58 On Malaria, 



streets are attacked ; and hence the Villa Borghese, amon^ 

 many other palaces and opulent houses in Rome, has been 

 abandoned, while such desertion, being limited exclusively to 

 houses where the air is most open and free, naturally excites 

 wonder : the cause, however, is now plain ; and thus it now 

 appears why it was that the Penitentiary in Westminster suf- 

 fered formerly from dysentery, originating in this cause, when 

 no such disease appeared among the neighbouring inhabitants. 



And if this fact is of value as it may relate to the erection of 

 open streets in any place of this nature, it is most important 

 to point out what has been the continuous effect at Rome, as 

 the ultimate consequences threaten to be extremely serious. 



It appears that from cutting down some forests which many 

 years ago occupied the declivities of the hills to the southward 

 of Rome, the malaria was let in upon that city from the Pon- 

 tine marshes; and, further, that the extirpation of a similar 

 wood to the eastward had let in the same poison upon another 

 quarter. Thus it has been found to enter the city through the 

 Porta del Popolo, while, for many years past, it has been gra- 

 dually extending its influence through the streets; leading 

 annually and successively to the abandonment of many houses 

 and palaces, and still annually increasing and extending its 

 ravages ; so as, at length, as I understand, to have even become 

 sensible at the Vatican. And the lines which it follows are 

 distinctly traced out by the inhabitants; while, as I have 

 already said, it is only the houses of the opulent Avhich suffer, 

 further than as the abandonment of these may also influence 

 the inferior ones in their neighbourhood. 



Whatever the original cause may be, and however the direc- 

 tion, abstractedly, may be regulated by the winds and the 

 forms of the streets, or by local and fixed circumstances, it is 

 plain that the annual extension is the consequence of deser- 

 tion, and that as the inhabitants retire from before it, it 

 acquires the means of making a new step and a further pro- 

 gress; because thus they withdraw those fires and smoke, or 

 whatever else it be, dependent on human crowds, which decom- 

 poses and destroys this substance. And hence it must follow, 

 that as Rome shall become still further abandoned and depo- 

 pulated, from want of industry, or from political feebleness 



