Seville, in 1801, it amounted to sixty per cent. At Vera Cruz the
mortality does not exceed twelve or fifteen per cent, when the sick
can be properly attended. In the civil hospitals of Paris the number
of deaths, one year with another, is from fourteen to eighteen per
cent; but it is asserted that a great number of patients enter the
hospitals almost dying, or at very advanced time of life.) I relate
faithfully what was then given as the general result of observation:
but I think, in these numerical comparisons, it must not be forgotten,
that, notwithstanding appearances, the epidemics of several successive
years do not resemble each other; and that, in order to decide on the
use of fortifying or debilitating remedies, (if indeed this difference
exist in an absolute sense,) we must distinguish between the various
periods of the malady.

The climate of Porto Cabello is less ardent than that of La Guayra.
The breeze there is stronger, more frequent, and more regular. The
houses do not lean against rocks that absorb the rays of the sun
during the day, and emit caloric at night, and the air can circulate
more freely between the coast and the mountains of Ilaria. The causes
of the insalubrity of the atmosphere must be sought in the shores that
extend to the east, as far as the eye can reach, towards the Punta de
Tucasos, near the fine port of Chichiribiche. There are situated the
salt-works; and there, at the beginning of the rainy season, tertian
fevers prevail, and easily degenerate into asthenic fevers. It is
affirmed that the mestizoes who are employed in the salt-works are
more tawny, and have a yellower skin, when they have suffered several
successive years from those fevers, which are called the malady of the
coast. The poor fishermen, who dwell on this shore, are of opinion
that it is not the inundations of the sea, and the retreat of the
salt-water, which render the lands covered with mangroves so