that the assumption of Drs. Macmichael
and Hawkins, as to the importation of the disease into the Mauritius
from Ceylon, is equally groundless with that of its alledged importation
into the latter island; and here we have to notice the same want of
candour on the part of those gentlemen, in not having furnished that
public, which they professed to enlighten on the subject of cholera,
with those proofs within their reach best calculated to display the
truth; be it a part of my duty to supply the omissions of these
gentlemen in this respect. The following is a copy of a letter
accompanying the medical commission report at that island forwarded
to General Darling, the then commanding officer, by the senior medical
gentleman there.

"Port Louis, Nov. 23, 1819.

"I have the honour of transmitting the reports of the French and
English medical gentlemen on the prevalent disease; both classes of the
profession seem to be unanimous in not supposing it contagious, or of
foreign introduction. From the disease pervading classes _who have
nothing in common but the air they breathe_, it can be believed that the
cause may exist in the atmosphere. A similar disease prevailed in this
island in 1775, after a long dry season."

(Signed) W. A. BURKE,
Inspector of Hospitals.

In the reports referred to in the above letter, there is the most ample
evidence of the true cholera having appeared at different points in the
colony _before the_ arrival of the Topaze frigate, the ship _accused_ by
contagionists _par metier_, of having introduced the disease; so that,
contrary to what Dr. Macmichael supposes, those who disbelieve the
communicability of cholera, have no necessity whatever in this case for
pleading a coinsidency between the breaking out of the disease, and the
arrival of the frigate; indeed, his friend Dr. Hawkins seems to be aware
of this, when he is obliged to have recourse to such an argument as that
"it is, at all events, clear that the disease had not been _epidemic_ at
the Mauritius before the arrival from Ceylon;" so that the beginning of
an epidemic is to be excluded from forming a part or parcel of the
epidemic! Why is it that in medicine alone such modes of reasoning are
ever ventured upon!

We know, from the history of cholera in India, that not only ships lying
in certain harbours have had the disease appear on board, but even
vessels sailing down one coast have suffered from it, while sailing up
another has freed th