Medical history of the expedition to the Niger during the years 1841-2, comprising an account of the fever which led to its termination / by James Ormiston M'William.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical history of the expedition to the Niger during the years 1841-2, comprising an account of the fever which led to its termination / by James Ormiston M'William. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    pressive during the summer months, were it not that the atmosphere is renewed by the south-east trade which constantly blows over the island. My own observation assigns the highest tempe- rature to the months of March, April, and May; gradually falling until the middle or end of Decem- ber, when it again begins to rise. The rapid advance in the growth of vegetation in the high lands surrounding the peak no doubt has tended to attract the clouds and vapours, and, consequently, to increase the precipitation of mois- ture in that district; but, independently of this cause, rains are, by all accounts, of much more frequent occurrence than they were ten or twelve years since, and add much to the coolness of the air by their quick evaporation from the porous sur- face of the cindery soil, as well as by the coldness due to the rain-drop itself. The marines, of whom there are not less than between eighty or ninety,* are employed in quarry- * Captain William Lee, Royal Marines, late acting-command- ant of the Island, lias kindly furnished me with the following list of the average number victualled at Ascension during the greater part of 1842. Adult males, European . . 92 Ditto females, ditto . . 26 Children, ditto . 37 Supernumeraries . . 44 Males, African . . 28 Females, ditto . 3 Total 230