ON TFlE MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF SINGAPORE. 
479 
from the shipping - , and with few exceptions, not from the resident 
Europeans, 2nd. that the cases of Intermittent fever have been 
mostly contracted originally in other countries, few or no cases hav¬ 
ing been primarily produced in Singapore, 3rd that not one of the 
cases of intermittent fever has been so virulent as to cause death, 
4th. that that all the cases of remittent fever have been imported, the 
subjects of the disease having been suffering under the malady on en¬ 
tering the harbour; or, as I have seen in the favorable monsoon from 
Java, having received the malarious influence there, that has not been 
perfected until 8 to 10 days have elapsed, and while they were in Sin¬ 
gapore harbour. Referring to the reports of the convict hospital, there 
is to appearance an alarming amount of intermittent cases, but when 
examined they will be found to be of such a mild type, that in 900 
cases there were only 11 deaths. In fact on a more careful classification 
of diseases, one half in 1846 were placed under the head ephemeral, 
and this might witli equal truth have been adopted in the previous 
years. Moreover these convicts who were attacked with intermittent 
fever, were living and working, in the majority of cases, in the coun¬ 
try amongst fresh water swamps, at Siglap for instance. If inter¬ 
mittent fever was indiginous to Singapore no class of men would 
have suffered more from it than the convicts ; but we find that in 4 
years there were only 8 cases, of which 2 died, and I have Dr. Ox¬ 
ley’s authority to state that these cases of remittent fever were not 
contracted in Singapore, but on an island contiguous and used as a 
flag staff station. The unusual No. of 46 cases of remittent fever in the 
Pauper hospital for 1845 is accounted for by the shipwreck of 3 yes. 
sels that year having native crews, who being brought to Singapore 
were found to have contracted remittent fever and were admitted in¬ 
to the hospital. From the testimony of others and from my own ob¬ 
servations I may state as the fact, that the town and immediate suburbs 
of Singapore are free from all malarious influence of that description 
which generates fever of a malignant type; but this will not apply 
to the country, for wherever a large band of Convicts have been sta¬ 
tioned near to a fresh water swamp, or have been road making 
through such a swamp, these convicts have almost to a man been 
