Oh Malaria, <9Q0 



And this ill health, where least marked, will be found to con- 

 sist in a succession of petty and almost indescribable fevers, 

 being, in reality, the very condition which torments the inha- 

 bitants of the pestilential parts of France and Italy, from their 

 cradles to their graves, in a variety of painful disorders, in- 

 cluding rheumatism and sciatica ; and in what, if difficult to 

 ascertain absolutely, is well known to those familiar with Italy 

 and France, namely, visceral obstructions, and very particu- 

 larly, disordered spleen : well marked to those who know these 

 countries, in the peculiar sullen complexions and physiognomies 

 of the individuals. 



If such is the general character of this ill health, I might 

 easily explain its action at greater length : while it will be re- 

 marked by any one who will make the inquiries, that, very fre- 

 quently, whole families, which were formerly healthy, have be- 

 come thus disordered on taking up such a situation ; and that 

 others have, reversely, recovered health by leaving it for a drier 

 one. But if all this is too little marked to attract ordinary no- 

 tice, particularly where the cause is unsuspected, (though even 

 popular opinion agrees in the insalubrity of low and damp 

 situations,) there is disease enough produced by all the class 

 of places which I have been enumerating, to satisfy any one 

 who is really acquainted with the disorders arising from mal- 

 aria ; I allude to the fevers, the dysenteries, and diarrhoeas, 

 and the choleras of autumn, which will be always found pecu- 

 liarly attached to situations of this kind, and often in so marked 

 a manner, that it is wonderful the fact has not excited attention 

 long ago. Let any one attempt to recollect where it was, that, 

 in the last summer, he has seen a whole street, a whole vil- 

 lage, or the whole of the inhabitants of one house, suffering 

 under fever, and he will as surely find that such street, village, 

 or house, was situated near water in some shape ; and that 

 water, perhaps, not more than the pond belonging to the gold 

 fishes, or the gravel-pit on the common. 



But to remove one doubt which will naturally arise, let me 

 make one remark on gravel-pits which will explain every other 

 objection of a similar nature. 



It is objected that waters or wet lands cannot be productive 

 of malaria, because they do not excite ague ; since this, un- 



