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A SEQUEL TO THE ESSAY
wherein the data in favour of non-contagion, did not, in my opinion, infinitely preponderate over those in favour of contagion.” 19. Mr. M'Leod’s opinion is as follows, viz. “ As to its contagious quality, I cannot speak positively ; but on the whole, I should be inclined to think it was not so, for the following reasons :—Contagious fevers, such as the Plague, &c. are observed to respect no age or sex ; but the Yellow Fever almost invariably seizes those whose constitutions account for the seizure, namely young, robust, plethoric men, who are at the same time more particularly subject to all the before-mentioned exciting causes (fatigue in the sun, irregularities, &c.) whilst old men, children, and women (with the exception perhaps of the Spanish peasantry, where the youmg women do laborious work and whose habits approach to the masculine), are seldom its victims. In the next place, I have never observed those immediately about the sick more its objects than any others.” 20. Mr. E. H. Brien gives his opinion in the following words, viz. “ I considered the Yellow Fever of the West Indies, as occurring in an individual now and then, to be incapable of communicating itself to those contiguous; but when several were labouring under the disease at the same time, I believed it to be highly contagious.” 2