72 Contagious Fever at Gibraltar. 
A contagious fever producing an alarming and daily increasing 
mortality having prevailed at Gibraltar during the summer and 
autumnal months of 1813, the following account of it, drawn 
up by a medical officer of that garrison, will be found interest- 
ing. After stating that on the 3d of December last the disease 
totally disappeared, the writer proceeds : 
When the disease.commenced, the population was 15,600 
inhabitants; and the garrison with their families amounted to 
5,500. Of the inhabitants, nearly one-half took shelter on 
board of ships, or were forced to encamp on the neutral ground, 
where they all continued well, with very few exceptions, none 
having been taken ill after they had quitted the place six days, 
Of the mbhabitants who remained, to the number of 7,870, 
upwards of 3,800 had had the disease in 1804, who all 
escaped, no well-authenticated case having appeared of any 
person taking the fever a second time: of the remainder, not 
more than 4() escaped an attack of the fever; yet upwards ‘of 
2,600 of the garrison and their families escaped, by their being 
encamped outside of the town and on the heights above it, and 
avoiding all communication with the town. 
The disease appeared to originate solely from contagion, as 
every person outside of the walls, or who kept themselves in 
complete seclusion, remained in perfect safety; and all the 
numerous vessels lying in the Mole and Bay, though crowded 
with inhabitants, ¢ continued perfectly healthy whilst they avoided 
communication with the town; but in six different instances, 
where they neglected this precaution, the fever appeared on 
board. 
The average mortality of deaths was one in five. In more 
than half of the fatal cases, the black vomit took place. Yel- 
lowness of skin was rather an uncommon symptom, and seldom 
occurred but in fatal cases, and then was of a dingey mahogany 
colour, and commenced a few hours before death, 
The faculty now seem genevally to agree that the disease is 
the same as that of 1804, and that it is a distinct disease from 
the bilious remittent fever, and has been introduced here by 
imported contagion, and propagated by contagion alone, as it 
has been one of “the coolest and bealthiest seasons ever known. 
Some opulent planters in Georgia (says an American paper) 
are turning their attention to the cultivation of the sugar-cane, 
From experiments lately made, it is ascertained that an acre 
planted with cane will yield sufficient to fetch 2400 dollars, de- 
ducting the expense of cultivation, which is about four hundred 
dollars, 
The 
