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had no desired effect. Providentially there appears to be no reason for thinking that this Fever, in any of its forms, is, or has been, either contagious or infectious, for although it has carried off persons in various circumstances, and in considerable numbers, I have not observed, nor heard of, Medical men, or those whose duty has called them to be near the sick, being attacked in an undue proportion.
So fatal a disease and its attendant mortality, have naturally excited the greatest alarm, and attempts have been, and are still, made to generalize and explain the causes of it. But whatever Medical Gentlemen may have said, or may say, in support of their theories - I must declare, with every deference to their opinions, that I can see nothing about this Island that should engender disease, that almost all the reasons which I have heard assigned for the fatality at some locations have been directly refuted and contradicted, illness having recurred at other spots similarly situated as to elevation, proximity to the Sea, &c.; and, that therefore I am disposed to hope and believe that this season has been one of those occasional unhealthy ones that periodically occur.