Malaria of Hot Climates. 
CLIMATE OF IONIAN ISLES. 
AVERAGE STATE of the THERMOMETER, at 
; Argostoli, in the Island of €efalonia, 
from 2]st March 1822 to 20th March 
1824, Extracted from Colonel Napier’s 
“ Roads of Cefalonia.”’ 
Therm. Pa 
Clouds} @< 
mafia Clear g 
Dates. g é &] Wind. |Days aay é 
1822. 
April 20/69 |643/60 |N. & NW.| 26 4 
ay 20/75 |69 [63 |NW.&SW.| 20 10 
June 20/854 76 |67 NW. 21 10 1 
July 20/884 813|75 |W. & NW.| 29 1 
Aug. 20/93 843|76 |W. & NW.| 31 
Sept. 20/893 793/70 |W. & NW.| 30 1 1 
Oct. 20/82 75 \68 |SE.& NW.| 21 9 1 
Nov. 20/71 653/60 |SE.& NW.| 19 | 12 10 
Dec. 20/653 594/53 SE. & NE.| 9 21 2 
1823. + 
Jan. 20/59 Iss 47 | Easterly. Chiefly 
Feb. 20/643 58} 53 |SE. & SW.| 9 22 
Mar. 20/653 593 '54 | Southerly.|Alter/nate. {Much 
April 20/68" 62 \56 |W. & NW.! 17 
ay 20,783 69 |593|W. & NW.| 28 2 
' 
June 20)803 76 {712 Xe Ww. Alternate. 
July 20/87 823\773,W. & NW.) 28 2 
Aug. 20/903 843|78 |W. & NW.| 30 1 
Sept. 20/89 823/76 |W. & NW.| 26 5 
Oct. 20/82 |763/713) S. & SE. | 18 12 
Noy. 20)773 663|553| N. & SE. | 13 18 
-(Dec. 20/66 ie 54 | Northerly.| 27 3 
1824. 
Jan. 20\63 995 36 | N. & SE. | 15 16 8 
Feb. 20/60 fe] |52 | N. & SE. eerie | 
Shocks of earthquake —29th March; 
19th June; 17th July; 2d Aug.; 12th, 18th 
and 2Ist Sept.; 29th Oct. and 25th Dec. 
1822 ;—29th Jan. ; 2d April; 3d and 13th 
May; 2d, 12th and 19th June; 18th, 19th, 
20th and 21st Sept.; six during Oct. ; three 
during Nov. ; and two during Dee. 1823 ;— 
one Jan. Ist, and three in March 1824,— 
Some hail in Feb. 1823; some snow in 
Nov.; much in Dec.; heavy showers of 
hail, and great quantity of snow, in Feb. 
1824, 
— 
On the Mararia of Hor Cuimates. 
ROM the miscellaneous observa- 
tions and reflections interspersed 
through Colonel Napier’s interesting 
“ Memoir on the Roads of Cefalonia,’’ 
we select the following, as intimately 
connected with the subject of the two 
valuable papers which will occupy the 
ensuing pages. The extracts we thus 
throw together from that recent publi- 
cation may be, perhaps, the more ac- 
ceptable, from their having a practical 
reference to modifications of infectious 
malady, from which our own climate is, 
occasionally, not exempt. 
“ The malaria of hot climates has been 
long a subject of much discussion. It is 
observed of malaria, that it is carried to a 
great distance, and to a great height, by 
643 
currents of air; arising from marshes, it 
ascends the sides of the neighbouring hills, 
and is conducted through narrow valleys to 
places at a considerable distance. Malaria 
is known to exist on the tops of hills. It 
spreads and rises, but it does not appear to 
descend, and I never saw an instance of 
any place being subject to it, which was 
divided from the marsh by a ridge of hills ; 
although such places were much nearer the 
marsh than places considered very dange- 
rous, and although the latter were high, and 
apparently safe; on close examination, 
some gully or valley was found to conduct 
the malaria: in short, it seems to be a 
vapour, which, in hot weather, arises from 
putrid vegetable matter, and in calm weather 
will creep up high grounds, close to where 
it is generated. When there are gentle 
summer breezes, it flies with them along 
the valleys, until it becomes so dispersed 
as to lose its malignity, which happens 
sooner or later, as the valleys through which 
it passes are narrower or wider. The best 
situations for troops, then, are those which 
have hills, towns, woods, and even single 
walls, between them and the marshes. 
The first is efficacious, the three last are 
doubtful preservatives; but they, at all 
events, tend to weaken the effect of mal- 
aria, by breaking its fearful density: for the 
same reason, sleeping with musquito cur- 
tains is supposed to be a great defence 
against the effects of this pest. .I would, 
therefore, never encamp men, or build a 
barrack, exactly on the summit of high 
ground, near a marsh, but on some spot a 
little way down, on the side away from the 
marsh; and, thus curtained from it, I am 
inclined to believe that no injury would be 
experienced from malaria; which, however 
thickly it may rise, would be dissipated on 
reaching the top of the hill. I will take 
one instance to exemplify what I have said. 
The castle of Fort St. George, in Cefalo- 
nia, is reckoned healthy; it is placed on a 
hill which rises gradually from the marsh of 
Kranea. During the summer, the prevail- 
ing northern breeze blows the marsh effluvia - 
directly towards the castle; but the hill on 
which it stands divides the valley into two 
smaller valleys, and is very high; that part 
(immediately under the castle) towards the 
marsh, and on either side, being very abrupt. 
The high walls of the castle, and the inte- 
rior, which is still higher, cover the barracks 
from malaria, both they and the town being 
placed on the opposite slope: the town is 
quite under the castle. . Here it is evident, 
that, in the first instance, the current of air 
carries the malaria up the valley on each 
side of the castle hill, whose abruptness 
splits it, as it were ; while at the same time, 
should the calmness of the weather permit 
the malaria to creep up, both town and 
barracks are screened by the hill, and the 
walls of the castle.” 
* There are few points which seem less 
generally jnderstood, or more clearly 
4N 2 proved, 
