443 ON CORAL REEFS AS A CAUSE OF FEVER, 
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the steamer had been anchored withiu a quarter of a mile of 
the shore in the harbour* and one mile or so to leeward of 
exposed coral reefs. This situation was occupied for 5 days* 
previous to which it had been at Rubong Point on the 
north end of the island for some time* and while there the 
crew were quite healthy. The miasm must therefore have 
been received at the Harbour of tiabuan. During the time 
they were at this anchorage the wind blew steadily from 
the south or S. W.* from the sea and over the coral islets 
and exposed coral reefs, the nearest of which is near the islet 
of “Enow’’ as seen in a “chart of Labuan Island made from 
the surveys of Captain Bethune and Sir E. Belcher’% 
Within a few yards the Royalist was anchored, and therefore 
exposed to the same causes, and so sickly was she that the 
Nemesis towed her out* having out of her small complement 
25 men and 3 officers laid up with fever. Among the sick 
of the Nemesis are two quarter masters who were never 
exposed to sun or rain, being under an awning during the 
day* and the men, while the steamer was at anchor in the 
harbour* were not allowed to go on shore in case they might 
make free with the bottle. 3rd. The fresh water marsh is so 
limited and so protected from the sun’s rays by high trees 
and jangle, that, reasoning from analogy, I would say that 
it could exert very little influence in producing fever ; if 
there had been paddy fields or cleared fresh water marshes to 
any extent* no doubt would have existed that they could occa¬ 
sion fever to those located near them, or to those at a distance 
when the wind blew over them. Again* it is not during the 
rainy season that marsh miasm is in its greatest activity, 
but when the rains have ceased, and the ground* from eva¬ 
poration* becomes dryish. The contrary is the case with 
coral miasm* which is most active during the wet season. 
Now the fever at Labuan has been most active during the 
wet season. 
Can there be a doubt after this that there is some ma¬ 
larious influence engendering fever in the harbour of Labuan ? 
During the N. E. monsoon the wind blows over the island* 
and from the open sea in the N. E. direction where there 
are no coral reefs exposed* and then there is no fever. Even 
those who contracted it during the S. E. monsoon recover 
in this. If the cause or causes of fever be terrestrial we 
would have it in the N. E, monsoon, but such has never 
been the case* as fever never existed but in the S. W. 
• Captain Wallage, of the Nemesis, was written to by the Admiralty as 
to the means he adopted for keeping his crew so healthy when at Labuan, 
