The frictions with oil we did use to a small extent, in an infected corps of the Indian army; but the report made to me, by the surgeon, was unfavourable, and I never recommended its use in any other corps. Since reading what Dr Wittman says on the subject of friction with oil, I think it not improbable, that, in addition to the great care which captain Burr took of the commissariat department, another circumstance may have conduced to their exemption from the plague. The camels of the army, to the number of some hundreds, were, as well as the horses and buffaloes, under the charge of the commissary of cattle, captain Burr; and his people were entrusted with the care of them. In the cold and wet season, which commenced in November, the camels became very sickly, and many of them had an eruption over the body. In the course of three months, I believe, more than three-fourths of these useful animals died. Captain Burr employed some Arabs, who were reputed to be skilful in the treatment of the camel. The plan which they followed I remember well. It was, after shaving or cutting the hair very close, to rub them all over with oil, daily. The men of the commissariat department were, during the day, constantly employed in these frictions, or in tending the cattle: and the great mortality among the camels happened in November, December, and January, the months in which the plague raged the most in the army. The circumstance I think not unworthy of notice; I leave others to ascribe to it what degree of importance they think it deserving of. I have mentioned, that I thought I could see a characteristic similitude in many of the symptoms between the plague and the destructive fever which has for some years devastated the continent of America and the West India islands; and to the end of the account which I gave of the plague, I add a table of the principal points where it appeared to me that the two diseases agreed.[10] I am now glad to find, that in this opinion I do not stand alone; I have been particularly gratified to find that this is the opinion of so very respectable authority as Dr Chisholm. I have had the greatest satisfaction in the perusal of the very complete history of the West India fever which Dr Chisholm gives. In most points, the result of my observations on this, coincides with the doctor’s. My experience, in a particular situation, supplied me with some very strong facts, touching the question of the contagious nature of this fever. From my case-books and notes, while in the West Indies, I have thrown, under a few heads, a brief extract of the result of my observations, which I shall here insert. From the similitude which I think I can trace, this is not foreign to the principal subject of these Sketches; and, as the result of close observation, unattached to any theory, they may, perhaps, be not without interest or use.