FARMERS' REOISTER— ON MALARIA. 



21 



Africa, that leyiun ol" mental iliui(iic'8«, tliuLiij,'li 

 harmless t(j tlu; iiativi^^s, ai'c Ji"ui<flit, witli t])c Bccds 

 of (iiwcasc to [\ui European and American conRfi- 

 tution. WitacKs the lives tliat iiavo been and 

 Rtill are ,'uiiiii;dly sacrificed npon tiio allar of Co- 

 lorii/aliori. The exten.siv'c marshes? of tlic Ne- 

 therlandfj have olien proved liie woiirccR of nevere 

 and vvi(le-fjj)read diseaHC.* Our own hiyhly la- 

 vored land almoril throui^'liout its entire extent, has 

 frequently been visited by extensive and malig- 

 nant epidemics, increasing in Ircqueney and severi- 

 ty ih^ we proceed southward. The bold and ma- 

 jestic rivers which How through our country, and 

 beautily ilK scenciy, oil en prove the source of 

 destructive epidemics. The " king of rivers", the 

 grand and magnihcent Mississippi, like the Nile 

 oi' Egypt, ami the Ganges of the east, while it 

 f(!rlilizes the soil by its extensive annual inunda- 

 tions, spreads at the same time lUr and wide the 

 seeds of disease." 



"The steeping of hemp and flax, in stagnant 

 shallow water, ("ti6i palustres dinident atjiioi, 

 ventique silenV) in consecjuence of wJiicli it has 

 nutrilied, has also heen productive of disease. 

 Lancisi "gives the history (says Uancroft) of an 

 epidemic commoidy intermittent, and olien re- 

 sembling the tcrtiana iethargica of Forti, which 

 lor several summers inlestod, and almost depopu- 

 lated the ancient lovvn of LJrhs VcUis, in an ele- 

 vati^d and salubi-ious jiart of Etruria; and which 

 was occasioned by ])on(ls or stagnant waters in 

 the lower part of the town, in whic^h hemp and 

 flax were macerated: (i/i qvibus liimm, et canna- 

 bis maccrabantar,) but tliis being j)rohibited in 

 1705, the fevers did not alierwards occur." 



" Fevers have also been known to arise from 

 the putrefiuMion of "the vast heaps of indigo 

 ])lant, which are negligiiutly formed, (after the 

 coloring princi[)le has been extracted) near the 

 works and hoases of the laborers, and there left to 



from the ncigliborinf;- marshes. One would have sup- 

 posed that tiii^se severe visitations, heCoro she hud ac- 

 quired the bone and muscle ot maturity would have 

 given a permanent check to her growth, but the cupid- 

 ity and enterj)iise of jnan can triiunph over apparently 

 insuperable dilliculties. All that portion of Jlaly too, 

 wiiich is bounded on tlje one side by the Mediterra- 

 nean, and by tiie Appenniiics on the other, and extend- 

 ing from I'isa on tin; north to Terracina on the south, 

 has bt;eii rendereil a complete deseit l)y the znalaria in 

 which it abounds. Tiiis portion of tiie country (says 

 (irillith) is almost uninhabited, "and the appearance 

 ot tlie few wi'elchc'd beings whom necessity detains 

 fiu're is i'rigbtl'ul in the extreme, exhibiting the elfects 

 of the noxious exhalations in every form of bilious 

 disorder." Other countries along the sea coast, have 

 also occasionally suli'ercd from this scourge most se- 

 verely. In (iibralter, in 1804, out of a population of 

 al)out 10, 000, there perished iVoni the 1st of Si'ptcun- 

 ber to the 31st of iJeciMnbi-r ijiclusive, 5,9 U) individu- 

 als, being moi'c than one-lialC of tlie inliabifants. In 

 IS 10 another destructive pestilence ravaged the same 

 place, wliich is clearly ])roved by Dr. Burnett to have 

 aiisi'u from marsh exlialation. In Cadi/, in ISOO, out 

 (it a |io|)ulatii)u of ab((iit ()0,0i)O, the mnulicr of the 

 alU'itftI fiomllie bc^giiming ol' August to the first week 

 in November, amoiuited to l!S,.'i2d. 



*The famous Waicheren expedition of the llrilisii 

 in the year lH0<)"is still fresli in the r(;coll('clion ol 

 many. Out of sixteen thousand troops, constituting 

 ♦he whole British force, Iheie was on the 23d of hJeji- 

 tend)er f),800 prostrate with the fever. 



decompose niul become manure, which is of an ex- 

 cellent quality, ufter two or three years. These 

 heaj)s wetted fiom time to time l)y heavy rains, 

 and alierwards heat(\d by the powerflil rays of a 

 vertical sun, emit very co|)iously, vapor, or mias- 

 ma, resembling in their eflects tbos(! of marshes, 

 t<)r those persons who live near to, and especially 

 on the leeward sid(; of these f(!rmenting vegetable 

 masses, are commonly attacked by levers, chiefly 

 remittents, and similar to those wliich prevail in 

 marshy situations. And according to my infor- 

 mation (continues EancrofV) the connexion of 

 these fevers with tiie heaps of fi!rmen1ing indigo 

 [)Iants is now so well understood and believed in 

 that part of the world, (East Indies,) that the 

 moi'c intelligent indigo makers no longer permit 

 such heaps to be lljrmed near their works, or the 

 habitations of the workmen, but cause them to be 

 |)liiced at (•onsiderable distances, and to the lee- 

 ward ther(>of; and thus preserve their laborers in 

 health." Many other instances might be men- 

 tioned in wiiich malaria was produced by vegeta- 

 bl<5 putrcliiclion, but those cited an; deemed suffi- 

 cient to prove the position with which we set out." 



" We have already mentioned that four things 

 are necessary to the developement of malaria; 

 namely, heat, moisture, veo-et able matter, and the 

 contact of air; if any one ol these requisites be ab- 

 sent, malaria is not produced. From this iiict then 

 we may deduce many of our preventive means; 

 litr by reniosiiig any one of them we arrest the 

 exhalation of this gas. 



Vegetable matter, with the co-operalion of lieat 

 and moisture will every where produce disease, 

 hence the grent necessity of enf()rcing the iitmost 

 cleanliness in iiil large cities and towns, j)art,iculn.rly 

 the removal of all collections of vegetable matter. 

 The streets, yards, cellars, ponds, gnrdens, stores, 

 &c., shoidd all be made to jiass fln-ough the most 

 rigid inspection. Much good has resulted from 

 fi)llowing this course, and dreadlid distress has 

 been occasioned by neglecting it. Dr. Rush ob- 

 serves, " in a manuscript of the life of doctor (af- 

 terwards governor) Colden, of N(;w York, there is 

 the f()llowing lad/. It was first connuunicated to 

 the public in the daily Ca/.c-ttc of the capital of 

 that state, on tlie 30tli of October, 1799.^' "A 

 malignant lever having raged with exceeding vio- 

 lence fi)r two sunimcrs successively in the city of 

 New Yoi'k, about firty years ago, he communi- 

 cated his thoughts to the [mblicon the most proba- 

 ble cause of the calamity; lie published a little 

 treatise on llu; occasion in which he collecled the 

 sentiments of tliebestauthoi-ity, on the bad efli'cta 

 of siagnatini^ waters, maifil air, damp cellars, filthy 

 alores and dirly streets, lie showed how much 

 these nuisances prevailed in many parts of the 

 city, and jiointed out the remedies. The corpora- 

 tion of the city voted him their ihanks, adoi)ted 

 his reasoning, and eslaltlished a ])lan l()r draining 

 and cleaning the city which was attended with 

 the most happy elliicts." 



''The United Provinces of Holland, (says Rush) 

 hold their excnq)tion fi-om the |)lague only by the 

 t«mor of their cleanliness. In the character given 

 by Lullier of Pope Jrdius, he says "he kept the 

 streets of J^^me so clean and sweet, that there 

 were no plagues nor sickness during his lime." 



" Ponds of water should never be allowed to 

 t'xist in cities or towns, or even in I heir neighbor- 



