-Q 



JAMAICA. 



552 



hendcJ witliin that part of the globe, there muft neccflarily happen 

 a diveiiity in the Ipecies, a deviation of fymptoms, and a confe- 

 oucnthil obhgation to treat them differently, according to the va- 

 rious leafons and fituations. 



Thus, for example, the putrid fevers of the Weft-Indies may ap- 

 pear with different fymptoms at Jamaica, than have been obferved 

 at Barbadoes, at Tobago, at Suiinam, at Porto Bello, or the Ha- 

 vannah. It may be requilite, according to the feafon of the year, 

 to vary the precautions in avoiding, as well as the precepts for re- 

 movinp-, them. In the Northernmoft parts of the Torrid Zone, 

 thefe and other difeafes may differ from, and call for a mode of 

 treatment materially altered from what might be abfolutely proper 

 in, litLiations under or very near to the Equator. That fuch a pub- 

 lication is much wanted is, in no refpeft, more confpicuous tlian iii 

 the ill fuccefs (too often the child of ignorance) which, to the de- 

 Ib-uftion of many inhabitants every year, has accompanied the 

 practice of lome homicides in this country. 



If every phyfician here, of good education and abilit}-, w-as to 

 publiHi the fruits of his knowledge and praftice, his work would 

 fall into many hands, and prevent much of the mifchief likely to 

 happen from thole, who, wanting fuch a guide, are continually in 

 error. But, inflead of this, we obferve with regret, that, when 

 an experienced gentleman of the faculty has died here, or removed 

 from the iiland, his treafure of experimental knowledge has been 

 buried with him, or paffed away to another country, where, from 

 difference of climate, it becomes ufelefs. 



If to refcue one man only from impending death can yield un- 

 fpeakable pleafure to a benevolent heart ; liow infinitely fuperior 

 i-nuft be his fatisfadlion, who, whiifl he communicates the means 

 by which thoufimds, perhaps, of his fellow-creatures may be faved 

 from extremity of torture and diftrefs, reflefts a moment, that, by 

 fo doing, he builds a monument that will tranfmit his i:iame with 

 eulogy to future generations! that the happy refult of his ikill does 

 not perifh wdth him! but that, after his body ceafes from exigence, 

 he may continue ftill the author of health, life, and eafe, to lateft 

 poller ity ! 



To 



