114 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAr. IV. 
- -less violent indeed in tlie town, but more fatal in the 
country. 
By the medical men, whose labours were unremitted, the 
disease appeared to be generally regarded as infectious,, but 
not contagious; yet they failed to discover its immediate 
cause, and had no specific remedy. Emetics and castor-oil were 
most successful in some places; essence of camphor, or dilute 
sulphuric acid, in others; and cold water applications, practised 
by a medical gentleman recently from India, promised at one 
time to prove effectual in arresting the disease; but this also 
subsequently failed. 
Opinions formed a priori as to the classes most likely to be 
affected by such a visitation were not confirmed. The In¬ 
dians, whose abodes are small, ill-ventilated, crowded, and 
not remarkable for cleanliness, and whose food is perhaps 
less nutritive than that of most others, suffered but little. 
The Chinese, of whom there are great numbers, and whose 
mode of life is in some respects similar, were scarcely affected, 
and I did not hear of more than one death amongst them. 
The classes who were the greatest sufferers were the more 
respectable inhabitants, English, and French, and the Creoles. 
The greatest mortality was amongst the latter, and quite as 
much in the country as the town. 
Throughout this anxious period my own health had been 
mercifully preserved; and as the time which I had fixed 
for proceeding to Madagascar had arrived, and as Mr. Wiehe 
had kindly given me a passage in one of his vessels, I left 
my bereaved and anxious friends, and embarked on board 
the “Nimble” on the 8th of June. The vessel had been 
detained a day longer than was fixed for want of labourers 
to take off water, and otherwise to fit the vessel for sea. The 
last person I took leave off was my kind friend Mr. Kelsey, 
to whom I committed the care of my letters, with many other 
