7 It) PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTIONS. [aN.VO 1/80. 



surgery, and looked quite pale, saying, that the soldier's back, had smelled so 

 putrid and offensive^ that it made him quite faint and sick at the stomach. He 

 took some tincture of bark and bitters, and went home, when a fever, with a 

 train of the worst symptoms, made its appearance in the evening, and he died 

 the 3d day. Another gentleman, who was sent for by the said surgeon's mate in 

 the morning of the 2d day of his illness, and requested to draw up a will for him, 

 arrived while Dr. S. was present. He spoke with the patient for- a few minutes, 

 and then took Dr. S. aside, saying that there was a certain smell about the room, 

 which made him faint and sick at the stomach, and that he should be oblioed to 

 retire ; he did, but in the evening was seized with the fever and all its bad symp- 

 toms, went through several of its stages, but recovered. A black bov, who 

 had been waiting on the said surgeon's mate during his illness, was taken with 

 the same disorder, and died of it in a few days. Dr. S. could produce several 

 other cases to strengthen what he had advanced concerning the quick appearance 

 of the disorder itself after the contagion had taken place, but he thinks the 3 

 related ones sufficient. 



The cessation of this contagious disease may be dated from about the middle 

 of September. Governor Clarke, who died the 18th of this month, concluded 

 the dreadful scene. He had avoided the communication with all sick people, but 

 did not hesitate in admitting Dr. S. who was the only one who dined with him 

 for several weeks ; and as the Dr. was continually among the sick in the hospital 

 and on the island (of the former of which he gave him a return every morning) 

 he might probably have conveyed the infection to him in his clothing, though 

 he was not affected himself. A few people died in the months of October, No- 

 vember, and December ; some of relapses of the same fever, and others of 

 severe fluxes and abscesses in the liver, in which the disorder had terminated. It 

 is remarkable, that a fleet of merchant-men, under convoy of a sloop of war, 

 which left Senegal on the 4th of August, and sailed for England, had it seems 

 been entirely free from this disorder ; neither did it reach so far as the river 

 Gambia, for the garrison at Fort James in that river enjoyed a pretty good state 

 of health during all this time, and lost only '2 men, who died of fluxes. 



Dr. S. has remarked that at Fort James Gambia in the year 17/6, from Feb. 

 4, to the last of April, that the alteration the weather produced on the barome- 

 ter was so little as hardly to be perceptible. The equality of the weather during 

 this lime (which is part of the dry season in which the sky is always clear and 

 without clouds, though the different winds produce sensible changes in tiie at- 

 mosphere) may perhaps account for it ; but Governor Clarke, who had a barome- 

 ter placed in one of his rooms in the fort at Senegal, told him, that the greatest 

 changes in the weather during the rainy season had so little effect on that instru- 

 ment that it was hardly worth notice. 



