ON IT7DIA:y DISEASES, IN DETAIL. 135 



Fever is unknown on the hills, except when contracted 

 previously in the low country. In cases which have suffered 

 from it below, it is, of all other diseases probably, that which 

 derives the most immediate and decided benefit from the cli' 

 mate, at least if unconnected with permanent derangement of 

 the liver. When complicated with affection of the spleen, 

 as in the Seringapatam and Guzerat fevers, it proves more 

 obstinate, but rarely intractable. Jungle fever, one of the 

 m.ost dreaded and intractable of the whole class, is in general 

 so much modified by the climate, as to lose its formidable 

 character, as a proof of which may be stated the fact, that out 

 of some 18 cases, which have come under my observation, we 

 have lost only one patient.* Fortunately, the circumstance 

 of this form of fever seldom or never declaring itself before 

 a fixed and definite period, generally the eleventh or twelfth 

 day after exposure to the miasm, we are enabled to apply 

 precautionary measures so as frequently to arrest the attack 

 altogether, or at least weaken its force considerably. Among 

 other striking examples of this fact, the following is not the 

 least remarkable : — In 1831, a party of 27 European con- 

 valescents, under charge of Lieutenant Croft and Dr. Au- 



* This was in every respect a most unfortunate instance, as being 

 that of a gentleman of distinguished talents, of the most amiable man- 

 ners, and the most unwearied zeal. Circumstances having induced him 

 to devote much of his time and talents to subjects connected with the 

 improvement of the NeUgherries, his loss fell with peculiar weight 

 on U5. 



I allude to the late Dr. A. T. Christie, who contracted the disease 

 while passLQg through the Groodaloor jungle, on his way to Ootaoa- 

 mund : being naturally much predisposed to febrile derangement, the 

 morbid action toot such hold upon him, acting as a poison on the ner- 

 vous system, that medicine proved completely inert, and he sank 

 without a struggle on the sixth day after the first accession. 



