I)r. Mac Culloch on Malaria on Ship-board, 69 



drilling of the men before sunrise, that they might avoid the 

 imaginary evil effects of the heat of the day. I use the term 

 imaginary with little scruple, convinced that there is incom- 

 parably less danger at this period than at any other. There 

 is always much alarm, it is true, at what is called a coup de 

 soleil ; an unlucky term, producing the same consequences on 

 the mind as other terms do. I do not say that phrenitis, or, 

 perhaps, common fever may not arise from this cause ; but it 

 is abundantly plain, from every case of this nature which I 

 have found accurately described, that such an imaginary coup 

 de soleil, or effect of a hot sun, is, in reality, most generally 

 the fever in question, produced at a very different time of the 

 day generally, and from a very different cause ; though, from 

 the natural effects of this prejudice and this term, easily attri- 

 buted to the action of the sun. 



I have but one suggestion more to offer in the way of pre- 

 vention, as to this usual source of the action of malaria on the 

 crews of ships. All the people of Southern Europe think that 

 it enters by the lungs ; and, in Malta, in Spain, in Italy, in 

 Sardinia, perhaps, more widely, it is thought that the fever 

 may be warded off in perilous situations, by stopping the 

 mouth and nose : in Italy it is commonly held that a gauze 

 veil is effectual. If this be fact, it is an easy remedy ; if it is 

 still to be proved, there can be no better opportunity of proving 

 its truth or otherwise, than on the African coast, by obliging 

 any one boat's crew to use this expedient, and by trying what 

 the results would be as compared to those with another boat, 

 without this precaution. 



I have thus gone through, in as much detail as my space 

 would afford, and in as much, I hope, as is really necessary for 

 those who choose to reflect on this subject, the first great 

 cause of the production of fevers in ships, from malaria ; and 

 the modes of regulation and prevention which are applicable to 

 that cause : it remains to examine the other. 



In the Essay on Malaria, I attempted to show that this poi- 

 son was the produce of ships themselves, in circumstances 

 independent of the land ; the principle being the same, and 

 the poison generated by the action of water on the wood 

 of the ship, — an ordinary instance, in reality, of vegetable de- 



