AN ESSAY ON CORAL REEFS AS THE CAUSE OF 
BLAKA'N MATT FEVER, AND OF THE FEVERS 
IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE EAST. 
By Robert Lit i re. Esq. Surgeon, 
Late Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Argyle Square School of 
Medicine , Edinburgh , fyc. 
PART II. 
ON CORAL REEFS AS A CAUSE OF THE FEVER OF THE 
ISLANDS NEAR SINGAPORE. 
In the first part of tills paper a general description has been given 
of the topography of Singapore, and certain conclusions arrived at; 
amongst others, that Singapore island is favoured with a climate at 
once pleasant and salubrious, where the sun never scorches, nor the 
rain ever deluges, where the temperature is equal, high, though not 
intense, never varying one month with another more than one de¬ 
gree, subject to very slight diurnal vicissitudes, never rising above 
87° 4’, nor falling below 74 Q 7 Like all tropical regions the atm os- 
phere holds much moisture in solution, which easily falls on the 
slightest changes in the electric condition or temperature of the at¬ 
mosphere, giving us an yearly average of 180 rainy days, and a fall 
of 91 inches of rain. The winds we have seen to he most surpris¬ 
ingly regular, the north east monsoon blowing one-half of the year, 
and the south west monsoon the other half. In addition to these 
regular general winds, we have the local land and sea bieezes. By 
all of these, the atmosphere is kept in continual motion, through 
which, with the quantity of moisture in solution, the sun’s rays are 
so tempered in their effects that little inconvenience is felt from ex¬ 
posure to them ; so unlike India in that respect, is this favoured is¬ 
land. 
The geological formation of the island conduce* to the health of 
the inhabitants ; for by the numerous small rivers, all extra rain is 
carried to the ocean as soon as it falls. The surface soil is light and 
porous, and the majority of the marshes being under tidal influence, 
fevers are not to any extent generated, though a few undrained in- 
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