April 9, 180c, we made the ifland of Java; I had at this time only two men on the fick lift; their complaints were flight and of a chronic nature. April 12, we entered the straits of Sunda, and the fifteenth arrived in the roads of Batavia. Among all the fettlements which have ever belonged to the Dutch in the different parts of the Eaft Indies, Batavia has always been confidered the most unhealthy. It is fituated on the if land of Java, in the latitude of 6° 10' fouth of the Equator. The diftreffing experience of the crews of many European and American fhips, prefented to our eyes on entering the harbour of Batavia, a gloomy profpect; our prefent health and vigour we foon expected to be exchanged for difeafe and death.

Among the causes which produce or influence the unhealthinefs of this place, I shall mention thofe only, which presented themselves to my own obfervation, during the two months of our continuance here: I fhall not attempt to give a complete view of the fubject, the importance of which requires the obfervation of years, carried on under favourable circumstances, with an accurate knowledge of the language, the customs and the manners of the inhabitants.*

In a burning climate, almost under the Equator, Batavia įs placed on a very extenfive plain, which is fcarcely elevated above the furface of the adjacent ocean. From feveral small rivers, flowly meandering through this plain, canals are conducted through all the principal streets of the town, which is nearly of a quadrangular form. It is furrounded by a wall; and both on the internal and external fide of it, a very wide canal is conducted along its whole courfe. The country for many miles about Batavia is laid out into gardens and villas. From the rivers above mentioned, innumerable canals are conducted in every direction, through this extenfive marshy plain, furrounding and interfecting every garden. Were thefe rivers conftantly fupplied with a fufficient quantity of water, and a gentle rapidity of

All these circumftances occur, in the person of the author himself, who has fince the period of thefe obfervations, refided in the island, and has been travelling through it, under the sanction of the Dutch government.

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course kept up, little injury, comparatively, would probably refult from their existence; but, except during the rainy season, when they are plentifully fupplied from the mountains on the inland parts of Java, the water is in many places entirely stagnant. The banks and sides of these canals are likewise frequently decayed, in confequence of which extenfive tracts of this marshy plain are conftantly inundated. The foil is very fertile, and (while a fufficient quantity of moisture remains,) the vegetation extremely luxuriant; but as the heat of the fun evaporates the water, the vegetables perifh and decay; and in many places extensive tracts of country are exhibited to the eye, consisting of nothing but immenfe quantities of decaying and putrefying vegetables, with exactly a fufficient degree of moifture to keep up a conftant putrefaction. The atmosphere is loaded with deleterious miafmata, which fometimes manifest themselves by intolerably offenfive odours. Refpiration is rendered laborious, and animated nature anxiously defires a purer atmosphere.

When it is confidered that Batavia is situated within a very few degrees of the line, and that the exceffive rays of an almost vertical fun are uninterruptedly operating on a low extensive plain, which is fupplied with an accommodated portion of moifture, and an incredible abundance of putrefying vegetables; it is not fingular that much deleterious exhalation, and many pestilential diseases, fhould be produced by fuch a favourable combination of circumftances: for it is impoffible for the imagination to conceive a fituation more favourable to the production of "marsh miafmata," than that of Batavia. If human industry and ingenuity fhould be exerted in planning and conftructing a laboratory, for the production of peftilential vapours, a fituation exactly resembling that of Batavia and its environs would be the refult.

The different feafons of the year have confiderable influence upon the unhealthinefs of Batavia. On this fubject erroneous notions have been laid before the public. The rainy feafon, during the months of January, February, March and April, has

generally been represented as the most unhealthy: this is owing to an error in obfervation. During the rainy feason the rivers and canals are plentifully supplied with water, which flows through them with confiderably rapidity; most of the lower marfhy fituations are entirely inundated with water, by which the existing putrefaction is either very much checked, or entirely prevented. It is true, that even during this season the heat of the fun is at certain intervals very powerful, and a certain portion of peftilential exhalation is still produced.

Perfons whofe condition in life renders it neceffary for them to be frequently exposed to showers of rain, the poorer class of citizens, labourers, feamen, fervants, &c. are now very generally affected with bilious fevers; but thefe are univerfally allowed, by the best informed perfons, to be much milder in their natures than those which occur during the other feasons.— They are very tractable and rarely fatal. The rain here acts as the exciting cause of the disease. Those perfons who have it in their power to avoid expofure to the rain, the wealthier class of citizens, find the rainy feasons, comparatively, very healthy. The month of May, for obvious reasons, is generally the healthieft month of the year. In June the effect of the fun's action on the rivers and canals becomes more evident; the quantity of water decreases, which in many places becomes ftagnant. July, Auguft and September, may with propriety be termed the peftilential months of the year. The causes of difeafe now exift in the highest degree---the procefs of putrefaction and exhalation above described, is, during these months, carried on in full vigour. The quantities of marsh miasmata now produced are not only inconceivably greater than at other times, but the dif eafes produced by them are much more malignant and intractable in their nature. This is the feafon of death and deftruction, in which the hospitals and church-yards are filled. In October the unhealthinefs begins to decrease, and the diseases are lefs malignant; November and December are healthier than the months that preceded them, although the rainy feafon has not yet commenced. This at firft fight may appear in

confiftent with what has hitherto been related; but a little reflection will render the cause of it very obvious. By the continued operation of the heat of the fun, for feveral months, on the extensive marshes in the vicinity of Batavia, the moisture which is indifpenfible to the existence of putrefaction is at length evaporated; that procefs is therefore checked: the fource of pef tilential exhalation, except at a few situations near the banks of the rivers and larger canals, is confequently destroyed, or at leaft very much diminished, and the difcafes dependent on this exhalation, neceffarily decrease in proportion to the diminution of their caufe.

Thefe remarks on the relative unhealthinefs of Batavia at different feafons will be confirmed by fome future obfervations.

The prevalence of the north-easterly winds during the months of July, August and September, according to an observation communicated to me by one of the most intelligent phyficians of Batavia, has a powerful effect in rendering the place more fickly during these months. These winds convey the exhalations, produced by feveral very extenfive marshes, fituated in a direction north-east of the town, immediately into it and the adjacent country, and thereby greatly contribute to increase the fource of disease.

The months which preceded our arrival at Batavia, January, February and March, in confequence of fome unaccountable irregularity in the seasons, were uncommonly fickly. During thefe months the rainy feafon was expected; but, instead of those copious showers, which, during this period, replenish the exhaufted rivers and canals, deluge the marshes, and carry off the remaining fources of putrefaction and exhalation, the fall of rain was much lefs confiderable than in common years. Occafional showers occurred; but being immediately fucceeded, frequently for several days, by the action of a hot fun, they contributed rather to the generation, than to the deftruction of difeafe. Not till the latter part of the feafon, did the rains become more general and copious; they continued, and, as will

be obferved in the narrative of our diseases at Batavia, much to our advantage, several weeks longer than customary.

This irregularity in the feasons, and deficiency of rain, gave rife to a peculiar epidemic disease, which during the months above mentioned, prevailed universally through Batavia and its environs. It was a bilious remitting catarrhal fever, which differed from the common endemic of the climate, in being more fimply of an inflammatory nature, and in affecting more particularly the pulmonary system; it was likewise a more tractable disease than the common remitting fever, and yielded almost univerfally to moderate depleting remedies, especially to purges and mild emetics and fudorifics, if applied in the early stage of the disease.

This epidemic prevailed particularly among the lower class of the Chinese inhabitants of Batavia. These people are very much addicted to the use of heating and highly ftimulating medicines in the treatment of all difeafes. At its firft appearance they administered indiscriminately their favourite remedies; in confefequence of which, the difeafe proved to them extremely fatal, and five to fix hundred Chinese perished on an average, in one week. They were finally compelled to defert their own phyficians, and apply to the Dutch; when, under the use of cooling and depleting remedies, almost all recovered.

Befides the primary causes of the unhealthinefs of Batavia above enumerated, there are others arising from a reprehenfible negligence in the police of that city, in removing or obviating thofe additional fources of difeafe, which are within their power.

1. All the filth and putrefcent matters of various kinds which are collected in the ftreets of the city and neighbourhood; among which the chief are---dead bodies of animals of every defcription, are thrown, without referve, into the canals at all feafons, and during their diffolution, produce highly injurious and offenfive exhalations."

2. When an attempt is made to clean the canals, the mud and filth which they contain, are thrown out, on the fides of