320 On Malaria. 
couraged population had. neither wish nor ability to return to the 
pursuits of industry: and from the period of this melancholy des- 
olation, when the luxuriant gardens and fields, and the beautiful 
courts and pleasure grounds in the city, and contiguous to it, had 
been for some time neglected, malaria commenced its frightful and 
gloomy reign. As a consequence upon these political animosities, 
estates were wrested from their owners, and fell in vast domains 
into the possession of individual proprietors. ‘Thus upon luxuri- 
ant soils, and in places that had been pampered with the utmost ef 
forts of culture, lazy weeds, and thickets of herbage, accumulated, 
unthought of, sending forth pestilence, at once the ‘ cause and 
the consequence of the insalubrity of the atmosphere, banishing 
the rural population. from the fields.” The sun shines here with 
the purest light; the softest airs woo the lingering and admiring 
passenger; the winds blow with the most exhilirating freshness; 
but all these advantages are turned to deadly agencies, for the want 
of an enterprising, vigorous, industrious, and persevering population. 
_Nee.ect creates what is equivalent to a marsh in every thicket of 
herbage ; and the evil increases, and will increase, while there are 
no effective laborers, and while only a few ignorant, half savage, and 
decrepid herdsmen roam over the lands, haggard, and trembling with 
the annual visitation of disease, “ possessing hardly spirit enough t 
ask strength from heaven to resist the coming attack,” or scarcely @ 
wish to survive it. oe 
The celebrated plain which surrounds the city of Rome, extends 
from the promontory of Circe to the hills of Etruria, thirty leagues 
in length, by ten or twelve broad. The surface is uneven, but nei- 
ther are the valleys deep, nor the hills precipitous. ‘The plain seems 
an immeasurable extent of turf, spotted with thorns and briers 5 and 
a few solitary post houses, on this deserted tract, alone “ reveal to 
the traveller that he is approaching the city of Rome.” ‘There is 
no example of so rapid a depopulation, as that which now wastes 
this imperial city, unless by siege, or by some elemental, catastto- 
o phe. This. is owing as well to political as to physical causes; 
but the proximate cause is malaria. So late as 1791, the oy 
contained 166,000 inhabitants. . ‘The streets,” says M. Chateau- 
vieux, “at that time were filled with sumptuous equipages and 
liveries, and decorated with magnificent palaces: in 1812.1 
a the city by the same road, but -instead of equipages, it 4S 
a ~— 1 droves of cattle, goats, and half wild horses, which a num 
