580 
ON CORAL REEFS AS A CAUSE OF THE FEVER 
was the existence of a fresh water marsh ; but no swamp of that 
description exists, except what a heavy shower of rain might occa¬ 
sionally form, with the decomposition of a few graminaceee and cy- 
peraceae that grow on the soil, but to suppose that could be the 
cause of this formidable endemic, would be the same as to imagine 
that a bucket of water spilt in front of a house could create a dan¬ 
gerous sickness amongst its inmates. But in other parts of the is¬ 
land there are marshes, and fresh water marshes too, but these are 
so placed, that if they were the cause of the fever in this Ayer Ban- 
ddra, the sickly season would be in the S.W. monsoon and not in the 
N.E. which is the sickly season, as the winds during the N.E. mon¬ 
soon do not blow over the marshy part of the island. In addition 
the Flag Staff hill forms an effectual barrier. But to remove all 
doubts, I, on several occasions, visited these wet localities, for marshy 
they can scarcely be called. On the first of June with Mr. L, I 
crossed to a village called Serapong, about f- of a mile from the fe¬ 
ver locality, but separated by the slope of the hill and mangrove 
trees. The inhabitants of the village are Malays, and are in number 
about 50. The houses are built on the gentle slope of a hill near 
its base, at the foot of the hill a lively clear stream of fresh water 
is seen flowing gently to the neighbouring creek, into which it emp¬ 
ties itself. To the south of this village a part of the ground is ra¬ 
ther flat, and contains many fresh water springs. This, in the wet 
season, forms the only marshy ground on the island, but which in its 
whole extent cannot be more than 10 to 20 acres. If any were to 
suffer from this marsh, it would be the people of this village of Se¬ 
rapong, but attend to what they say. They have had a few cases of 
fever occuring amongst them, principally Dimam Kora, or inter¬ 
mittent fever, at present two are so afflicted, one of whom, a child, 
I examined and found the spleen a little enlarged. They have had 
cases of Dimam Kapidlu, which runs into Kora, but not for years, 
never had a death from fever, all the inhabitants have a vigorous 
healthy look, a great contrast to the yellow wretched and sickly coun¬ 
tenances of those living near the Flag Staff station. In April 1848, 
about 9 months after my first visit, I found that the villagers had 
lately been suffering from intermittent fever, owing to the almost un¬ 
precedented wet season, but no Dimam Kapielu, or remittent fe¬ 
ver, had carried off one victim. Here then is marshy ground which 
during or after a wet season produces fever of an intermittent type, 
and in a lew instances of a remittent, running into intermittent, but 
