Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

one morning. It was a large nail and rusty and went right into the ball of the foot
with consequent heavy bleeding; it was very painful and limited his activities for
a while. I dressed it and changed the dressings regularly - the wound seemed
quite clean but it became more painful and the pain spread up his leg. However, I
didn't think there was a danger of infection and fortunately it cleared up in a few
days.
At the beginning of April 1948 I took my daily nicotinic acid (Vitamin B)
tablet and started on my breakfast of scrambled penguin eggs. Suddenly I began
to tingle all over as if badly sunburned and had a headache. I had to lie down and
the others said I was very flushed, although my temperature was only slightly up.
I felt rotten with a fever and spent most of the day in bed, but at 4 o’clock I got up
feeling fairly well. I thought it might be excess vitamin B, but had no medical
handbook - or perhaps there was a "Ship Captain's Medical Guide" but I have
forgotten? Anyway, I sent David Dalgliesh a message saying I'd got collywobbles
after a bath and sunstroke after eating fish. Unsympathetically he replied on R/T
that it was obvious I'd been having too many gin & tonics. (Years later I checked
and discovered that the adverse effects of nicotinic acid include: flushing,
dizziness, nausea, palpitations and itching).
Early in April I got out the tripod and attached my spring balance (for
weighing seals). Then we all sat in a loop of chain and weighed ourselves. The
results were:
Derek 203 lbs
Dick 182 lbs
Ralph 157 lbs
Three weeks later we were each a few pounds heavier but a little later, after
dieting, we weighed
Derek 194 lbs
Dick 176 Lbs
Ralph 150 lb
In May I went to bed very early one day having got a whiff of chloroform
while killing a bird for skinning and felt a bit sick. Another day I had a splitting
headache, cured eventually by aspirin. Derek had sinus trouble, so I tried giving
him steam inhalations and it seemed to help. He had sinus trouble again at the
end of December, but it quickly cleared up.
In June the first year, when we spent a morning of unskilled skiing, we all
had more or less painful mishaps. Derek fell and twisted his wrist which was
possibly sprained; I did the same to my knee when one ski came off as I was
enjoying a most exhilarating run down a snow gulley. We rubbed afflicted parts
with oil of wintergreen. In June too, the third finger of my left hand became rather
painful and there was a red, shiny swelling at the base of the nail. I thought it
might be a whitlow, so I began putting kaolin poultices on the finger as the
inflammation increased. I also made a leather finger-stall for it as otherwise the
bandage got very dirty and ragged. It was awkward now using that hand.
Eventually I operated on the whitlow - painful but effective - I got out about a
teaspoonful of pus and dressed the crater with sulphanilamide powder and tulle.
The finger continued to throb for days and the incision was about 1 4 inch deep,
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