242 On the lale Plague at Malta. 



the fittest subjects for Almighty vengeance, that of all others 

 they should have been most favom-ed under this visitation. With 

 the exception of two females, who had been al)andoned by the 

 military, and were sent, with the charge of children, to tlie spot 

 destined to receive the population of the infected quarters of 

 Valletta ; — of the wife of a serjeant of artillery who resided at 

 Floriana, when the disease raged with violence in that subinb; — 

 and of the last fatal case at Gozo, which will be touched on 

 hereafter, the writer does not recollect any British \vho were 

 victims to the disease, the soldiery of one of the military corps 

 excepted. At the breaking out of the plague at Valletta, many 

 of the British families resident there sought refuge in the coun- 

 try. It is highly to the honour of those who remained to face 

 the danger, and who were not riveted to the spot by public 

 employments, that they were most instrumental in checking the 

 propagation of the contagion, displaying, on every occasion in 

 which thev volunteered their services to the Government, an 

 heroic courage and a zeal beyond all praise ! 



Fort Manoel, situated opposite to Valletta, on the other side 

 of the Quarantaine creek, was at the beginning the receptacle of 

 the sick, who were, together with the remaining tenants of infected 

 houses, poured in from the capital in proportion as the disease 

 gained ground, and before pest-hospitals could be prepared for 

 their reception. Huts were constructed in the sequel, to the 

 end that the entire population of the parts of the capital most 

 infected might be cleared. These were, the Mandragio, a low, 

 obscure, and crowded quarter chiefly inhabited by market peo- 

 ple, and another low spot in the vicinity of Fort St. Elmo. Be- 

 fore these measures could be adopted, the population of the 

 buildings of Fort Manoel became overcharged ; and here a par- 

 ticular symptom of plague, wliich does not appear to have been 

 noticed "bv anv writer on the subject, presented itself. Owing 

 to the stimulating quality of the pestilential virus, a furor, or 

 what may be better termed a salyr'msis, was induced in both the 

 sexes, which required all the vigilance of the attendants to se- 

 parate them, and that under the most loathsome circumstances of 

 the disease. It is possible that this fact may lead hereafter to a 

 better knowledge of the specific quality of the contagious matter. 

 Subtle and permeating in its nature, in attackhig the vital ener- 

 gies, it produces that peculiar excitement in the system, which 

 has been hitherto almost exclusively confined to the pathology of 

 maniacal cases, and of uterine affections in females. 



Several of the Maltese medical practitioners, or as they style 

 themselves professors, were selected by the Government, and 

 allowed handsome salaries, to administer to the sick who had 

 been removed to Fort Manoel, and to watch over the safety of 



Valletta, 



