436 : NEW SOUTH WALES, (cHap. xix, 
renders this fact remarkable is, that there might be no appear- 
ance of disease among the crew of the ship which conveyed this 
destructive importation.” This statement is not quite so extra- 
ordinary as it at first appears ; for several cases are on record of 
the most malignant fevers having broken out, although ‘the 
parties themselves, who were the cause, were not affected. In 
the early part of the reign of George III.,a prisoner who had 
been confined in a dungeon, was taken in a coach with four con- 
stables before a magistrate ; and, although the man himself was 
not ill, the four constables died from a short putrid fever; but 
the contagion extended to no others. From these facts it would 
almost appear as if the effluvium of one set of men shut up for 
some time together was poisonous when inhaled by others; and 
possibly more so, if the men be of different races. Mysterious 
as this circumstance appears to be, it is not more surprising than 
that the body of one’s fellow-creature, directly after death, and 
before putrefaction has commenced, should often be of so dele- 
terious a quality, that the mere puncture from an instrument 
used in its dissection, should prove fatal. 
17¢h.— Early in the morning we passed the Nepean in a ferry: 
boat. The river, although at this spot both broad and deep, had 
avery small body of running water. Having crossed a low 
piece of Jand on the opposite side, we reached the slope of the 
Blue Mountains. The ascent is not steep, the road having been 
cut with much care on the side of a sandstone cliff. On the 
summit an almost level plain extends, which, rising impercep- 
tibly to the westward, at last attains a height of more than 
8000 feet. From so grand a title as Blue Mountains, and 
from their absolute altitude, I expected to have seen a bold chain 
of mountains crossing the country; but instead of this, a sloping 
plain presents merely an inconsiderable front to the low land 
near the coast. From this first slope, the view of the extensive 
woodland to the east was striking, and the surrounding trees 
Spain, vol. iv.) says, that the great epidemics at Panama and Callao are 
“marked” by the arrival of ships from Chile, because the people from that 
temperate region, first experience the fatal effects of the torrid zones. I 
may add, that I have heard it stated in Shropshire, that sheep, which have 
been imported from vessels, although themselves in a healthy condition, 
if placed in the same fold with others, frequently produce sickness in the 
flock. 
