Report on the malarial epidemic fever of Mauritius of 1866-67, (with plans of Port Louis and Flat Island, and a map of Mauritius, shaded to show the distribution of the fever districts) / by John Small and W.H.T. Power.

  • Small, John, Surg.-Major.
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the malarial epidemic fever of Mauritius of 1866-67, (with plans of Port Louis and Flat Island, and a map of Mauritius, shaded to show the distribution of the fever districts) / by John Small and W.H.T. Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    12/46 (page 10)
    This peuiusula is formed by the Riviere la Ohaux, on the west, and on the east and north by the sea. The town, which contains 6,000 inhabitants is Hke all other Mauritian towns and villages, badly built, undrained, and consequently very filthy ; the water supply is good and sufficient, the source being the Kivi^re la Chaux from which it is taken, about two miles from its mouth and conveyed by a canal of masonry, in parts only covered, to the station where it is distributed over the barracks by iron pipes. The rainfall is more abundant on this, and indeed all along the windward, than any other part of the island owing to the prevalent sea-breeze, which is always more or less charged with vapour, blowing with much force against the series of mountain chains forming the inland boundary, where from pressure and parting with its heat against the colder hills, condensation takes place: possibly also from the resistance offered by the forests, though this, as a cause of rainfall must be very slight. In 1865 when the battalion was stationed (head-quarters) here, the rainfall during that year was— Inches. Upper part of the district 192-45 Lower down... .,. 135-31 On coast ioo-84^ And at Port Louis during the same year.... 44'737 The barrack accommodation at Mahebourg is too limited for the number of troops which have beeu usually quartered there ; still Mahebourg, as a station, has always been a healthy one, notwithstanding this overcrowding and the apparently unhealthy site ; the mouths of two of the largest rivels in the dis- trict meet the sea within 500 yards, and to the north of the point of laud near which the barracks are situate, where they have deposited an enormous mass of debris, which from its quantity not unfrequently changes the course of the channel, and at low water exposes its many acres for hours to the sun. On the south-west of the barracks along the coast there are many salt-water lagoons, fringed, and in some points covered with mangrove bushes, around whose many roots collect much foetid mud ; close to, but to windward of, these lagoons, and on the northern extremity of the sand dunes before alluded to, is placed the camp for rifle instruction, Point d'Esney, and at a part well shaded by filao trees. This district has still a good deal of forest laud in its upper section, which, however, is daily lessening. Savanne.—( Area, 92 square miles ; population, 233,317, or 253 to square mile.)_ This district, like its neighbour Grand Port, escaped the epidemic malarial fever (the deaths returned as fever during the period being actually fewer in number than in corresponding periods of past years); they also resemble each other in their physical features. Savanne, however, has less marshy ground, and the mouths of its rivers, from their greater rapidity, are freer from deposit. The reef also is much closer to the shore, so that the sea between is always more agitated ; along a considerable portion of the coast line are the usual low coral sand dunes, planted with the filao tree ; part also is high, bold, and rocky, and free from coral reef ; the district is cool and healthy, and faces the south-east, and is well exposed to the trade wind. No troops have been stationed here for 19 years ; the forest land is still very considerable. Black River (area, 94 square miles ; population, 18,902, or 201 to square mile), is an extremely mountainous distiict, on the leeward side of the island, having but a small amount of flat ground/except towards the northern boundary^ between the mountains and the sea. Tnere are, however, several deep valle}'5 which run up among the hills, and towards the Morne, or southern extremity, asrtlan inconsiderable portion of plateau exists at an elevation of about 800 feet; all or nearly all of this ground is under cane cultivation, in the culture of which irrigation is extensively employed. There are several rivers in the district, •which, in the upper portion of their course, are very rapid, but which become sluggish on reaching and passing through the low-lying alluvial lands on their course to the sea. At the mouths of these streams, there exists large deposits of the usual black foetid mud. The military post of Black River is situated on the coast, within a few feet of the sea, and at the mouth of the Black River ; it occupies a portion of flat ground running up inland into a narrow valley. The hills in this half of the district run close down to the shore ; some are of