the French West-India Islands. 131 



serious, and that a perfect cure will be more easily ob- 

 tained. 



The various diseases with which almost all the crew of 

 the ship on board which I was, were attacked on their 

 arrival in America, and consequently those that hap- 

 pened afterwards, were partly depending on those of 

 which I have just described the progress and the means 

 of curing. It is absolutely necessary to be acquainted 

 with, and pay a due attention to them ; not neglecting, 

 however, the indications which the different epidemical 

 disorders offer but too often. 



3. Without speaking here of the different parts of the 

 West- Indies which are very unwholesome in them* 

 selves, such as marshy places, where the air is continu- 

 ally infected with putrid miasma, nor of those countries 

 which are not exposed to the east wind, and where the 

 air is extremely rarefied, I have remarked that it was ne- 

 cessary, during the course of the year, to pay a due re- 

 gard chiefly to two seasons in these islands. Although 

 their temperature is not absolutely regular, they never- 

 theless deserve the attention of a practitioner that has at 

 heart the public welfare. He ought, therefore, to give 

 them all his attention, to perceive the differences which 

 relate to the different diseases of which each of these 

 seasons are susceptible, and which consequently require 

 different modes of cure. 



Two seasons then divide the year, the wet, and the 

 dry. In the former, the north winds pretty commonly 

 prevail, and in the latter the south winds. Richa, a ce- 



