558 DR. CHISHOLM ON THE MALIS DRACUNCULTTS. 
opinion that the disease was infectious. He says, “ During the 
voyage, 199 cases had appeared out of 360 men of the 88th regi- 
ment ; and several cases occurred among the ship’s crew ; but not 
a single case occurred among the artillery. This struck every 
one on board, very early, as remarkable ; yet these men had the 
same provisions, drank the same water, and in every other cir- 
cumstance were situated as the men of the 88th regiment, except 
that they were kept separate. From the outset the artillerymen 
were accommodated apart, on the gun-deck, in a spot divided for 
themselves. Not one of the officers, either of the artillery, 88th, 
or belonging to the ship, had the guinea-worm. From the strong 
circumstances which in its course appeared, every officer on 
board was impressed with the opinion of its being contagious, 
and was inclined to use every precaution of prevention, from 
which, most probably, all escaped this filthy and severe disease.” 
{Med. Sketches , p. 208). The deficiency I advert to is, that the 
water drank at Bombay Island by the detachment of the 88th, 
in which the disease, by the foregoing extract, almost exclusively 
appeared, and that which the artillery and all the officers drank 
at the same place, previous to their embarkation there , is not spe- 
cified. If the soldiers of the 88th drank the common spring- 
water, and the artillery and officers rain-water, on the Island of 
Bombay, the exclusive affection of the former is at once ac- 
counted for. We are told that there is much evidence of volcanic 
influence in the formation of Bombay and the adjacent islands ; 
the nature of their rock and soil, the singular caves they are dis- 
tinguished by, their very disjointed appearance, all manifest a dis- 
ruption from the continent vi quondam et vasta convulsa ruina. 
We are told, also, that the soil is sterile, and incapable of improve- 
ment ; that the Island of Bombay, more especially, has no good 
water upon it; that the best is rain-water, preserved in cisterns, 
that which their wells furnish having a brackish disagreeable 
taste ; and so well aware are the Gentoo inhabitants of its pos- 
sessing noxious qualities, that they never make use of it, a prin- 
cipal cause, it is believed, of their exemption from the nurlcoo or 
guinea-worm. Gentlemen who have long resided at Bombay 
have favoured me with these particulars ; and, from the general 
tenor of my reading and conversation on the subject, I have no 
doubt of the facts. (See Mod. Univers. Hist. vol. x, p. 226; 
JE ncyclop. Britan, art. “ Bombay .”) 
An examination of the narrative Sir James Macgrigor has 
favoured us with in the Medical and Surgical Journal of Edin- 
burgh, vol. 1, will, I think, further elucidate the opinion I have 
formed, and render that of contagion totally unnecessary. It 
appears from his journal (p. 270, &c.), that the first case of 
