304 On Malaria. 



tricts that would be less suspected than Sussex. There cannot 

 be much stronger language on this subject, than that of a medical 

 friend in Wales ; who, after a long residence in India, complains 

 that he is still vexed by the jungle-fever, in the woody districts 

 in which he practises, and who, without system on this subject, 

 entertains no doubt that the cause lies in the close and damp 

 coppices of his neighbourhood. 



If I have noted, in the preceding catalogue, plashes of moist 

 ground, meaning, under that term, to comprise all kinds of 

 insignificant wet or marshy spots, I need not specify more 

 minutely what they consist in ; while their abundance every 

 where renders all reference to places unnecessary. They are 

 in reality marshes, though small ones ; and if what I have 

 said respecting space or bulk as to a marsh, is valid, then are 

 they sufficient to produce disease, provided the proximity is 

 sufficient. And if it would be fruitless to quote examples of 

 disease produced by them, from the impossibility of reference, 

 I must trust that my own experience of such events, combined 

 with the general argument, will be a sufficient warranty. 



The last variety of mere-land production of malaria, and 

 requiring enumeration, comprises sea-walls and river-embank- 

 ments ; and the reasons for pointing it out are, chiefly, that 

 being very often implicated with the remedy for marshy lands, 

 it is the more apt to be unsuspected. Yet it is a species of 

 land extremely productive of malaria ; and not unfrequently 

 the sole or principal cause of that which continues to be gene- 

 rated after the reformation of such lands, while seldom viewed 

 as such. Such walls are, in truth, very generally petty marshes 

 in themselves, as is easily seen along the banks of the Thames ; 

 and there is abundant proof that the reeds and other rank 

 vegetation which occupy them, are a frequent source of the 

 same disorders as those lands were accustomed to produce be- 

 fore their drainage and embankment. To know this cannot 

 but fail to be useful : since it is possible, at least, to avoid such 

 places, and often not difficult to manage those necessary works 

 so as to diminish the hazard of evil. 



I may pass to the localities or situations which have a nearer 

 reference to water than to land. What relates to lakes is 

 simple ; and if it little concerns us, inasmuch as our own lakes 



