ON CORAL. REEFS AS A CAUSE OF FEVER, 
44'2 
ing and no exercise, fires every fever until the patient sinks 
under an acute in flu umation of some vital organ. But to the 
European, who c mbines moderate, and generous living with 
sufficient exercise, although he may at times suffer from it, 
yet it will be but slight.* 
The spot where ihe houses were first built upon is no 
doubt unhealthy, but I have every reason to believe, that 
where they now are placed it will not be so to such an 
extent. The most unhealthy mo iths are during the changes 
of the monsoons during May a id June—October and No¬ 
vember, but from April to November may be reckoned more 
unhealthy than during the rest of the year. 
Only two causes can operate upon the settlement to produce 
fever .first fresh water swamps, second coral reefs. The last 
exist in the Harbou \ but not being exposed cannot exert any 
infl ience. At a trifling distance from the harbour exposed 
coral reefs are to be met with, while the adjacent islets are 
surrounded with them, as Pulo Burong, Daat Kolin, Papan 
&c\, and the first island the natives say is most unhealthy, 
the “ air being poisoned", it has no marshes—but exposed 
coral is to be seen at low water. I consider it therefore an open 
question whether Labuan is rendered unhealthy from its 
limited fresh water s .vamps, or from the exposed coral reefs 
found at some distance, although the following facts are so 
strong as almost to amount to conviction that the cause is ma¬ 
rine and therefore from the coral reefs. 1st. the E.I.C. Steamer 
PJilegethon when anchored at Labuan had many of her men. 
attacked with fever, and Dr Minter of H. M. Steamer Medea 
writing from Labuan to me. stated his conviction that the fever 
was owing to emanations from the coral reefs, as during and 
before the time when her crew were sick, the wind blew 
from the sea over adjacent coral reefs, and not from the land 
where the marshes were supposed to be. 2nd the E. I. C. 
steamer Nemesis has just landed 9 men affected with re¬ 
mittent fever, of whom 2 have died, besides three presenting 
premonitory symptoms, and 5 natives slightly affected. 
This slea tier had been 7 days from Labuan when the fever 
broke out in Singapore roads. Of these 7 days, 2 had been 
spent at Sarawak, which is well known for its salubrity, there 
never having been a case of remittent fever arising from 
indigenous influences. Previous to its departure from Labuan 
* The Colonial Surgeon who now goes home an invalid, although he has 
had fever yet that is not the cause ot his temporary retirement from the scene 
of his active labours, his hepatic derangement having been con'raclad before 
his tesidence on the island. 
K K k 
