398 



in which the contagious character of the ty- 

 phus of America is more decided, the disease 

 has indubitably spread far from the shore, even 

 into very elevated places, exposed to cool and 

 dry winds, as in Spain, at Medina-Sidonia, at 

 Carlotta, and the city of Murcia. That variety 

 of phenomena, which the same epidemic ex- 

 hibits, according to the difference of climates, 

 the union of predisposing causes, it's shorter or 

 longer duration, and the degree of it's exacer- 

 bation, should render us extremely circumspect 

 in tracing the secret causes of the American 

 typhus. An enlightened observer, who, at the 

 time of the violent epidemics in 1802 and 1803 

 was chief physician to the colony of St. Do- 

 mingo, and who has studied that disease in the 

 Island of Cuba, the United States, and Spain, 

 Mr. Bailly, thinks, like me, " that the typhus is 

 very often, but not always, contagious*." 



Since the yellow fever has made such cruel 

 ravages in La Guayra, the want of cleanliness 

 in that little town has been exaggerated, like 

 that of Vera Cruz, and of the quays or wharfs 

 of Philadelphia. In a place where the soil is 

 extremely dry, destitute of vegetation, and 

 where a few drops of water scarcely fall in 

 seven or eight months, the causes, that pro- 

 duce what are called miasmata, cannot be very 



* Bailly, as above &c, p. xii, (Nouv. Esp., Tom, ii, p. 771). 



