ON THE MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF SINGAPORE. 
403 
gy too far to say it will destroy the germs of animal life, the active 
principle of malaria ? 
Second, Sausages prepared in Wurtenberg are composed of very 
various materials; blood, liver, bacon, brains, milk, flour and bread, 
are mixed together with suet and spices; the mixture is then put into 
bladders or intestines, these after being boiled, are smoked. When 
these sausages are not properly prepared a peculiar kind of putre¬ 
faction takes place, and after a time Lactate of Ammonia is formed. 
In fact this process is nothing more than the formation of one kind 
of animalcule after another, until the ultimate product of Ammonia 
is formed. In this the resemblance to malaria is so striking, as to 
authorize me to conclude the action to be similar ; and several hun¬ 
dred cases are known in which death has occurred from the use of 
this kind of food. In a case of poisoning from sausages mentioned 
by Liebig which occurred at Sausenbach in 1842, of all the remedies 
whieh were tried, Sulphuretted Hydrogen in water was found to 
possess very peculiar efficacy, and in the treatment the Sulphuretted 
Hydrogen water decidedly checked the poisonous action. In this 
ease it was used as a cure , but nature here uses it as a preventive. 
Third. In many situations where fever abounds Sulphuretted Hy¬ 
drogen does not, and in situations where Sulphuretted Hydrogen is 
met with, in sufficient proportion, fever is not endemic. As instan¬ 
ces of the first I may cite ail fresh water marshes, all coral forma¬ 
tions when there is fever as at the islands of Onrust and Edam, in 
Batavia roads, Biakan Matf, Singapore ; up the rivers on the west 
coast of Africa fever much more abounds than on the coast, while 
the amount of Sulphuretted Hydrogen is the reverse. Take this 
description of the slave coast—“ these rivers are more frequented than 
any on this coast, their banks are however so swampy and the soil 
in general so richly wooded as to render commercial speculation an 
undertaking of surprising enterprise on the part of Europeans* We 
believe half of those who proceed on such a voyage never return ; 
and we have known instances of one fourth only, during their short 
stay in this climate. The necessity for vessels proceeding some dis¬ 
tance up these rivers in order to enter the field of traffic necessarily 
