Excerpt from a report on the inspection of surgeons'
kits, 1695
t was not compulsory for ships
engaged in the green fishery on Newfoundland's Grand Bank to have a
surgeon on board. They did, however, have to carry a medicine chest
containing essential medication and surgical instruments, and the chest
had to be inspected. As this document shows, the master surgeon who
performed the inspection sometimes had to recommend that captains
complete their medical kits.
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Excerpt from the register of reports
on the inspection of the kits of master surgeons working on board ships.
On the sixteenth day of April sixteen hundred and sixty-five, we, the
undersigned, inspected the medicine chest on Le Désir,
a vessel of about eighty tons that will be sailing for Newfoundland
armed with six cannons and carrying eighteen crew members under the
command of Sieur Étienne Meslé, a chest that is
sufficiently filled with good medication and instruments for performing
surgery, except for some medicine that is missing and that we recommend
the captain acquire. Made on board the said ship in the year indicated
below, Meslé Baugrand Duqueriel and myself, clerk of the society
of master surgeons of this city. [Signed] BONNEUX
Archives de la Marine, Brest, France
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Excerpt from a report on the inspection of master
surgeons' kits, 1695
o comply with the
ordinances in effect, the surgeon of Le Duc d'Orléans
had his kit inspected to show that it contained sufficient medication
and the essential instruments. This document confirms that everything
was in order on the eve of the ship's departure for the dry fishery
in the Petit-Nord region of Newfoundland.
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Excerpt from the register of reports
on the inspection of the kits of master surgeons working on board ships.
On the said day, we, the undersigned, inspected the medicine chest that
Jacques Aubry, a surgeon, is to take on Le Duc d'Orléans,
a three hundred and fifty ton ship armed with thirty cannons, carrying
one hundred and twenty crew members, under the command of Sieur Desdous,
to travel to the Petit Nord for the fishery, a kit we have found to be
sufficiently filled with good medication and instruments for performing
surgery. In witness whereof we [something crossed out] have sealed the
said kit and handed the key to the undersigned officer who was present
at the said inspection. Made at St-Malo, on this day and year, before
Girard Baugrand, Jacques Aubry Duquereil and myself, clerk of the
society of master surgeons of this city. [Signed] BONNEUX
Archives de la Marine, Brest, France
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