I have
described the bare and open plains as supporting, during a few
weeks after the rainy season, a thin vegetation, which directly
withers away and dries up: at this period the air appears to become
quite poisonous; both natives and foreigners often being affected
with violent fevers. On the other hand, the Galapagos Archipelago,
in the Pacific, with a similar soil, and periodically subject to
the same process of vegetation, is perfectly healthy. Humboldt has
observed that "under the torrid zone, the smallest marshes are the
most dangerous, being surrounded, as at Vera Cruz and Carthagena,
with an arid and sandy soil, which raises the temperature of the
ambient air." (16/5. "Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain"
volume 4 page 199.) On the coast of Peru, however, the temperature
is not hot to any excessive degree; and perhaps in consequence the
intermittent fevers are not of the most malignant order. In all
unhealthy countries the greatest risk is run by sleeping on shore.
Is this owing to the state of the body during sleep, or to a
greater abundance of miasma at such times? It appears certain that
those who stay on board a vessel, though anchored at only a short
distance from the coast, generally suffer less than those actually
on shore.
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