Obseriiatlons on the Yellow) -Fcaer. 43 



after a week or two, at most, from the sick being all 

 laid in the air, in open sheds." 



Dr. James M'Gregor, in his Medical Sketches of 

 the Expedition to Egypt from India, published in 1804, 

 says, the typhus, or malignant fever of continued 

 type, which, in Europe, has committed such havoc 

 in fleets and^armies, loses its povv«r in the climate of 

 India. " We know instances (says this gentleman) 

 where, in transports, the typhus had broke out, and, 

 on the passage to the Cape of Good Hope or India, 

 had proved little less destructive than the plague 

 could have done, but the disease never reached India. 

 If a case was landed there, it never propagated the 

 contagion ; a second case never occurred on shore. 

 On enquiry, I found that no case had ever been known 

 on the Avestern side of the peninsula, nor have I ever 

 heard of its existence on the eastern side." 



From these, and numerous other examples, re- 

 corded by medical writers, it appears, that other spe- 

 cies of malignant fevers, as well as the yellow-fever, 

 are contagious only in situations where the air is con- 

 fined, and the exhalations of the sick are permitted 

 to accumulate, through neglect of frequently chang- 

 ing the bed and body linen of the patient. 



It has been contended, that the yellow-fever is not 

 a contagious disease, because it does not exist, in 

 this climate, at all seasons, and under all circum- 

 stances. According to this argument, neither the 

 plague, dysentery, scarlatina anginosa, nor the measles 



