Alma 46:40. Fevers and Climate
The Book of Mormon falsely claims that fevers result from climate and “some seasons of the year” (Alma 46:40). Fevers are actually the result of infectious diseases.
The passage actually reads, “And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land-but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate” (Alma 46:40).
A more careful reading of the text indicates that fevers “were very frequent in the land” “at some seasons of the year” and that “the causes of diseases,” rather than the diseases themselves, were due to “the nature of the climate.” This suggests that the microbial, viral, and parasitic causes of diseases, were able to survive in the climate in which the Nephites lived. This would undoubtedly be because these organisms and, in some cases, the insects that carried them (e.g., mosquitoes) thrived in that climate, especially during certain seasons. That is a normal state of affairs in nature.