576 ON CORAL REEFS AS A CATJSE OF THE FEVER 
the 1st. and 6th. 1847, in company with Mr. J. R. Logan, I visi¬ 
ted Blak&ng Mati for the purpose of investigating the causes of fe¬ 
ver there. We landed in the bay marked A, called by the natives 
Ayer Bandera. The hill, the most prominent object on landing, is 
composed of an iron clay stone, masses of which have rolled down, 
and lie upon the beach. The soil of the flat below is the same with 
the hill. During the rains close to the foot of the hill a little fresh 
water may collect, but not to such a degree as to entitle it to the 
name of a marsh, and that has been of late years drained; indeed 
the whole extent of the flat, 200 yards long, 80 deep in the centre 
and 20 at each extremity, precludes the possibility of such a small 
extent of ground causing anything like the fever endemic there. No 
jungle covers this spot, and with the exception of a few cocoanut 
trees and jacks the only living plants are the Hypomia Percapria, 
Stachytarphita Indica, Beyopbryllum Callycinum, a species of Pte- 
rocarpus, a plant of the genus Lenecio, a bulbous orcliide, and in 
abundance the Maloertoma Malabrithica, and a species of Cypera- 
ceae, with the Myrtys lomentosa. Within a stones throw almost, is 
the island of Pulo Brani, and yet a little further is Singapore. At 
each extremity of this low ground, the beach is as it were extended 
into two horns which are covered with mangrove trees, and give it 
a half moon appearance* 
At this time the signal staff establishment had been removed, and 
only a few inhabitants remained, natives of the Celebes and known 
five years ago an English vessel would have been lost, if succour bad not 
been given, f of the crew having died, or were laid up from this fever. As 
a general rule however I have noticed that as the intensity of the malaria, 
(shewn by the degree of fever) so is the shortness of the interval that 
elapses ere the disease is developed. Another conclusion which I should 
say is established (as far as my experience enables me to judge,) is, that 
this fever is not in the slightest degree contagious. What it may be when it 
becomes epidemic in other localities, where it is endemic, 1 cannot pretend 
to say. 
Intermittent fever, or Dimam Kora of the Malays, from Dim am, fe¬ 
ver and Kora the spleen, requires no description of its symptoms. It 
seems to be produced from the same causes as remittent fever, and 
these causes are principally malarious. Whether intermittent fever can 
be produced from mere vicissitudes of weaiher in a previously healthy 
body, without the intervention of malarious influence, is, I consider, still 
an open question. The same marsh I have seen give rise to intermittent 
lever in one person, and remittent in another. I have often seen remittent 
lever ending in intermittent. Medical writers have testified that remittent 
fever may have originally commenced with intermittent. I can believe it, 
but have nol seen it. The prognosis of this type of fever is very favorable 
in Singapore. In 967 cases of intermittent fever entered in the various 
Hospitals in Singapore in 4 years, 12 deaths only occurred. 
