690 
REMARKS ON DR, LITTLE’S « ESSAY ON CORAL REEFS AS THE 
CAUSES OF FEVER. 5 * 
It would be a laborious task to follow Dr. Little’s “ Essay on 
Coral reefs as the cause of fever” through the innumerable topics 
on which it touches, or the endless details into which it enters 
and I shall therefore content myself with making some general 
exceptions, and pointing out, in particular, the errors it contains 
in regard to Labuan as an example in support of this new hypo¬ 
thesis,—if it can so be called. 
Containing some interesting, but non-pertinent matter, the first 
fifty pages of this Essay are devoted to the proof that Singapore 
is healthythe next thirty pages go to establish the fact that one 
small village (Ayer Bandera) on the small island of Blakang Math¬ 
is ravaged by a severe type of remittent fever, and that the other 
small villages on the same small island, and the villages, (with a 
few exceptions,) on the numerous adjacent islands, are not subject 
to this scourge ; whilst the last thirty pages contain examples, in 
other places, of the influence of coral reefs in producing a remittent 
fever, “the symptoms and result” of which are “identical” with 
the remittents caused by the action of marsh miasm. 
The following propositions scattered throughout this long essay, 
we shall give as nearly as possible in the Doctor’s own words, and 
they may assist the reader in arriving at a right understanding of 
this new theory, and how far it is supported by facts. 
1st Malarious influence is generated in fresh water swamps, as 
at Siglap. 
2nd “That wherever coral reefs are exposed, fever, especially 
remittent fever, will be endemic on that spot,” 
3rd “ That mere proximity to a coral reef does not necessarily 
imply that the locality is obnoxious to fever, as the interposition of 
high land or a belt of trees (or other causes) may act as an effectual 
barrier.” 
4th. “That effluvia from dead animal matter in a state of 
decomposition are eminently unhealthy, and that in the absence of 
all other causes the coral reef in front of Ayer Bandera is the 
cause of the endemic remittent.” 
5th That wherever a eoral reef is exposed at low water, animal 
decomposition will go on to an extent proportioned to the size of 
the reef, and malaria will be the result of this deeomposition.f 
It need only be remarked on these propositions, that the third 
proposition annihilates, if it does not contradict, the second;—that 
the fourth proposition is illogical, as it assumes the absence of all 
other causes of fever excepting the one named, and that by the fifth 
* Blakang Mati Dr, Little translates arbitrarily and practically “ behind the 
place ol death whereas it simply means “ dead behind” or at the back part. Ha* 
Dr. Little noticed the dead trees at the back of the island, 
t J. I. A. Vol, II. p. 589 , 
P 16 
