19S Remarks on Madeira, Climate of the Tropics, 



and speculatiiig agents, who dare risk imperfect and uncertain 

 ecjuipnients of this kind, are guilty of the manifold crime of wil- 

 ful murder. — Finding that my services were not solicited on this 

 calamitous occasion, and learning that the person in the capacity 

 of surgeon on board her was almost entirely blinded with the 

 disorder, I could not refrain from officiously proffering both my 

 advice and assistance. This unfortunate ujan, and the master 

 of the vessel, I found in despair on account of their malady, which, 

 with that of all but three of the crew, who were, as I have just 

 stated, similarly .nffected, seemed to me to be of a highly inveterate 

 and formidable nature, owing chiefly to their having no saturnine 

 or astringent colhjria, ov,in fact,elucient applications of any kind, 

 and otherwise to imperfect and consequently to ineffective treat- 

 ment, which consisted simply of ablutions with cold water ap- 

 plied with dirty rags, and the application of blisters to the nape 

 of the neck alone. — Respecting the history of this affection, I 

 couH learn nothing further, than that it broke out in one or two 

 of the men just before the vessel left the river; and in conse- 

 quence of confinement from the heavy and protracted falls of 

 rain, and the consequent want of ventilation and cleanliness, 

 and, in all probability, a similarity of predisposition among 

 the crew, it continued rapidly to spread and to increase in inve- 

 teracy; which, under those circumstances, induces me to suppose 

 it infectious or contagious, or infectious and contagious, and as 

 sucli to he dreaded and avoided. Here it is necessary to state, 

 that under existing circumstances the Coromandel could not well 

 detain this vessel, at such an immense distance from any port as 

 that implied. 



During the intervals of our having remained at Ribeira and 

 the island of St. Sebastian, the sick-list contained between 15 and 

 18 on an average. The disorders were chiefly inflammatory fe- 

 vers, and infectious dysenteries. Much the greater part of the 

 timber was lodged in an angular recess round the projection al- 

 ready melitioned, as situate to the left of Sharks' Bay, a place 

 entirely shut in from the sea-breeze ; so that in addition to this 

 circumstance, if there be considered the nature of the duty itself 

 ,under a vertical sun, requiring an immersion of one half of the 

 body, and likewise, from its plenty and cheapness, the free use of 

 the agoar dente de cana, or de cacha^a*, and the consequent 

 improvident exposure of the body, by night as well as by day, 



* This is almost as indigestible as the kotimts of the Baschkirs in Asiatic 

 Russia, specified in your (Dr. Pearson's) Lectures, Sir; for as the one, from 

 Its indigestible and stimulating nature, retains a considerable share of its 

 inebriating properties after it takes a " mrlli-eust " passage through the 

 system, so does the other remain in some instances little changed after it 

 takes a " north-west" course through it. 

 , under 



