On Malaria. 301 
rious influence of comets ; some have charged it to cold and damp- 
ness; others to animal putrefaction—to vegetable decomposition or to 
iatinalcules 3 in the atmosphere ; while there are those, who deny it a 
material existence, attributing it to the vengeance of Heaven, as an in- 
fliction upon mankind for rriinserieciels the proximate cause being in- 
appreciable by philosophy. A recent writer affirms that ‘ we are to- 
tally unacquainted with the causes of every kind of endemic disease.”* 
This unqualified assertion is at variance with a long settled opinion, that 
a certain class of maladies unequivocally originate in the miasmata em- 
anating from marshes, although the precise nature and quality of the 
poison, are not cognizable by our senses. 1 — it will pip but 
few examples to establish the fact, that this cer: 
tain endemic and epidemic diseases 3 and for this purpose T shall nate 
some cases of peculiar violence, roraviited indeed by tropical heats, 
but yet so obviously proceeding from this source, as to leave no doubt 
of their origin. 
On the island of St. Thomas, situated in the Gulf of Guinea, be- 
tween Congo and Benin, the town is built to the leeward of an ex- 
tensive marsh. In 1776, seven officers from the Phenix ship of war 
went on shore to visit the governor of the island, every one of whom 
was taken ill of intermitting fever, and all died except ‘one, who re- 
turned to England in very ill health. “Every seaman who went ashore 
for wood and water, if he slept ashore, was likewise taken ill, and 
only two escaped with life, while no other man of the ship’s company’ 
was seized with any kind of distemper during that service.”f In 
the following year, the Phenix made another voyage to the coast of 
, when again touching at St. Thomas, she lost eight out of ten’ 
who imprudently remained all night on shore.t In an attempt to set- 
tle a colony on an island near Borneo, the place was healthy for’ six 
months during the northeast monsoon which came from the sea, but 
when the southwest monsoon blew over vast marshes for six months, 
remitting fevers of the most malignant nature. prevailed, “ cutting” off 
the stoutest men in a few hours.”|| Dr. Trotter, physician” to his 
Britannic Majesty’s ship Assistance, relates that in a voyage to the 
coast of Guinea, in 1762, scarcely a man was indisposed ; but with a 
view to expedition, a tent was erected on a low shore for the mén’ 
employed to procure wood and water, every one of whom died, and 
the rest of the ship’s company remained perfectly healthy. A simi-. 
* Virginia Literary Museum. | {Lind on Hot Climates. Ibid. _|j Ibid. 
