130 Treubia Vol. Ill, 2. 



widely known that this unhealthiness dates only from the second century 

 of the existence of Batavia, which in those days was known as the "Grave 

 of the East", or the "Grave of the Dutch" (Baron VON WOLLZOGEN, 1790), 

 Many writers of the 17th and the commencement of the 18th century praised 

 Batavia as a healthy town. 



The high mortality cipher, due to malaria and dysentry ^ \ rose sud- 

 denly in 1733, in connection with the excavation of a canal through the 

 piece of land called Kamal, which was commenced in 1732 but which was 

 never completed. 



Probably this excavating in brackish soil led to the formation of 

 breeding places of Myzomyia ludlowi THEOBALD 2), which may quite possibly 

 have been the cause of the well known dying out by fever at that period 

 of whole villages, situated on the North-West side of Old Batavia. 



Further, it is not unlikely that the lack of water in the East Monsoon, 

 from which Old Batavia with its large number of rnoats had to suffer, 

 contributed its share in raising the mortah'ty cipher during the 18th century. 

 Although the Muara Baru and the Muara Embrat (Heemraad = Dyke 

 reeve) were excavated as continuations into the sea of the Western and 

 Eastern town outer moats respectively, so as to carry off flood water 

 during the West Monsoon, yet, on the other hand, during the East Mon- 

 soon the Tji Liwung could hardly supply sufficient water to ail the moats 

 of Old Batavia. 



Even after the excavation, in 1680, of the Mookervaart, in consequence 

 of which not only Tji Liwung water, but also water from the Tji Sedani 

 or Tangerang river, could be delivered to the Batavia moats, stagnant 

 pools formed during the dry season in these moats in many places. 



In this connection, it is not unlikely that, during the dry season, 

 brackish water penetrated along the moats quite a good distance south- 

 wards into Old Batavia, which possibly caused the formation inside the 

 town of breeding places of the dangerous malaria carrier, Myzomyia lud- 

 lowi THEOBALD. 



Further, on a map published in 1788, I came across sea fish ponds 

 occupying, even in those days, the silted up area not far North of the 

 spot where the Laboratory for Marine Investigations now stands. As has 

 been referred to before, these ponds are, in our days at any rate, very 

 prolific breeding places of the most dangerous malaria carriers of the 

 Netherlands East Indies. 



Only after Daendels had built the palace on the Waterloo Plein in 

 1809, and the exodus from Old Batavia in 1816 of Europeans, who went 

 to live in Weltevreden, had commenced, the state of health of the Euro- 



') The first cholera epidemic in Java was in 1818, imported from British India. Be- 

 fore 1817 the occurrence of cholera was unknown in Java. 



^) The existing breeding places of Myzomyia ludlowi Theobald, lying along the 

 North coast of Java are, at least when they produce large quantities of these malaria 

 carriers, invariably brackish water breeding places. 



