OF THE ISLANDS NEAR SINGAPORE. 
601 
a future number, but on a small scale we have it exemplified at Pas- 
sir Panj&ug and Sandy Point, and as a proof of the second part of 
the deduction, we have the islands of Sik^jang and Bukum, while, at 
the islands of Siking and Serai, the beach being formed of Iron- 
clay-stone, is not so apt to form detritus, or sand, hence the flourish¬ 
ing appearance of the coral reefs in front and the unliealthiness of 
these islands compared to those near them. 
We have shewn that where imperfect ventilation exists, or wind 
directly wafts the effluvium from a coral reef on an inhabited local¬ 
ity, fever is there more severe than in other places so circum¬ 
stanced, but we have yet other conditions influencing the production 
and intensity of fever independent of the coral, as it were secondary 
agents modifying the primary. During the change of the monsoon 
in October and November and again in April and beginning of May, 
there are frequent calms, lulls of wind, a close muggy atmosphere 
surcharged with moisture and electricity ; then we feel what tropical 
heats are, when after the frequent showers that fall at these times, the 
sun hursts out to appearance and in feeling unusually intense. Phis 
combination of heat and moisture is a principal medium for devel¬ 
oping fever, while the sudden vicissitudes of temperature that daily 
occur predispose the body to receive the direct influence of the ma¬ 
laria. This malaria is also increased in quantity, for if during the 
ebb, we have a shower of rain and then sunshine, we have greater 
and quicker decomposition of the coralline polyps, and that combi¬ 
nation of causes is more likely to occur during the changes of the 
monsoon, than at any other time; hence we are fully entitled to draw 
this conclusion that during the change of a monsoon the locality 
subject to coral malaria, is more unhealthy than at any other time. 
This of course applies to other situations where fever occurs from 
very different causes. 
Having finished, to borrow an expression, the case for the prose^ 
cution, or, in other words, having laid before the reader in a con¬ 
densed form the facts, and arguments, on which 1 base my theory, 
extracted from localities in the immediate vicinity of Singapore, I 
intended to have finished the subject by bringing forward other facts, 
even stronger, but drawn from sources which I have not personally 
examined, to add still more proofs to its correctness and exhibit its 
extensive applicability. But this the second part of my paper 
has grown so much upon me, anxious as I have been to keep it with- 
. in due bounds, that I am reluctantly obliged to refer the reader of 
