John Atkins (1685–1757) was an English naval surgeon and writer.
Biography
Atkins received his professional education as a surgeon's apprentice, and immediately entered the navy. He records wounds which he treated in
Sir George Rooke's victory
off Málaga in 1704. In 1707 he was in some small actions with the French in the
Channel, and in 1711, he served in the man-of-war
HMS ''Lion'' at the
battle of Vigo Bay
The Battle of Vigo Bay, also known as the Battle of Rande (; ), was a naval engagement fought on 23 October 1702 during the opening years of the War of the Spanish Succession. The engagement followed an Anglo-Dutch attempt to capture the Spanish ...
. The ship was commanded by Captain
Galfridus Walpole, whose right arm was severely wounded. Atkins cut it off above the elbow and sat up two whole nights with the patient afterwards, ‘supposing a tenderness and respect would engage his good opinion and consequently his interest.’ This interested attention did not gain its object, for Captain Galfridus gave no thanks for it, being, as Atkins bitterly observes, ‘the reverse of his brother (
Sir Robert), loving cheapness in all jobs’ (Navy Surgeon, 137).
In February 1721, Atkins sailed from
Spithead
Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshir ...
for the coast of
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
with the
''Swallow'' and the
''Weymouth'', sent to put down piracy on the west coast of Africa. They visited
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
,
Ouidah, Wydah, the
Gaboon,
Elmina
Elmina, also known as Edina by the local Fante, is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region, situated on a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, west of Cape Coast. Elmina was ...
, and captured at
Cape Lopez
Cape Lopez () is a headland on the coast of Gabon, west central Africa. The westernmost point of Gabon, it separates the Gulf of Guinea from the South Atlantic Ocean. Cape Lopez is the northernmost point of a low, wooded island between two mouths ...
270 pirates and 10,000l. in gold dust. When the pirates were tried, Atkins was made registrary, and complains that for twenty-six hard days' work he only received as many pounds.
Three or four of the crew died every day for six weeks, and the surgeon became
purser
A purser is the person on a ship principally responsible for the handling of money on board. On modern merchant ships, the purser is the officer responsible for all administration (including the ship's cargo and passenger manifests) and supply. ...
for lack of another survivor fit for the office. They sailed to
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Grea ...
, where at
Port Royal
Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and ...
a hurricane carried off the masts. In April 1723 the vessels returned to England and were paid off. Atkins was unsuccessful in getting another ship, and took to writing books.
Publishing
Atkins published two books, both of which have had more than one edition. The ‘Navy Surgeon’ was published first (1732). It is a general treatise on surgery, with remarks on mineral springs, empirics, amulets, and infirmaries. It shows the author to have been an observant but somewhat prejudiced practitioner. The cases are clearly related, and are the best part of the book. Many surgical books are quoted, and enough of other books to show that Atkins was widely read.
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ...
,
Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's lif ...
, Pope, and Milton were known to him, and he admired also
Stephen Duck. This book appeared in a shorter form as ‘A Treatise on the following Chirurgical Subjects,’ &c., without date.
Atkins was one of the earliest scientists to be a proponent of the
polygenist theory of human origins. In his book ''A Voyage to Guinea'' (1723) he said "I am persuaded that the black and white race have sprung from different coloured parents."
[David Keane, Caste-based discrimination in international human rights law, 2007, p. 89]
In 1735 he published ''A Voyage to Guinea, Brazil, and the West Indies.''
This describes the voyage of the Swallow and the Weymouth, and is full of interesting information about the
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and the natural history of the
Gold Coast. He describes the
manatee
Manatees ( family Trichechidae, genus ''Trichechus'') are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living spec ...
accurately, and tells much about
fetish worship. He shows that there was no evidence of a general
cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
in any tribe, but mentions how the captain of a
slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast i ...
made an enslaved African eat the
liver
The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it ...
of another as a punishment. He gives full accounts of the winds and currents, and leaves the impression that he was intelligent and truthful. An edition of the ‘Navy Surgeon’ in 1742 contains several additions.
See also
*
List of abolitionist forerunners
Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846), the pioneering English abolitionist, prepared a "map" of the "streams" of "forerunners and coadjutors" of the abolitionist movement, which he published in his work, ''The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accompl ...
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, John
1685 births
1757 deaths
English surgeons
18th-century English writers
18th-century English male writers
18th-century Royal Navy personnel
Royal Navy Medical Service officers