hardly one to be seen who has the appearance of health in his countenance. A sallow paleness of face, a sickly languor of complexion, an emaciated look, and listless debility of motion, appear in every person. The inhabitants are familiar with disease and death. There is scarcely an example of a stranger's having remained long at Batavia without being attacked by fever, which is a general denomination here for illness of every kind, and indeed it is pretty justly applied. It is now well known in the medical world, that intermittent and remittent fevers derive their origin from those noxious vapours and exhalations which arise from fens and marshes, in warm climates and in warm seasons. And hence, countries and places where these abound, are always infested with these diseases; and the general terms of miasmata palustria, have very justly been adopted by physicians, as expressing the source of the causes which produce them. But Batavia and the adjacent country are, from their local circumstances, so particularly exposed to these miasmata, whose native virulence is intensely exalted by the thick humid shade of the trees and forests, which exclude the rays of the sun and refreshing breezes of the wind, that it does not at all appear surprising that such fevers, with all the train of their malignant effects, should prevail here in their most aggravated forms. Europeans soon after their arrival first become languid and feeble, and in a few weeks, sometimes in a few days after, are attacked by fever. At first it is commonly of a tertian type, which, after two or three paroxysms, becomes a double tertian, and then a continued remittent, which usually carries off the patient, in a very short time. Many of them fall victims to the second or third paroxysm; but in these cases a constant delirium, and a great determination of the blood to the brain, are always observed. In some it begins in a quotidian form, with regular intermissions for a day or two, and then becomes a continued remittent, attended with the same fatal consequences as the former. In other cases, the fever from the first attack shows no intermissión, or even remission at all, but marks its type by increased periodic exacerbations. Such cases are often mistaken for typhus, and almost always prove fatal; but, upon the strictest examination and the most careful inquiry I could make, it did not appear there were any well ascertained cases of typhus observed at Batavia. It is very difficult, however, for a stranger, who remains here but for a few days, to get accurate information on any subject, much less respecting the nature, genera, and species of the diseases of the country; for the physicians and surgeons o Batavia, like the rest of the inhabitants, are adventurers, who were originally in very low situations in life, and never had the benefit of a liberal education, and much less of a proper medical one; they are totally unacquainted with the classification and distinction of diseases, and are almost entirely ignorant of the theory of medicine. Their practice of course must be entirely empiric, and appear very bad in the eyes of a regular physician, who is accustomed to proceed upon principles and experience together. The principal people, and those who can afford it, are attended, when sick, at their own houses, where the physicians go to see them. It does not appear, however, that they derive much benefit from their skill; and indeed from the circumstances above mentioned, there could be little reason to expect it. The use of Peruvian bark is little known amongst them; and when at any time they do exhibit it, it is in such small quantities, that no cure can be expected from it. There is no change made in the diet or regimen of the patient; and the chief, or rather the sole, remedy administered, is a solution of camphor in spirit of wine, of which a table-spoonful is taken occasionally in a glass of water.

When the fever does not prove fatal, and the patient's constitution resists it for a length of time, it becomes at last habitual or constitutional. In this manner it continues sometimes for several years, and, from long custom, the patient at last becomes so familiarized to it, that it is hardly thought a disease. In the intervals of intermission he manages his business, and goes out and pays visits, as if nothing were the matter. I had an opportunity of seeing a striking example of this while we remained at Batavia. One morning Mr. Maxwell and I went to pay a visit to Mr. Engelhart; he was in his cabinet and in his morning dress: the conversation turned accidentally upon the nature of the climate, the diseases of the place, and the frequency of death among the Europeans who settled there. "Il est bien vrai, monsieur," said he to me, " c'est un des plus mauvais climats qu'il y ait sur la terre, presque tout le monde meurt ici-mais moi, grace à Dieu, je me porte toujours bien, et quoique je perde tous' les ans la moitié de mes amis, je jouis toujours moi d'une très bonne santé ;"-at the same time he looked around him as if he wanted something. As he had promised to give me in writing a particular account of the Upas Tree, and as that was the principal object I had in view, I thought he was looking for pen, ink, and paper, to write. Accordingly, I brought them to him from the other end of the table, where they stood, and asked him whether they were not what he wanted?" Point du tout, monsieur, je cherche un mouchoir; c'est aujourd'hui mon jour de fiévre, j'ai eu un terrible accès ce matin qui n'est pas encore tout-à-fait passé. Vous pouvez encore en voir les restes sur mon front, et je voudrois avoir un mouchoir pour m'en essuyer la sueur;" at the same time he called his servant to bring him one. How, said I, Sir, a fever! I thought you had just told me that you always enjoyed good health. "Oh, Monsieur," replied he, “ à ma fiévre près cela est vrai, mais je suis si accoutumé à cela que cela n'empêche que je ne me porte fort bien. Je sais que je dois en mourir un jour si je reste ici, mais j'ai déjà ramassé une assez jolie fortune, et je compte bien retourner en Europe avant que cette période n'arrive."

There are two public hospitals for the inferior sorts of people, to which they repair when they are taken ill. One of these hospitals is within the town, the other at a little distance without it, and situated on a spot of ground almost surrounded by water, which makes it appear like an island, and hence it is called the Isle of Purmerent. The hospital within the town is not reckoned so good as the other, and is therefore chiefly destined for urgent cases, or sudden accidents, which do not admit of delay, or time to carry the patient to the Isle of Purmerent, whose situation is considered as so much better, and so much more healthful. All convalescents, however, are sent there; their number is, indeed, very small, and the registers of either hospital record but few recoveries. Both these hospitals are under the management and immediate inspection of the governor and council of the Indies, who also appoint the surgeons and physicians, who are all here upon the company's establishment. The office of first physician to the hospital is a very lucrative one. He who held it last had been a common surgeon-barber, and employed for some time in the lowest duties of his profession, in running from house to house, shaving beards and dressing hair. In process of time he came to be first physician to the hospital, and about eight months before our arrival he had returned to Holland with a million and a half of florins. His successor, the present occupant, was exactly in the same line with his predecessor, and has followed him with the same good fortune. He does not appear in any respect a man of abilities, and the gentlemen of the council themselves acknowledge that he is totally ignorant of the theory of medicine, and unacquainted with letters. But it is supposed he will retire in a couple of years, with a fortune equal to that of his predecessor; for it should seem this is the term usually allowed for one in his place to acquire a fortune. I had an opportunity of seeing and consulting with him upon Mr. Titsing's case. We met at Mr. Wiegerman's house, but as he neither understood Latin, French, or any language but Dutch, Mr. Titsing himself was obliged to act as interpreter. He could give me no account of Mr. Titsing's case, or indeed of almost any thing whatever, except the laws and regulations for the management of the hospitals. He could only tell me in general, that Mr. Titsing (whose disease I knew to be a tertian, from having seen him repeatedly under the paroxysms, and particularly at Mr. Wiegerman's countryhouse, where Sir George Staunton and I had gone with Mr. Wiegerman and Mr. Titsing the evening before,) had been long ill of a fever, as they called it; and that, according to their opinions at Batavia, the nature of this fever was to rot and corrupt the whole frame; that they believed, or were told, that camphor was the most powerful antiseptic in nature, and therefore it was their practice in fever, of which they were not accustomed to distinguish any difference or variety, always to give camphor dissolved in spirit of wine; that they made their patients take a table-spoonful of this solution from time to time in a glass of water, and this not only when they could do it, during the paroxysm itself, but also during the intervals. That for this purpose they recommended it to their patients always to carry with them, wherever they went, a bottle of this solution, and never to omit taking it. That Mr. Titsing was one of the most exact and regular patients, in this respect, that it was possible to have; that he had never omitted his dose of it one day for some years past; that it was his constant companion wherever he went; that if any patient deserved to recover, it was Mr. Titsing; and that if he had not known, from long experience, how obstinate fevers were in Batavia, and how few ever recovered from them, he should have been very much surprised indeed to find he still continued to labour under it. However, he said, he observed with great satisfaction that, in spite of the fever, and all its septic tendency, the virtues of his camphorated spirit of wine had so far succeeded that Mr. Titsing was not yet quite

rotten.

Mr. Titsing corroborated one part of the physician's story, by pulling out of his pocket his bottle of the solution, and taking a dose of it more solito. I ventured to prescribe to Mr. Titsing a different plan of cure, and encouraged much his idea of returning to Europe for the recovery of his health; and I doubt not if he complies with both advices, he will find them a more effectual cure than all the camphor in Batavia.

But if diseases are frequent and fatal here, it must be acknowledged that the manner of life of the inhabitants contributes as much to both events, as the climate and situation of the country. The same causes which render the place peculiarly unhealthy, contribute to make it one of the most fruitful spots in the world. It produces fruit and vegetables of every kind in the greatest abundance, and such a variety of spices and condiments as is not to be found in any other country. The ground is fertile, the climate enervating, and the inhabitants indolent, luxurious, and voluptuous. As soon as they get up in the morning, tea, coffee, and chocolate, are served up for breakfast, and fish, flesh, and fowl are placed upon a side-board, as if it were at dinner, and most of the guests partake plentifully of it. No sooner is breakfast removed, than Madeira, claret, gin, Dutch small beer, and English porter, are placed upon a table in the portico before the door of the great hall, and pipes, tobacco, and spitting-boxes, are brought for every body. Here they sit under the shade, drinking, smoking, and spitting, till dinner time. It is no uncommon thing for several of them to drink two or three bottles of wine before dinner; and