Ventilation, Fumigation, and the Creation of Healthy Air in British Naval Hospitals ca. 1775-1815

In response to a request by the Navy’s Sick and Hurt Board to investigate the recent sickly state of HMS Foudroyant in March 1804, Plymouth Hospital Governor Richard Creyke summarised the best available advice for creating a heathy environment on board ship: “We strongly recommended Whitewashing, the washing of the people’s clothes, Blankets &c, in warm water and Soap, fumigation with Charcoal and Brimstone, to be generally and frequently used, and the Decks to be kept as dry as possible.” Creyke was familiar with supervising these same measures in Plymouth’s hospital wards. The creation, and where possible the maintenance, of what late eighteenth-century medical practitioners and naval administrators conceived of as healthy air was a primary concern of the clinical naval hospitals of Plymouth and Haslar the sole purpose of which was to cure and return sick and injured sailors to their ships as quickly as possible. This paper will discuss the means through which healthy air was created including architectural designs, ventilation, fumigation lamps, and cleanliness. I will also highlight the role of female hospital workers in the creation of healing environments. This included female nurses in the cleaning and fumigation of ward spaces and the shifting of wards (intense cleaning and fumigation process carried out in empty wards) in preparation to receive new patients, as well as washer women responsible for the cleanliness of bedding and hospital dress.