437 ©N CORAL MBFI AS A CAUStt OF F1VBR* 
of Dilli is always endemic, always prevalent, and always 
liable to attack strangers, as well as those inhabiting the 
inland part of the island, when they take up their residence 
on the sea shore, and, that equally in the wet and the fair 
season when the land is marshy, as well as when it is in the 
contrary state. Second, that those living inland at a dis¬ 
tance of 2 or 3 miles from the sea, are exempt from the 
ravages of the fever which if it depended upon the wet state 
of the plain would not be the case, as they are as much 
under its influence as those living on the sea coast. 1'hird, 
that those living inland where marshes exist, seldom or never 
contract the severe tever of Dilli until they visit that town 
on the sea coast. On the other hand there are many reasons 
to induce me to come to the conclusion that the cause of the 
fever is marine. First , there is no harbour in the east more land 
locked by coral reefs exposed at low water, whose influence on 
the inhabitants cannot be ameliorated owing to the stagnation 
of the atmosphere caused by the proximity of high land, than 
this PORT of Dilli, and there is no port in the east where 
fever is more prevalent or more virulent. Second, remove 
from the cause and the effect is lost, as those who live inland 
ore exempt from fever ; approach the cause and the effect is 
felt, as those who live inland when they visit the town on the 
sea coast are almost invariably attacked with fever, Th 'rd, 
the reason why fever is equally prevalent during both mon¬ 
soons i. e. during the months when the wind blows off the land, 
and those when it blows off the sea, is that although the miasm 
from the coral reefs is blown during the hot monsoon on the 
town and its inhabitants, yet it is so mingled and diffused, 
that its effects are not more and perhaps are less felt than 
during the season when the wind coming from the east, is 
arrested in its progress by the chain of hills immediately 
behind the town, producing a stagnant atmosphere the fit 
recipient and menstruum for malaria. 
Coepang . 
The principal settlement on the island of Timor belonging 
to the Dutch, is situated on the south west end of the island. 
It is a neat clean town in which respect as well as some others, 
it differs from Dilli. This settlement has always been con¬ 
sidered more healthy than the last, which my correspondent. 
Captain Knudson, thus accounts for: “Coepang being more 
exposed to sea breezes than Dilli is not so much subject to 
fever, and the fever is of a much less virulent character and 
of shorter direction, but then it must be recollected that altho* 
there are coral reefs ip the bay, they are a good way off the 
