66 Dr. Mac Culloch on Malaria on Ship-hoard. 



the many years he was employed there, in every harbour and 

 on every coast of Spain, Italy, Greece, and Africa, and ne- 

 cessarily under the most intimate communication with places 

 as pestiferous as any in the world. 



This is a case comprising a long-continued train of the ex- 

 periments and precautions in question, and nothing cati be 

 conceived more satisfactory. The only other instance which 1 

 shall quote, is, as a solitary case, not less remarkable. It is 

 from Admiral Sir Henry Baynton, who informs me, that when 

 in the command of the Quebec and Nereide frigates at Jamaica, 

 he was in the habit, like others, of anchoring near the dock- 

 yard at Port Royal, the pestilent marsh near which is well 

 known, and that he invariably carried to sea a fever by which 

 he lost many men. Perceiving the cause, and that cause the 

 one which I have here stated ; he determined to change his 

 plan, when afterwards in the command of the Cumberland, 74, 

 by anchoring at a greater distance ; and though he was de- 

 tained in port during most of the hurricane months, or the 

 most sickly season, he, to his own great surprise, as he states 

 it, but by using the several precautions which it is the object 

 of this paper to point out, retained his whole crew in as good 

 health " as if they had been in the British Channel," there not 

 being one man on the sick list in a crew of 590 men : an in- 

 stance, probably, scarcely known in naval records. 



Here there is an example of what may be done by the com- 

 bination of knowledge and attention on the part of a comman- 

 der, even in the most unhealthy climates and situations ; while 

 the contrasts which I might easily draw between this and the 

 histories of other ships in similar circumstances, would present 

 a most extraordinary, and a not less fearful picture ; though I 

 must avoid what would give pain to many individuals still 

 living, and even through those that are dead, to many more. 

 Let those, however, who wish to see what such a contrast 

 can be, read Smollett's account to which I formerly referred ; 

 and then ask themselves whether these speculations are 

 visionary, or whether, on the contrary, the deepest blame does 

 not attach to all those who have suffered such atrocities, as it 

 will continue to do to all those who shall suffer them hereafter, 

 ■where all possess the same power as the excellent officer whom 



