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been very
very little sickness, although this summer has been an
unusually sickly season.
Indeed there seems to be less
sickness in the Gaol than
outside.
4.
Malarious fever has been the prevailing sickness
for some months. It is generally
prevalent when the rainfall
is below the average,
as it has been this year.
There is also a
belief that this fever is in some
manner connected with the
upturning of the soil. During the whole of the summer a
gang of about 100 prisoners have been
employed outside the Gaol on
public works where there has been considerable upturning of the soil. Free labourers employed
on similar works at Tytam have suffered severely from Malarious fever whilst the prisoners escaped.
The only reason that I can assign for the difference is that the prisoners, crowded as they may be in the associated cells,