56 On the Sickness and Mortality 



events which have taken them from this field of inquiry into other 

 fields, we might, ere now, have had the result of their united labors. 



Having been furnished with some tabular statements, drawn from 

 an authentic source and made at a great cost of time and trouble, of 

 the state of health of the troops, quartered at Kurnaul for a series of 

 years, I am unwilling that such valuable documents, containing such 

 a mass of useful information, should be lost to the profession, and 

 induced therefore to publish them. 



When I state that these tabular statements were collated by Dr. 

 John Murray, of the Horse Artillery, I offer ample guarantee for 

 their correctness and accuracy. 



From these Tables I have made certain inferences, on which I 

 have based certain opinions relative to the causes, which have a pre- 

 judicial effect on the health of the troops at Kurnaul, and occasion 

 the great sickness and mortality which have prevailed there. An 

 examination of the tables, will enable any one to satisfy himself of 

 the legitimacy of the one, and the grounds they afford for the founda- 

 tion of the other. 



The devastating diseases of Kurnaul have been periodic or miasma- 

 tic fevers, varying in intensity from a slight intermittent of the cold 

 season, to the most intractable remittent fever of the rainy season ; 

 stamped with all the most characteristic symptoms of yellow fever of 

 the West Indies, such as severe cerebral symptoms, extreme irritability 

 of stomach, and, in some instances, yellow or bilious suffusion of 

 the skin. 



The intimate connection of the whole family of fevers, is demonstrat- 

 ed by their gradation from one form into another. The ephemeral, 

 consisting of one occurrence of the cold, hot, and sweating stages, 

 by recurrence, becomes an intermittent, and this again, by its length- 

 ened paroxsym and contracted apyrexial period, is converted into a 

 remittent, and this last, by indistinct remissions or apyrexial intervals, 

 is only recognisable as a continued fever. 



This ready and frequent conversion of one form of fever into 

 another, is not more demonstrative of their intimate connection than 

 their proceeding from one common cause, — malaria or miasma. 



These varied forms of tropical fever are dependent on the intensity 

 of the miasmatic exhalations from the earth's surface, and the 

 intensity of these exhalations is dependent on temperature. 



