108 
MADAGASCAR. 
fatal forms of miasmatic disease, there can be no 
doubt. It prevails in a modified form in all 
tropical countries where there are swamps and 
damp low-lying jungles and forests, and the water 
is the channel through which the insidious poison 
is conveyed into the system. Few persons en¬ 
tirely escape its attacks, and many Europeans 
have from time to time been swept away with 
awful rapidity before it. But a somewhat 
lengthened experience in one of the worst locali¬ 
ties in the island, confirms me in the opinion that 
much suffering and ultimate iujury to the system 
may be prevented by the simple habit of taking 
an infinitesimal portion of a grain of quinine 
with the first cup of coffee every morning with¬ 
out fail, from the day of one’s arrival in the 
country. The attacks will come, but they will 
be weakened by this simple expedient, and less 
virulent and certainly less harmful in their ulti¬ 
mate effects. And this last consideration is 
perhaps the most important one, since the Mala¬ 
gasy fever finds out any weak point of heart, or 
lungs, or liver, and fastens upon that, and effects 
there a chronic lodgment, appearing and. reap¬ 
pearing years after the patient has left the 
country, and probably almost forgotten it. Long 
intervals between meals, or excessive fatigue, or 
wet feet, invariably bring on the attacks, which 
are preluded by pain in the legs and back, and 
