In the beginning of October, as the rains abated, the weather became very hot, the woods were covered with abundance of dead frogs, and other vermin, left by the recess of the river; all the mangroves and shrubs were likewise overspread with stinking slime.” No doubt these accounts are calculated to inspire us with dreadful ideas of the countries mentioned in them. What could be done by the putrefaction of dead animals and vegetables, certainly would be done here; the produce, however, was not the true plague; not even in _Catchou_; but “a sickness which could not well be characterised by any denomination commonly applied to fevers; it however approached neared to what is called a nervous fever, as the pulse was always low, and the brain and nerves principally affected,” &c. Certainly if in any country heat, moisture and putrefaction could produce a plague, it would be in this. Yet, in all the places we have mentioned, whether India, Arabia, Egypt, or Guinea, (and we might go through the whole world in the same manner) we have not been able to find either moist heat or dry heat, even when aided by putrefaction, insects, and nastiness of all kinds (not justly chargeable upon any climate;) I say, we have not found the united powers of all these able to produce a plague. Nay, it is even doubtful whether climates can produce those inferior diseases above mentioned. Even Dr. Lind, who appears to be so willing to ascribe every thing to climate, seems embarrassed in this respect. “There are many difficulties (says he) which occur in assigning a satisfactory reason, why in some countries, as in those between the tropics, heavy and continual rains should produce sickness; while in other places, especially in the southern parts of Europe, a want of rain for two or three months in summer brings on diseases almost similar. Upon this occasion (adds the Doctor) I cannot help observing, that there is hardly a physical cause which can be assigned for the produce of any disease, that will not admit of some exceptions: thus, not only the woods and morasses in Guinea are tolerably healthy, with some exceptions, in the dry season; but a few instances might be produced of towns surrounded with marshes and a foggy air, where the inhabitants suffer no inconvenience from their situation, even during the rainy season. Do the impetuous torrents of water poured from the clouds during the rainy seasons, in tropical countries, contain what is unfriendly to health? Thus much is certain, that the natives of such countries, especially the mulattoes, avoid being exposed to these rains as much as possible, and when wet with them immediately plunge themselves into salt water, if near it. They generally bathe once a day, but never in the fresh water rivers, when overflown with rains, preferring at such times the water of springs. Is the sickness of these seasons to be ascribed to the intense heat of the then almost vertical