18 THEORIES ^ 



healthy spots in the West Indies. I was informed by the 

 staff-surgeon to the forces, who had long resided there, 

 that it was as healthy as the most favored spots in Eng- 

 land." As a very curious contrast to the statement of 

 Armstrong, we learn from Bishop Heber, that the wood 

 tracts of Nepaul and Malwa, having neither swamps nor 

 perceptible moisture, become in summer and autumn, so 

 pestiferous as to cause their abandonment even by the 

 birds and beasts. 



Fordyce too, tells us that, in a part of Peru, where there 

 is almost a total absence of water, and of course of vegeta- 

 tion, fever and dysenteries render the country almost un- 

 inhabitable ; and according to Pringle, the dry unproduc- 

 tive sandy plains of Brabant, excite malarious fevers of 

 great intensity. 



New South Wales extends from 10 5' to 38 south la- 

 titude, embracing a region similarly situated to that of 

 America from the West Indies to the Chesapeake Bay. 

 It is subject to a rainy season, has streams, estuaries, and 

 extensive swamps. Around some of its towns there lies 

 a deep, black, highly productive vegetable mould. It is 

 liable to extraordinary inundations, which lay the country, 

 as far as the eye can reach, under a sheet of muddy water. 

 The temperature is quite as high as that of any other like 

 latitude. The coast is covered with mangroves, and skirt- 

 ed by rocks, reefs and islets. Among its products are 

 mahogany, oranges, lemons, guavas. The mosquito, with 

 myriads of insects and reptiles; parrots, paroquets and 

 other tropical birds, announce a hot, productive climate, 

 and lead us to look for a tainted air and a pestilential 

 habitude. But, notwithstanding all these threatening con- 

 ditions, the usual symbols of a sickly clime, New Holland 

 is remarkable for its healthfullness. Pulmonary diseases 



