“By the time Anna Gallinha was taken ill,” says Dr M‘William, “much rain had fallen; the weather had become more hot, and, in short, there now (but not before this) existed the recognized elements for malarious evolution.” “In that part of the town called Beira, or Pao de Varella,” reports Dr King, “where Anna Gallinha and the soldiers resided, the houses are of the lowest description, and the people who occupy them are generally very poor and destitute; there is a large pool of stagnant salt and fresh water immediately behind; but to windward of this part of the town, and still nearer to the houses, there is a locality which is resorted to by many of the people when obeying the calls of nature; and the exhalations from the one, and the effluvia from the other, are blown by the north winds in the direction of Beira.” A similar description of this locality is given by Dr M‘William,— “In the upper portion of the town,” he says, “which is called Pao de Varella, the houses are in general mere hovels, rudely built, and much crowded together, and with few exceptions dirty. They are occupied by the lowest classes. From the total absence of any police laws the streets here are also very filthy.” Here then were present in full force, as is admitted, the ordinary localizing causes of fever; to which it is more consistent to refer this case, than to an extraordinary and foreign cause. But at this point the presumed chain of evidence stops; the chain is suddenly snapped; there is no further link traceable; there is nothing really connecting the illness of Gallinha with the next cases, or with the general spread of the disease which rapidly followed, and we need hardly state, that in order to prove the spread of a pestilence by contagion, communication, either direct or indirect, must be proved to have existed between all the persons attacked.[34] Footnote 34: The widow of the next victim (Affonso) denied his having had communication with Gallinha; and Dr Almeida “found about 20 people sick” in Porto Sal Rey only three or four days after Gallinha’s death. It is evidently more rational to ascribe these numerous attacks to epidemic influence, which it is admitted was now present, than to contact with this woman, for the fact of which there is in truth not a shadow of evidence. For the only other case of fever that is stated to have occurred shortly after the sailing of the “Eclair,” namely, that of the labourer (Pathi) who had been employed on board the ship, will scarcely be considered as affording an additional link; since admitting that this man contracted his fever while employed on board the “Eclair,” his case would be merely one of infection from going on board a foul ship, a generally recognized cause of fever:—