DR. LITTLE'S CORAL THEORY. 
70*2 
coral reefs, or from the animal decomposition which necessarily 
takes places when they are exposed, produce the consequences 
stated, we shall have fever and death wholesale on recent coral 
islands, and depopulation on those of older formation, for w T e must 
apply Dr Little’s own axiom to exposed reefs, hundreds of miles in 
extent, and by his own axiom judge their influence bn life, and test 
the soundness of his hypothesis. Dr Little lays down as a rule 
“ that wherever a coral reef is exposed at loiv water animal decom¬ 
position will go on y to an extent proportioned to the size of the reef ” 
and therefore (the consequences of animal decomposition being 
proportioned to its extent and amount) the result must be in 
accordance with the axiom, or the theory must fall to the ground.* 
When we have stated the extent of the coral reefs, and pay a due 
regard to the normal condition of coral islands, it will be evident 
that human beings must either have been swept off the earth’s 
surface by the ceaseless ravages of remittent fever, produced by a 
perennial cause, or that exposed coral reefs cannot be so great a 
scourge to our race as Dr Little is inclined to imagine. In the 
Pacific Ocean, Lyell treating of the vast area of coral formations 
states, that “ the space in the sea which they occupy is so vast, 
that we may safely infer that they exceed in area any group of 
ancient rocks which can be proved to have been of contemporaneous 
origin” “ In the South Pacific great beds of oysters, mus¬ 
sels, Pcnna? Marina?, and other shells, cover in profusion almost 
every reef 5 ” and according to M. Chamissof “ when the reef is at 
such a height that it remains almost dry at low water , the corals 
leave off building.” “The reefs on the Pacific are sometimes of 
great extent: thus “ the inhabitants of Disappointment islands and 
those of Duffs group, pay visits to each other by passing over long 
lines of reefs, from island to island, a distance of of six hundred 
miles, and upwards. When on their route they present the appear¬ 
ance of troops marching upon the surface of the ocean.” Of thirty 
two islands examined by Captain Beechey, “the largest was thirty 
miles in diameter and the smallest less than a mile” they were all 
formed of living coral except one, and “ all were increasing their 
dimensions by the active operations of the lithophytes which appear¬ 
ed to be gradually extending and bringing the immersed parts of their 
structure to the surface ” “The parts (of the strip of the island) 
which are still immersed or which are only dry at low water , are 
intersected by small channels, and are so full of hollows, that the 
tide, as it recedes, leaves small lakes of water upon them.”J 
Besides these circular islands or atolls, we have encircling barrier 
coral reefs “above and underwater.” E. Britannica. This tropical sea, confined 
situation, and burning climate ought to render it deadly, but where is the fever ? 
* If on such extensive fields, the theory be explained away, it is no theory at 
all—a few exceptional and doubtful eases being all that remain, 
t Kotzebue’s voyage. 
t Lyell- 
