116 On the Malaria of the Campagna di Roma. 



of Tacitus. On this principle, the Villa Borghese, the Villa 

 Medici, and others, which are not deficient in trees, ought to be 

 more healthy than places which are deprived of them, which is 

 not the case ; in fact, the Vatican, like the Janicula, which are 

 to a great extent covered with gardens and groves, are infected 

 with the most unhealthy air. It results from all these facts, 

 that woods, in countries where, from the physical constitution of 

 the soil, malaria prevails, as in the Campagna di Roma, are in- 

 jurioiis, because they check the winds which sweep away pesti- 

 lential exhalations and renew the air. 



Brocchi is of opinion, (and we think his views correct), that 

 the chief protection of the ancient Romans consisted in their 

 woollen garments, which kept their bodies in a constant state of 

 transpiration. This opinion is justified by the observation, that, 

 since the period at which the use of woollen clothing came again 

 into vogue, intermittent fevers have very sensibly diminished at 

 Rome. At present, even in the warmest weather, the shepherds 

 clothe themselves in sheep-skins, and it is surely for the purpose 

 of protecting themselves against the bad air. The toga of the 

 ancients, whose texture and shape was so well ada[)ted to the 

 body, has disappeared, and has been replaced, as Brocchi ex- 

 presses it, by those garments of patch-work, so flimsy, so ridi- 

 culous, and so unfit to guard those who wear them from the 

 hurtful effects of an unhealthy atmosphere. It is worth while 

 to ascertain whether the monks, in their frocks, suffer less from 

 bad air, than the other inhabitants within and without Rome. 

 Their great numbers would certainly incline one to believe in 

 the propriety of such an inference. 



The adoption of light clothing, on the one hand, and the ne- 

 glect of good culture on the other, caused by the devastations 

 which Rome and its suburbs have undergone, have given to the 

 malaria an energy which, by rendering the Campagna very 

 sickly, has unpeopled the city to the extent which we now be- 

 hold. 



Before we terminate these considerations, we should say some- 

 thing of the diseases which, at different epochs, visited the an- 

 cient Romans, and which they denominated plagues. Plutarch, 

 Livy, Dionysius, and others, speak of those pestilential diseases 

 which overt(X)k the city of Rome under its kings, and during 



