MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 185 
The precautions adopted by the authorities on the arrival of 
the French frigate L’Armide, in 1852, were in accordance 
with this practice. Again, if yellow fever be not infectious, 
why is the garrison scattered in detachments, and placed 
under canvas in retired rural spots, when attacked by that 
disease? and why was the practice adopted, in 1853, of 
burning the bedding of all military patients who died of 
fever¢ Here, then, we have a portion of the medical pro- 
fession gravely asserting that yellow fever is not infectious, 
and by a strange professional inconsistency, acting in direct 
opposition to those views, thereby destroying in a great mea- 
sure, all public confidence in their proceedings. 
If yellow fever be not endemic or indigenous to the Islands 
of Bermuda, how are we to account for its appearance there 
at distant and uncertain periods? It prevailed in 1780, in 
1818 and 1819, in 1837 at the dockyard only, in 1843 and 
in 1853. On every one of these occasions yellow fever was 
fearfully destructive in the West India Islands, and it was 
generally believed that the disease was imported from those 
parts. There is certainly strong evidence to bear out these 
statements, and my own personal experience of the fever 
which visited the Bermudas in the years 1843 and 1853, 
leads me to the belief that such has always been, and ever 
will be the case, while intercourse by shipping is carried on 
with that part of the globe. Steam navigation, and the 
difficulty of imposing sufficient quarantine regulations on 
steam ships, must greatly add to the frequency of such re- 
sults ; of the efficiency of quarantine, the case of L-Armide 
is a triumphant example. 
To bring the origin of fever nearer home, let us look closely 
into the nature of that which prevailed in the Bermudas in 
