592 ON CORAL REEFS AS A CAUSE OF THE FEVER 
soil and fruit trees ; at the bottom of this valley were 2 houses and 
5 inhabitants, all were well at that time, one year ago one had in¬ 
termittent fever but no remittent. The beach was sand to some ex¬ 
tent with a little coral far out. From this island we pulled to the 
other of the same name, and found on the beach a colony of Bugis, 
consisting of 7 men and inhabiting 3 houses. This had been a set¬ 
tlement for 40 years, and they permitted no women to he located 
with them, the only reason they gave for this misogynistic feeling, 
was that women invariably quarrelled and prevented them from 
working; one man only had had fever and ague from which lie had 
recovered. Remittent fever had never attacked any. On examination 
we found the beach was entirely composed of sand and no coral. 
The sand seemed to be the detritus of the land, and the sea was 
gaining on the land. 
November 21st 1847, visited Pulo Bukam about 5 miles from 
Singapore, examined a settlement inhabited by Malays. This was 
situated on the beach with a gentle sloping hill at some distance be¬ 
hind. The number of houses might be 20, and the number of chil¬ 
dren seemed to be out of all proportion numerous, The Batin or 
head man of the village says, this is a healthy locality, occasionally 
they have an attack of remittent fever, saw one man convalescent 
from it. During the S.W. monsoon had a few cases of dimam 
Mpifelu or remittent fever. The beach is composed of sand or mud, 
but outside that there is exposed coral. 
June 1848, visited this settlement again, found all healthy; there 
is an extensive reef of coral directly in front, but not much exposed 
except at spring tides, what is exposed is dead and covered with 
sand. The free ventilation is what saves this settlement, for if the 
houses had been exposed to an atmosphere as confined as that in 
Ayer Bandera, or Blfikang Mati, of a truth there would have been an 
endemic here of as great virulence as in the latter place. On skirt¬ 
ing the island w r e came "to a Bugis settlement of 7 inhabitants, they 
had been located here for 3 years, and never had fever. The sea at 
its ebb leaves a beach of sand, and at spring tides in addition a nar¬ 
row border of living coral. The winds in the N.E, monsoon are the 
only ones that can affect them. In another settlement there were 
8 houses, also Bugis, some of whom had been located there for 20 
years; no fever. At low water a beach is exposed of 150 yards in 
depth, composed of dead coral, covered completely by sand, but to 
seaward of that, there is living coral, but the water in the length of 
