477 
1  ropical  Medicine  has  made  of  late  years,  and  quite  prepared  to  apply 
these  lessons  if  they  received  any  encouragement.  Rather,  I  think, 
it  must  be  attributed  to  a  certain  amount  of  indifference  on  the  part 
of  the  laity,  and  perhaps  a  fatalism  due  to  lack  of  knowledge  that 
such  conditions  are  remediable  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  when  once  the 
facts  are  placed  before  the  public,  when  they  once  appreciate  the 
importance  of  dealing  with  this  disease,  which  interferes  so  consider¬ 
ably  with  the  prosperity  of  the  island,  and  with  the  efficiency,  the 
health  and  even  the  lives  of  its  inhabitants,  there  will  be  no 
hesitation  in  dealing  with  it  promptly  and  thoroughly. 
III.  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  ISLAND 
As  there  is  such  an  intimate  connection  between  the  physical 
configuration  of  the  Island  and  the  conditions  which  affect  the 
propagation  of  the  mosquito  and  thus  influence  the  prevalence  of 
malaria,  a  brief  description  of  the  Island  seems  advisable. 
It  is  situated  between  17°  43'  and  18°  32'  North  and  76°  ii'  and 
78°  20'  50"  West.  The  extreme  length  of  the  Island  is  144  miles  and 
its  greatest  width  49  miles. 
It  is  very  mountainous,  a  great  central  chain  trending  generally 
east  and  west,  dividing  the  island  roughly  into  north  and  south 
portions.  From  this  chain,  a  number  of  subordinate  ridges  or  spurs 
run  to  the  north  and  south,  there  again  throwing  off  other  ridges,  so 
that  the  whole  of  the  central  part  of  the  island  resembles  more  than 
any  thing  else  a  huge  table-cloth  crumpled  up  into  elevations  and 
intervening  depressions.  Around  the  coast  are  flattened  areas  of 
varying  size,  and  upon  the  extent  of  these  and  the  number  of  rivers 
depends  to  a  large  degree  the  prevalence  of  malaria.  (See  Table  I). 
The  parish  of  Manchester,  for  example,  with  a  total  area  of  302  square 
miles,  has  only  42  miles  below  1,000  feet,  the  mountain  ridges 
extending  for  the  most  part  right  down  to  the  coastline.  St.  Ann,  too, 
with  476  square  miles,  has  only  85  below  i,ooo  feet.  On  the  other 
hand,  St.  Thomas,  one  of  the  most  malarious  parishes  in  the  Island, 
has  135  square  miles  out  of  274  under  1,000  feet. 
The  mountains  reach  a  considerable  height,  the  highest  being  the 
Blue  Mountain  Peak,  7,360  feet  high,  while  Sir  John’s  Peak  is  6,100, 
Portland  Gap  5,569,  Catherine’s  Peak  5>036,  Morce’s  Gap  4,945>  ^^6 
many  are  over  3,000  feet. 
