981), 385-483; R. L. Cohn and R. A. Jensen, 'Comment and Controversy: Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 12 (1982), 317-29; D. Eltis, 'Mortality and Voyage Length in the Middle Passage: New Evidence from the Nineteenth Century', Journal of Economic History, 44 (1984), 301-8.
49. See, for example, J. C. Miller, 'Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade: Statistical Evidence on Causality', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 11 (1981), 385-483; R. L. Cohn and R. A. Jensen, 'Comment and Controversy: Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 12 (1982), 317-29; D. Eltis, 'Mortality and Voyage Length in the Middle Passage: New Evidence from the Nineteenth Century', Journal of Economic History, 44 (1984), 301-8.
50. R. H. Steckel and R. A. Jensen, 'New Evidence on the Causes of Slave and Crew Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade', Journal of Economic History, 46 (1986), 57-77, p.73.
51. D. Eltis, S. D. Behrendt, D. Richardson, and H. S. Klein (eds), The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM (Cambridge, 1999).
52. R. Haines, J. McDonald, and R. Shlomowitz, 'Mortality and Voyage Length in the Middle Passage Revisited', Explorations in Economic History, 38 (2001), 503-33.
53. On shipboard seasonality, see Haines, ' "Little Anne is Very Low"', pp. 52-4, infra.
54. A. Hardy, 'Rickets and Rest: Child-care, Diet and the Infectious Children's Diseases, 1850-1914', Social History of Medicine, 5 (1992), 389-412.
55. For a detailed analysis of shipboard reforms for infants, and the consequences of artificial feeding, see Haines, 'Medical Superintendence', and '"Little Anne is Very Low"', pp. 54-68, infra.
56. Hardy, 'Rickets and Rest', pp. 390-2. Whooping cough was most fatal to infants while measles was most fatal in the second year of life.
57. Ibid., pp. 395-6.
58. N. Williams, 'The Reporting and Classification of Causes of Death in Mid-Nineteenth Century England: The Example of Sheffield', Historical Methods, 29 (1996), 58-70; Duffin, 'Census Versus Medical Daybooks', p. 207; B. Luckin and G. Mooney, 'Urban History and Historical Epidemiology: The Case of London, 1860-1920', Urban History, 24 (1997), 37-55. Research is also currently underway, using individual level data for various locations and periods, by M. Drake and P. Razzell, and by E. Garrett and A. Reid, for the late nineteenth century.
59. N. Williams, 'The Reporting and Classification of Causes of Death in Mid-Nineteenth Century England: The Example of Sheffield', Historical Methods, 29 (1996), 58-70; Duffin, 'Census Versus Medical Daybooks', p. 207; B. Luckin and G. Mooney, 'Urban History and Historical Epidemiology: The Case of London, 1860-1920', Urban History, 24 (1997), 37-55. Research is also currently underway, using individual level data for various locations and periods, by M. Drake and P. Razzell, and by E. Garrett and A. Reid, for the late nineteenth century.
60. N. Williams, 'The Reporting and Classification of Causes of Death in Mid-Nineteenth Century England: The Example of Sheffield', Historical Methods, 29 (1996), 58-70; Duffin, 'Census Versus Medical Daybooks', p. 207; B. Luckin and G. Mooney, 'Urban History and Historical Epidemiology: The Case of London, 1860-1920', Urban History, 24 (1997), 37-55. Research is also currently underway, using individual level data for various locations and periods, by M. Drake and P. Razzell, and by E. Garrett and A. Reid, for the late nineteenth century.