MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 185 



The precautions adopted by the authorities on the arrival of 

 the French frigate L'Armide, in 1852, were in accordance 

 with this practice. Again, if yellow fever be not infectious, 

 why is the garrison scattered in detachments, and placed 

 under canvas in retired rural spots, when attacked by that 

 disease? and why was the practice adopted, jn 1853, of 

 burning the bedding of aU military patien^ts who died of 

 fever? Here, then, we have a portion of the medical pro- 

 fession gravely asserting that yellow fever is not infectious, 

 and by a strange professional inconsistency, acting in direct 

 opposition to those views, thereby destroying in a great mea- 

 sure, all public confidence in their proceedings. 



K yellow fever be not endemic or indigenous to the Islands 

 of Bermuda, how are we to account for its appearance there 

 at distant and uncertain periods? It prevailed in 1780, in 

 1818 and 1819, in 1837 at the dockyard only, in 1843 and 

 in 1853. On every one of these occasions yellow fever was 

 feaxfully destructive in the "West India Islands, and it was 

 generally believed that the disease was imported from those 

 parts. There is certainly strong evidence to bear out these 

 statements, and my own personal experience of the fever 

 which visited the Bermudas in the years 1843 and 1853, 

 leads me to the belief that such has always been, and ever 

 will be the case, whUe intercourse by shipping is carried on 

 with that part of the globe. Steam navigation, and the 

 difficulty of imposing sufi&cient quarantine regulations on 

 steam ships, must greatly add to the frequency of such re- 

 sults • of the efficiency of quarantine, the case of L'Armide 

 is a triumphant example. 



To bring the origin of fever nearer home, let us look closely 

 into the nature of that which prevailed in the Bermudas in 



