On Malaria. 297 



which arise from ignorance ; and what those hazards and their 

 effects are, cannot be very obscure, when it is computed, and, 

 perhaps, truly, that half the entire mortality of the world is the 

 consequence of malaria : of the fevers chiefly which are its 

 produce. 



But one circumstance requires to be premised ; and this is, 

 to prove that our own country can produce malaria, and is sub- 

 ject to its diseases : because, were this not the fact, the state- 

 ments of this paper could possess but very little interest to general 

 readers, whatever it might to physicians or philosophers. I 

 think I shall prove that we are all interested in them, and that, 

 also, to a considerable degree. 



The chief disorders produced by malaria are intermittent 

 fevers, and what are called by physicians, remittent fevers: 

 writing to general readers, we should call them fevers simply : 

 while further, it is usual among the people, for them to receive 

 the term typhus ; a name implying, strictly, contagious fever, 

 and, as thus misapplied, a source, not of confusion merely, but 

 of considerable evil in various ways. Not to enter into medical 

 discussions, which would here be inadmissible, I must be con- 

 tent with simply saying what is easily proved ; that the fevers, 

 generally, which appear in summer, or from June to November, 

 are of this class, and the produce of malaria ; while, that agues, 

 as they are popularly called, are produced by the same cause, 

 is admitted on all hands. 



Now, every one knows that such fevers do occur in summer, 

 in many parts of England, and in certain districts, very conspi- 

 cuously ; and further, that while they have been peculiarly 

 abundant and severe during the three or four last years, they 

 were, in 1826, unusually destructive and numerous, having 

 been the cause of a mortality, which, in England, must be 

 deemed considerable. Every one also knows that agues occur 

 in England, and very especially in certain districts, so well 

 known as not to require being named : whence it cannot be 

 doubted, that although, compared to France or Italy, we may 

 be considered, comparatively, exempt from this cause of dis- 

 ease — we are very far indeed from not suffering by it ; and that 

 also to an extent, which, the more it is investigated, will appear 

 the more serious. 



APRIL— JUNE, 1827. X 



