Horrible Things That Happen at Sea: Dysentary

Good Morning everyone! in lieu of the next installment of Dolphins: Jerks of the Sea which I assure you will be painstakingly researched and at least mildly funny, I'm starting off my next recurring feature Horrible Things That Happen at Sea.
Dysentery:
Also called the flux or the bloody flux, dysentery is repulsive and definitely something a person would rather avoid.

Caused by microorganisms that one drinks in unsanitary water, dysentery was common on ships and in the colonies of America. It can either be caused by amoebas or several kinds of bacteria. Characterized by bloody, unrelenting, soul destroying diarrhea, Dysentery presents itself in all corners of the world. Even "Montezuma's Revenge" is a form on amoebotic dysentery.

Treatment:
If you were to get dysentery, the key to keeping yourself alive is hydration with clean water, usually boiled. Of course, modern hospitalization handily manages the infections and hydration. But for pirates back before convenient and plentiful hospitals were often wholly screwed.

Interesting fact:
If a person is fed milk products too early in their recovery from Dysentery they can develop "temporary" lactose intolerance that can last for years.

Book Review: A Short and Bloody History of Pirates

A Short and Bloody History of Pirates by John Farman

This is a great introduction to pirateology for the young swabby just putting to sea (an nine or ten year old would LOVE this book). There are copious pictures and anecdotes as well as delightfully horrifying descriptions of pirate "food" and methods of torture.

It's truly adorable. But that said, it doesn't pull that many punches, there are topics on disgusting disease, cross-dressing, cannibalism and untimely deaths in graphic detail.

Here's an excerpt from Page 36:

"Dysentery
Dysentery is a horrible disease and almost too yucky to talk about. You get it when a lot of people are crowded together and don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom, and then handle food. On a pirate ship, not only did they not have proper toilets... but the water was far too precious to be used for washing. Actually, pirates were a filthy bunch who wouldn't have washed their hands anyway.

Symptoms
Don't worry, you'll soon know if you've got it: severe bouts of blood-filled diarrhea, followed by severe stomach pains, followed by a severe thirst, followed by, if you're a bit unlucky severe death. Severely not to be recommended.

Medical Tip
If you've got dysentery, don't, for God's sake, confuse it with scurvy for, if you rush for the fruit bowl, it'll more than likely make it much worse."

Four out of Five hooks