114 Sketch of the Life of Professor Heeren. 



with impartiality in this admirable work, — a historical monument 

 of which Germany is proud, which enables us to form a correct 

 idea of ancient times, and throws great light upon Asia, the 

 cradle of the human race, and especially upon India, as well as 

 upon Africa and Greece. 



The first three volumes treat of Asia. One of them makes 

 known the political constitution of Persia, and its statistical 

 division ; another is devoted to the Phenicians and their colo- 

 nies, the Babylonians, and Scythians; the third treats of the 

 Indians and their monuments. To these researches are joined 

 several supplementary articles, which are of the greatest interest 

 for the understanding of Asiatic literature and history, which 

 until then were so little known. Africa is spoken of in the 

 fourth and fifth volumes. The sixth and seventh embrace 

 Greece and its colonies. The eighth and last volume gives a 

 succinct account of the political and commercial life of the Ro- 

 mans and other nations of Europe. 



On the Malaria of the Campagna di Roma. 



XiVERY one has heard of the bad air which exerts its pernicious 

 influence in the latter part of summer, and which depopulates 

 Rome and its environs. Among the writers who have turned 

 their attention to this subject, the greater number are of opinion 

 that Rome has not always been so unhealthy as it is at present, 

 and they attribute the change to the superior cultivation of the 

 soil which was practised by the ancients. This opinion is not 

 destitute of foundation ; but it is valid, as may easily be con- 

 ceived, only in relation to the time when Rome and the Cam- 

 pagna were in a very populous and flourishing condition. If 

 we recede into times more remote, and consider what the country 

 must have been when first settled by those ancient inhabitants, 

 we shall be obliged to admit that it must have contained exten- 

 sive marshes and low grounds. We know that, long after the 

 foundation of Rome, there were considerable marshes between 

 the different hills within its enclosures, especially between Mounts 

 Aventine and Palatine, and between the latter and the Capito- 

 line. Dionysius of Halicarnassus informs us, that they were 



