On Malaria. 301 



rious influence of comets ; some have charged it to cold and damp- 

 ness ; others to animal putrefaction — to vegetable decomposition or to 

 animalcules in the atmosphere ; while there are those, who deny it a 

 material existence, attributing it to the vengeance of Heaven, as an in- 

 fliction upon mankind for transgression, the proximate cause being in- 

 appreciable by philosophy. A recent writer affirms that " we are to- 

 tally unacquainted with the causes of every kind of endemic disease."* 

 This unqualified assertion is at variance with a long settled opinion, that 

 a certain class of maladies unequivocally originate in the miasmata em- 

 anating from marshes, although the precise nature and quality of the 

 poison, are not cognizable by our senses. I think it will require but 

 few examples to establish the fact, that this emanation does produce cer- 

 tain endemic and epidemic diseases ; and for this purpose I shall name 

 some cases of peculiar violence, aggravated indeed by tropical heats, 

 but yet so obviously proceeding from this source, as to leave no doubt 

 of their origin. 



On the island of St. Thomas, situated in the Gulf of Guinea, be- 

 tween Congo and Benin, the town is built to the leeward of an ex- 

 tensive marsh. In 1776, sever! officers from the Phenix ship of war 

 went on shore to visit the governor of the island, every one of whom 

 was taken ill of intermitting fever, and all died except one, who re- 

 turned to England in very ill health. Every seaman who went ashore 

 for wood and water, if he slept ashore, was likewise taken ill, and 

 only two escaped with life, while no other man of the ship's company 

 was seized with any kind of distemper during that service. "f In 

 the follovdng year, the Phenix made another voyage to the coast of 

 Guinea, when again touching at St. Thomas, she lost eight out often 

 who imprudently remained all night on shore. f In an attempt to set- 

 tle a colony on an island near Borneo, the place was healthy for six 

 months during the northeast monsoon which came from the sea, but 

 when the southwest monsoon blew over vast marshes for six months, 

 remitting fevers of the most malignant nature prevailed, " cutting off 

 the stoutest men in a few hours." j| Dr. Trotter, physician to his 

 Brittannic Majesty's ship Assistance, relat-es that in a voyage to the 

 coast of Guinea, in 1762, scarcely a man was indisposed ; but with a 

 view to expedition, a tent was erected on a low shore for the men 

 employed to procure wood and water, every one of whom died, and 

 the rest of the ship's company remained perfectly healthy. A simi- 



* Virginia Literary Museum. 1 Lind on Hot Climates. t Ibid. || Ibid. 



