EPIDEMIC FETE R3. 
287 
gerous character, when persons, debilitated by long labour 
and copious perspiration, expose themselves to the line rains, 
which frequently fall as evening advances. Nevertheless, 
I 1 ” 611 ° f , c °] our ’ and Particularly the Creole negroes, 
resist much better than any other race, the influence of the 
Lemonade and infusions of Scoparia dulcis are 
given to the sick; but the cuspare, which is the cinchona of 
Angostura, is seldom used. 
It is generally observed, t(mt in these epidemics of the 
town ot Oanaco the mortality is less considerable than 
might be supposed. Intermitting fevers, when they attack 
fciie same individual during several successive years, enfeeble 
the constitution ; but this state of debility, so common on 
the unhealthy coasts, does not cause death. What is re- 
markable enough, is the belief which prevails here as in the 
C ampagna of .Borne, that the air lms become progressively 
more vitiated in proportion as a greater number of acres 
cultivated. The miasms exhaled from these 
plains have, however, nothing in common with those which 
anse froma forest when the trees are cut down, and the 
“J’ cata a layer ot dead leaves. Near Cariaco the 
! JU t thl j - y ^ ood ? d - Can 1)e supposed that the 
mould, fresh stirred and moistened by rains, alters and vitiates 
the atmosphere more than the thick wood of plants which 
covers an uncultivated soil? To local causes are mined 
other causes less problematic. The neighbouring shores of 
the sea are covered with mangroves, avicenmas, and other 
shrubs with astringent bark. All the inhabitants of the 
tropics are aware of the noxious exhalations of these plants • 
and they dread them the more, as their roots and stocks are 
not always under water, but alternately wetted and exposed 
to the heat of the sun* The mangroves produce miasms, 
tannin® ^ COntam ve geto-ammal matter combined with 
* lbwm S “ » 1“* of the social plant* that cover those sandy 
E ulf of mr’ T Cl,aracte , rize tlle vegetation of Cumana and the 
guif of Canaco. Rhliophora mangle, Avicennia nitida, Gomphvena flava 
r’ SeSU7ra 'p P 0l ; tulai '.istrum (vidrio), Talinum cuspidatum 
fr e/o), 1. cnmanense, Portulacca pilosa (zm-gam), P. lanuginosa, Illece- 
V f rhp mdntlm “ m » ^tuples crista ta, Hcliotropium viride, H. latifolium, 
rumanensis' 168 ’ M ° " S ° vert,nllata ' Euphorbia maritima, Convolvuln, 
