DR. LITTLE^ CORAL THEORY. 
(392 
I must therefore differ from Dr. Little’s second proposition “that 
wherever coral reefs are exposed, fever especially remittent fever, 
will be endemic on the spot”, and maintain, on the contrary, that 
an exposed coral reef may be perfectly harmless, and that the evil 
results, not from the coral reef, as a coral reef, but from the animal 
decomposition which takes place on it, and that the same cause 
under peculiar circumstances will produce fever any where and 
every where else. 
Although Dr. Little’s theory appears to me to resolve itself into 
a well known and established fact, yet it will be satisfactory on a 
large scale to trace the influence of coral reefs, and thence to arrive 
at a conclusion, how far, under ordinary circumstances, the animal 
decomposition which may take place on them, affects the health 
of the population living in their vicinity. Before entering on this 
subject, however, I must examine some of Dr. Little’s examples in 
support of his hypothesis, and the conclusions to be drawn from his 
personal researches, and Dr. Little will excuse me for saying, that 
the general influence of coral reefs as a cause of fever, must rest on 
better grounds than his microscopic investigations, loose native 
testimony, or the testimony of superficial observers unaccustomed 
to scientific enquiry. Dr. Little proves himself that the evil con¬ 
sequences produced by animal decomposition on coral reefs is of 
very limited extent —we have already stated that in his opinion the 
miasm in a confined harbour, did not extend half a mile, and 
although fever occurred in some land-locked localities having a 
quantity of decaying animal matter close to them, yet the greater 
number of islands, removed from these places by very short 
distances, were free from disease and might be considered healthy. 
If however Dr. Little’s personal inspection produces such minute, 
and unsatisfactory results, what can be said for the examples he 
adduces in support of his favorite theory. 
Pulo Tingy has a low shelving reef exposed at low water, 
opposite to a village—there is no barrier to prevent the full de¬ 
velopment of the evil effects of decomposing animal matter on the 
coral reef, and yet the inhabitants are subject to fever and ague 
only—in spite of Dr. Little’s dictum “ that wherever coral reefs 
are exposed, fever, especially remittent fever , will be endemic on 
the spot.” On an island covered, as it is stated, with primitive 
forest, will not the exposure of decaying wood and vegetable 
matter to heat and moisture, account for intermittent fever, with¬ 
out resorting to the coral reef animal decomposition theory? 
The example of Pulo Aor rests on native testimony alone, and 
your readers (as well as the Doctor himself) know full well how 
utterly unsatisfactory and vague, such authority is. Can any 
theory be built on such a flimsy base ? How unsupported is the 
presumption of the absence of other causes to account for the fever 
on Pulo Aor! 
