( 161 ) 



On Malaria.^ 



An English naturalist, DrMacCulloch, maintains that plants, 

 and also water, give out the malaria as a peculiar poison ; and 

 that this matter can be transported, and consequently that the 

 sickness it causes may be produced in districts where there are 

 no plants, or where, after the harvest, there is only stubble re- 

 maining. If, in considering this subject, we place together the 

 marsh fever and the real malaria, we find that all the assertions 

 made regarding them turn upon this view, that putrid marshes 

 render impure the air which previously did not contain the con- 

 tagious poisonous ingredient which produces these diseases. As 

 for several centuries the malaria has actually prevailed to a great 

 extent in Rome during the summer season, and as, in later 

 periods, quinine has been employed as a remedy, the quantity 

 of that medicine consumed has been taken into consideration, 

 and the conclusion has been drawn that Home is becoming 

 more marshy every year. Those who saw the absurdity of this 

 opinion, for there is no district more dry than that of Home, 

 had recourse to the Pontine marshes. But as it was opposed 

 to this view of the subject, that these marshes are two days' 

 journey from Rome, and that several healthy towns and a ridge 

 of hills intervene, it was found necessary to maintain that the 

 malaria reached its destination by a circuitous route ; then it 

 was thought that the Tiber, by the diminution of its waters 

 caused by the heats of summer, must become impure, which, 

 however, is by no means the case. The idea of forming another 

 bed for the Tiber, had no other ground than that which has 



• The guide books for Italy carefully point out suspected districts, and 

 enjoin travellers to drive rapidly through them, and not even to close an eye, 

 and much less to sleep, in them. The clamour upon thL<« subject is still 

 greater near such places, but it has its origin chiefly in the interested mo- 

 tives of innkeepers. The Neapolitan scientific men gave me whole lists of 

 suspected places, all which, however, lie near the great roads. About districts 

 in the interior I could learn nothing ; and I was unable to obtain more mi- 

 nute or solid information upon the subject, although I gave myself much 

 trouble for this purpose. 



VOL. XVII. NO. XXXI ir. — :fULY 1834. i. 



