184 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
during the night, but these vapours do not appear to affect 
the health of the cottagers who reside in the immediate 
vicinity. The ponds near Paget Church may be cited as an 
example in point. One glance at the map of Bermuda will 
be sufficient to convince any reasonable person, that an island 
little more than a mile in width, isolated in the vast Atlantic, 
and distant six hundred miles from the nearest point of the 
American coast, can have no atmosphere of its own—swept 
continually by the winds of the ocean, malaria can no more 
exist in the Bermudas than on board a ship at sea. If the 
narrow and dirty streets of St. George, or the convict hulk 
there stationed, could generate disease, why was that locality 
free from yellow fever during the twenty years preceding 
the attack of 1843?* The causes of fever cannot, then, 
with reason be said to exist in the sea air breathed by the 
inhabitants of these Islands. 
Now let us consider the infectious or contagious nature 
of this fever—these are terms which I consider to be syno- 
nomous, and applicable to any disease which may be taken 
by approach or contact with the sick—all quibbling on the 
derivation of the word “ contagion” notwithstanding. 
If the statement of certain members of the faculty be 
correct, viz—that yellow fever is not infectious ; why, let 
me enquire, are ships of war with this fever on board, not 
allowed to send their sick to the Royal Naval Hospital at 
Treland Island, but either have to ride at anchor in the 
offing with the yellow flag flying, or proceed to Ports Island, 
in the sound, as a fever and quarantine station; and why 
is all communication prohibited with such ships and stations? 


* The same observation will apply to other parts of the Bermudas. 
