Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/335

1837.] and monopoly of the merchants; a dread of scarcity of food prevailed; much fatigue, anxiety and exposure to the weather, had been undergone, and, to fill up the measure of evils, a flood took place in the rivers after heavy rains, which caused them to rise from fifteen to twenty feet above their usual level. All who had commenced their buildings on the low ground were obliged to desert them, and commence anew on higher ground. Scurvy now set in, also fever and dysentery; these diseases were mostly confined to the working classes, amongst whom there was much disease and some mortality; whilst among the higher classes, who were, comparatively speaking, well provided with food and lodging, and among whom temperance was more practised, there was but little disease and no mortality. A fear of famine existed at three different periods. Ships, however, always happily arrived in good time to prevent any mischief; the crops in the second harvest were more abundant than the first, and have continued to increase every season, in such ratio as to satisfy every competent judge that the crops of succeeding seasons will be sufficient for the whole population, and render them altogether independent of supplies from without As the settlers got comfortably housed, and obtained vegetables from their gardens, and fresh meat from the increasing flocks, the scurvy gradually gave way, and at length ceased altogether. The fevers became fewer, and of milder character, as the country became cleared and drained.

The endemic diseases appear to be a subacute form of inflammation of the mucous membranes, viz. opthalmia or inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eye; dysentery, or inflammation of the mucous membrane of the intestines, and catarrh, or inflammation or congestion of the mucous membrane of the nares and air passages. Rheumatism was occasionally met with during damp weather in winter and autumn; also a low fever, the gastero-enterite. Providence is here, as in all other places, good and wise, and supplies remedies on the spot for the diseases which occur. Thus we find the hirudo medicinalis abundant in the lagoons, a well known remedy in these diseases; also aperients, as the kernel of the fruit of Zamia, and the produce of the Eucalyptus mannifera; astringents, as the red gum of the Eucalyptus resenifera which much resembles dragons blood, and the bark of the wattle, particularly the green, or Acacia decurrens, which contain much tannin; aromatics, as the Eucalyptus piperita, and Leptospermum, pennyroyal, Pulegium; and diaphoretics, as Sassafras, Cryptocarya glaucescens. No doubt many other medicinal plants may be obtained. I do not mean to assert that the diseases of this country are always confined