BOOK II. CHAP. VIII. 113 



were taken with this dilcarc, two only died ; the refl: were reco- 

 vered by Dr, James's well-known powder, adminiftcrcd by the 

 Ibrgeon of that fliip. From a multitude of experiments, this pow-- 

 der appears to be a Ipecific remedy for all the Weft-India fevers of 

 the putrid kind ; and it is but doing jufticc to its merit, to fay, that 

 it feldom has failed of fuccefs, if given early after tlie fall: 

 fymptom of the difeafe has made its appearance, and in doles ju- 

 dicioully proportioned to the patient's ftrength. When a vefiel ar- 

 rives at Port Royal harbour with any contagious fever on board, 

 (lie might be ordered to perform quarantine at the Palliliidoes. Here 

 a convenient lazaretto, open to the fea- breeze, might be creeled at 

 an expence very trifling to the puhlick; for a boarded or pLiiftered 

 houfe -would be not only the cheapeft, but wholefomeft, kind of 

 building for this purpofe. Here the patients would brcatlje a pure, 

 dry, and perfedlly falubrious atmofphere ; and might be conftantly 

 fupplied with vegetables, and all other neceflaries, from the town 

 ofKingflon, by water-carriage. The fliips in which the infediou 

 had raged might here be duly aired and purified for a reafonable time 

 before they were fufFered to approach the town. A precaution of 

 this nature, fo much wanted, and fo eafily to be put in pradice, 

 feems to deferve fome attention from the legiflature of t!ie ifland. 

 I think it will be allowed, that, had it been adopted fome 

 years ago, and continued under fit regulations ftridliy oblbived, 

 many thoufand ufeful lives might have been redeemed from an un- 

 timely fate. Befides, thefe calamities are not confined to King- 

 ilon alone ; for, when they have raged to any confiderable degree 

 in this town, they have unavoidably circulated into other parts of 

 the ifland by means of the conftant refort to it of people from the 

 various diftrids. The wifdom and circumfpedion of every trading 

 port in Europe have pointed out the utility of fuch lazarettos ; and, 

 although the diflemper called the plague has never yet been known 

 in the Weft-Indies, yet the putrid fevers hatched in this climate 

 have at times been nearly as peftilential and mortal ; chiefly fo, whcsi 

 they have invaded a multitude of men pent up in the clofe at- 

 mofphere of a fliip, or the warm rooms of towns on the coaft. 

 To this effedl is the remark of a fenfible man who refided many 

 years in Jamaica, cited by Di". Lind. " He obferved the poor 

 Vol. II. Q " feamcn 



