IS39] some other portions of Mysore. Ill 



the bed of the river being rocky and not muddy, none of ihe very mark- 

 ed features of miasma present, we dismiss the subject as incapable of 

 explanation. 



But allow me to describe Seringapatam particularly as it must 

 have been som.e years ago, and the description is one that all must 

 confess to be unhealthy — a small island, lying very low, containing a 

 dense and dirty population, enclosed by the high walls of a fort. On 

 looking down from one of the minarets near the gate opposite the 

 Durria Adaulet Baug, we observe, that the fort must have been at one 

 time crowded with houses to the very fort walls, affording a density of 

 population seldom I should imagine equalled. Even now we observe the 

 streets or lanes are extremely narrow, and the collection of filth very 

 great. But density of population and filth cannot alone account for the 

 disease, for many have contracted the fever and died in the Durria 

 Adaulet Baug and Laul Bang. The first still exists, and is considered 

 the public bungalow, a native palace in the centre of a fine park, one of 

 the branches of the river passing near it. Is it here^then, lowness of 

 position alone which is prejudicial? I believe not, and suspect miasma 

 is combined with it. If asked what miasma is, I must borrow a word 

 from an excellent writer. Dr. Fergusson, and say, nesc'io. 



I do however believe that we may expect some light to be throw^n on 

 the subject bj^ geology. This science has already explained some points 

 connected with disease ; the existence, for instance, of goitre in those 

 districts in mountain tracts where limestone is the principal rock ; and its 

 not attacking even neighbouring villages, if built on granite, the water 

 of course being calcareous in one, and not in the other. The island and 

 immediate neighbourhood of Seringapatam show, that igneous action 

 has been much in operation. I mentioned above that trap dykes were 

 seen just before entering, and over the northern branch of the river 

 a bridge is thrown, close to which there is an arrangement of 

 rocks worthy of notice— a red looking mass, dyke-like, runs across the 

 river, and is observed to be porphyritic— the basis a red felspar with 

 imbedded crystals of white and reddish felspar, and innumerable needle- 

 shaped crystals of schorl, or perhaps wdiat might be called schorlaceous 

 actynolite — some parts of the rock having a coating of a green substancCj 

 chlorite or actynolite. It is a beautiful looking rock, and well contrast- 

 ed with gneiss, which is along side of it. This gneiss distinctly 

 stratified, and containing much black mica. Along side of this and 

 nearer the bridge, there is a large mass of hornstone running, dyke-like, 

 in the same direction. Hornstone, which is common over the island, is 

 of two shades or colours, one grey and the other blue; the grey kind 



