5o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mountain which had been filled up by fine soil which had resulted 

 from the wearing down of the higher parts of the mountain (alluvial 

 soil). That some doubt should be thrown on the decision o'f the commis- 

 sion which had adopted my views on the influence of the natural state 

 of the soil on cholera was not to be wondered at. I spared no pains, 

 however, in going to the Krain and Karst Mountains, where cholera 

 apparently was raging on a bare, rocky soil, and instead of contradic- 

 tion I found a further corroboration of my views. The towns lying 

 among these mountains were found to suffer from an affection which 

 unquestionably proceeds from the soil — namely, ague. The mountains 

 are freely cleft, and the clefts are filled with porous soil, allowing of the 

 free percolation of water and air, so as to be nothing more than an alluvial 

 soil. Here streams rush down the mountain-side, turn off at its base, 

 and run on richer still in water. You may often find there a cleft hav- 

 ing the shape of a funnel, filled with porous earth ; the nature of the 

 cleft and its contained earth may be determined by sinking a so-called 

 Dolione, when the bottom will be found to be solid stone. Through 

 the Adelsberger growth the rapid Poik flows ; and on the other side 

 of the mountain in which the grotto is situated the waters of the Poik 

 roll off under the name of the Unze ; the XJnze again flows off at the 

 base of a mountain, as a navigable river, on the other side of Laybach. 

 As I proceeded from Laybach to Novomsto (Neustadtl), I saw shin- 

 ing in the distance before me and far below the mountain a village, 

 which turned out to be Rasderto, where I learned from my com- 

 panion, a schoolmaster, that ague prevailed, and, indeed, I found 

 many sufferers confined to bed from this complaint. Rasderto lies 

 below the sites which the cholera infested. At the base of the rocky 

 hills on which Rasderto is situated, there flows a stream which is so 

 powerful that it turns a mill. 



In order to study the cholera at Malta I proceeded thither in 1868 

 at my own expense. Mr. John Simon procured me the necessary in- 

 troductions. On arriving in the harbor of Valetta I was forcibly 

 struck with the rocky nature of the soil. The rocky hills rose high 

 above the water, and on alighting on shore my feet encountered the 

 resistance of bare rock. I ascended the steps hewed out of the solid 

 rock, by which means I reached the plateau, on which the greater 

 part of the town is built. A promenade, which was also shaped out 

 of the natural rock, led me to my hotel. I now became very desir- 

 ous for a further study of the place. Mr. Inglott, at that time the 

 chief medical ofiicer of the hospitals in Malta, and Dr. Pisani, a dis- 

 tinguished Maltese physician, rendered me very efficient aid in my re- 

 searches. They often wondered why I had determined to visit Malta. 

 How often did they say to me, when I questioned them on the nature 

 of the soil of this rocky island, " Our rock is not rock in your sense of 

 the term, but it is a sponge which sucks up everything which falls 

 upon it " ! Investigation proved that the Maltese rock was as porous 



