1838] 



FAIiMERS' REGISTER. 



219 



admitted to be true, considered as showing the want 

 of both patriotism and policy, in the writer's thus 

 exposiiii; the enormcius cxisliii<r and still iirowinir 

 evils uiiilcr which the country suH'ers. In regard 

 to the (ornier point, 1 aduiit, in advance, the scar- 

 city of particular and positive liicts, to serve as 

 prools, which is Ibund throuiihout the whole sub- 

 ject; and that among the existing dilTicuItios of 

 obtaininiT such facts, (and still more by a single 

 and unaiiled individual, who has had little o|)por- 

 tunitj' to make proper researches.) I have to rely 

 mostly upon general and loose opinions, and de- 

 ductions from general tacts. Hence, there is 

 much liability of mistake. But if the public can 

 in any way be driven to the examination of this 

 subjecr, and numerous individuals be excited to 

 search for facts, whether to sustam or to oppose 

 my views, the arrangement and presentation of 

 such lacts will serve as materials, which are now 

 almost totally wanting, and will enable this all- 

 important question to be hereafter properly dis- 

 cussed, and correctly determined. 



If tiiere were no hope for relief, there would 

 certainly be no use in exposing or dwelling upon 

 these distresses of our people. But, though no- 

 thing yet has been done lor relief, nor does ii seem 

 to have entered the imagination of our legislators 

 — and though all they have yet done has been to 

 add strength to the evil — still it is my confident 

 opinion, that relief may be furnished for this sorest 

 evil of the land, and furnished easily and profita- 

 bly; and that it is perfectly within the power of man 

 to dry up the most fr'iitful sources of malaria, and 

 to bring the whole, or very nearly the whole of Vir- 

 ginia, to a slate as healthy as that of any other 

 country in the world. If such a result is indeed at- 

 tainable, it is worth making every possible exer- 

 tion for ; and nothing will induce the smallest ex- 

 ertion, either by the people or the government, 

 except a full exposure of the enormity of the evil 

 wliich presses upon the country. 



It is not my purpose to attempt to investigate 

 the cause and trace the mode of operation of ma- 

 laria. Though worthy of every care and labor, as 

 a scientific question, it is one which as yet has 

 entirely baffled every attempt at exposition. But 

 though it is as yet unknown what is the chemical 

 character of this subtle fluid, and what are the 

 precise circumstances under which it is evolved, 

 and what is the manner in which it exerts its 

 banelijl influence — still tlie main and most import- 

 ant points admit of no question. Thus, and in 

 general, all persons, from the most ignorant to the 

 most learned, agree that there is something which j 

 rises into tiie atmosphere, in hot weather, fiom j 

 marsiiy ground and stagnant waters, which tends 

 to produce the common autumnal levers in these | 

 wlio are much exposed to breathing the air con- 1 

 taminated by this admixture. j 



Though I speak of malaria as an aeriform fluid, j 

 or gaseous product, it is not designed to Ibund my ! 

 argument upon the truth of that opinion. Though, j 

 ibr convenience, as well as because inclining to the 

 belief, malaria is here spoken of as a material ae- 

 rifbrm product ; yet, it may be also used as a term 

 to designate the particular condition of circum- 

 stances produced by certain causes, which condi- 

 tion operates to produce and strengthen autumnal 

 diseases. Still less do I mean to maintain that 

 malaria, even if material, is of any one kind of gas, 

 or any particular combination of several kinds. 



Besides these, there are many other common 

 points on which the learned investigators of mala- 

 ria totally disairree ; and so much does each one 

 insist upon deducing general principles from his 

 own particular facts, (or supposed fiicts,) and so 

 slightly and incorrectly have such lacts been ob- 

 served, that the general reader becomes lost in 

 the contradictory positions of different instructera. 

 Thus, judging from particular and isolated obser- 

 vations, with some writers, there is no condition 

 of circumstances, which wdl not sometimes, in a 

 warm climate, produce malaria; and with others, 

 upon equally partial and imperfect observation of 

 other facts, the production is denied to be usually 

 caused by any of the circumstances which are 

 generally deemed tiie most certain and fi'uitful 

 sources. O.'ie writer, perhaps, has known an ex- 

 emption from disease in those who lived close to 

 a stinking marsh, or a stagnant pond ; and hence 

 he denies that these are sources of malaria, and 

 accordingly searches for them in other circum- 

 stances. Another has known the effects of mala- 

 ria on troops encamped in a high defile in the 

 mountains of Spain, where the soil was dry and 

 stony, and no water except rapidly flowing rivu- 

 lets, and the place some miles distant from the 

 nearest n)arsh or lake. Hence he concludes, that 

 even such a locality as this, in certain (unknown) 

 circumstances, throws out abundance of nialaria. 

 Considering the circumstances under which most 

 of the works on malaria have been written, it 

 would be stranire if they were not quite contradic- 

 tory. The authors of most of them were army- 

 suigeon? and physicians, who observed the effects 

 of malaria, in some deadly region, upon soldiers 

 not at all acclimated. Perhaps the author wa^ 

 confined to a garrison, or at least limited in his 

 observations to the line of march of an invading 

 army ; and in a country to which he was totally 

 a stranger, and among a hostile people, whose 

 opinions fie could not learn, and whose language 

 he probably did not understand. If a physician of 

 Lord Cornwallis' army, who had merely accom- 

 panied his march through Virginia, and been 

 cooped up in Yorktown 'during the siege, had 

 written a treatise on the diseases of the country, 

 he would have been belter prepared to treat of 

 them than most of those who have essayed such 

 tasks ; and he probably would have considered as 

 a regular disease of "the country the fatal "jail- 

 fever," which swept of!' in numbers the abscond- 

 ing slaves who hati joined the British army, and 

 were crowded together in Yorktown, until the 

 surrender, and which fbrm of disease has never 

 been known there, before, or since. 



All agree that decaying and putrefying vegeta- 

 ble matter is one of ihe greatest, if not the only 

 source of malaria. Ofcourse, then, in addition to 

 the sufficient abundance of the material, the cir- 

 cumstances most conducive to its putrefaction, 

 must be the most favorable to the production of 

 malaria. 



The presence of moisture, a certain degree of 

 heat, and the access of air, are circumstances es- 

 sential to fermentation, and of course to the pro- 

 duction of malaria ; and neither can take place 

 without the aid of all three of these things. Much 

 moisture would be less favorable than a less quan- 

 tity ; and entire covering by water would, by ex- 

 cluding air. prevent fermentation, and its conse- 

 queiice the formation and escape of malaria. 



