250 



STRAITS METEOROLOGY. 



so that in those five months the rainfall was rather less than a 

 quarter of that which fell in the year."" 5 [Malacca Administra- 

 tion Report, 1882.] 



The facts as regards " Beri-Beri" relate to the recent outbreaks 

 in the Singapore Prison, and are shown in an official report as 

 follows : — 



" Amount of Rain and number of Beri-Beri Cases : — 





Numbers. 



Deaths from 

 Beri-Beri. 



RainfalL 



1877, 



... 814 



22 



61 inches 



1878, 



... 845 



65 



99 „ 



1879, 



... 777 



106 



118 „ 



1880, 



... 626 



87 



102 „ 



1881, 



... 642 



35 



92 „ 



1882, 



... 806 



50 



*9 „ 



1883, 



... 837 



27 



GQ „ " 



As regards another local disease, " Country Fever," the follow- 

 ing authoritative statement on this subject is to be found in the 

 new Encyclopedia's article " Malaria " : — 



" The epidemic prevalence of intermittent and remittent fever in 

 certain years probably finds its explanation in the meteorology of 

 those years, but no uniform law has been discovered." 



A subject of more general interest, and one which has already 

 excited some discussion in the Straits, has reference to the effects 

 on rainfall of disafforesting a country. Some say that the loss of 

 our timber has diminished the supply of rain ; others deny it, and 



* The Cholera which visited this Colony at the very commencement of the 

 long drought 1882-3 seems to have followed the course of defective rainfall 

 in the various Settlements with remarkable precision — and as the disease 

 appeared rather before than after the rainfall phenomena of the period had 

 declared themselves, the influence must, it seems, have been less hygrometric 

 than magnetic in its origin. The following are the facts : — 



In Malacca, 65 inches in 1882, ... The epidemic was worst. 



Ml^WelWey, 92 " m [] \ The epidemic was less felt. 



In Penang, 126 „ „ ... There was not a single 



case. 

 The average rainfall is much the same in all the Settlements. 



