136 
TROPICAL PETER. 
The last days of our passage were net so felicitous as the 
mildness of the climate and the calmness of the ocean had 
led us to hope. rn ho dangers of the sea did not disturb us, 
but the germs of I malignant fever became manifest on board 
our vessel as d.3w near the Antilles. Between decks the 
ship was excessively hot, and very much crowded. From the 
time we passed the tropic, the thermometer was at thirty- 
four or thirty -si ? degrees. Two sailors, several passengers, 
and, what is remarkable enough, two negroes from the coast 
of Guinea, and a mulatto child, were attacked with a disorder 
which appeared to be epidemic. The symptoms were not 
equally alarm in.; in all the cases; nevertheless, several per- 
sons, and especially the most robust, fell into delirium after 
the second day. No fumigation was made. A Gallicism 
surgeon, ignore it and phlegmatic, ordered bleedings, because 
he attributed t ie fever to what he called heat and corruption 
of the blood. There was not an ounce of bark on board; 
for we had O’rAted to take any with us, under the impression 
that this salutary production of Peru could not fail to be 
found on board a Spanish vessel. 
On the 8th of July, a sailor, who was near expiring, re- 
covered Iris health from a circumstance worthy of being men- 
tioned. His hammock was so hung, that there was not ten 
inches between his face and the deck. It was impossible to 
administer the sacrament in this situation ; for, agreeably to 
the custom on board Spanish vessels, the viaticum must be 
carried by the light of tapers, and followed by the whole crew. 
The patient was removed into an airv place near the hatch- 
way, where a small square berth had been formed with sail- 
cloth. Here he was to remain till he died, which was an 
event expected every moment ; but passing from an atmos- 
phere heated, stagnant, and filled with miasma, into fresher 
and purer air, which was renewed every instant, he gradually 
revived from his lethargic state. His recovery dated from 
the day when he. quitted the middle deck ; and as it often 
happens in medicine that the same facts are cited in support 
of systems. diametrically opposite, this recovery confirmed 
our doctor in his idea of the inflammation of the blood, and 
the necessity of bleeding, evacuating, aud all the asthenic 
remedies. We soon felt the fatal effects of tins treatment. 
For several days the pilot’s reckoning differed 1° 12' in 
