308 COMMENCEMENT OF SICKNESS. 



gentleman. I may briefly state, that my ap- 

 pointment as junior surgeon to the party took 

 place at Liverpool, and that I had scarcely ar- 

 rived on the coast in the Alburkah when my pro- 

 fessional services were put in requisition by the 

 effects of the climate. 



After leaving York in the Alburkah, the first 

 person attacked was Mr. M'Kenzie, the boat- 

 swain : Captain Hill, and Smith, a seaman, were 

 also attacked with the same symptoms of epide- 

 mic fever. The boatswain appeared to labour 

 under a presentiment that he should not recover, 

 and giving himself up to melancholy, desired to 

 be left at York, as he preferred dying on shore 

 to doing so at sea. Notwithstanding this un- 

 favourable condition of his mind, he recovered 

 like the rest, but was again seized with fever, 

 and died within a week of his first attack. * 



* The symptoms of the fever did not vary much in these 

 cases from those which occurred on board the Quorra at 

 the same time, as Dr. Briggs and I found on comparing our 

 notes. The patients first complained of giddiness, sHght 

 pain across the forehead and at the back of the orbits ; pulse 

 quick, tongue white and red at the tip, obscure vision, great 

 prostration of strength, sometimes vomiting a dark-coloured 

 matter, and great thirst. After the first few hours, the pa- 

 tient appeared anxious to avoid all communication with any 

 one, and remained in his hammock, or concealed himself in 



