OF MALARIA. 25 



It is apparently free from supposed causes of fever. There 

 is but one piece of arable ground, no sulphur, no calca- 

 reous rock, no marsh, and very little soil, not a swamp, 

 and the temperature seldom rises above 80. (Boyle, p. 

 16.) 



Other examples almost without number, might be given 

 of the salubrity of places full of decomposing matter, and of 

 the insalubrity of others, where scarcely a vegetable is to 

 be seen. So that many reflecting men are now disposed 

 to abandon a theory, which cannot be rationally sustained 

 by a reference to facts, and which is shaken the more, the 

 more closely its pretensions are examined. 



" We must be contented to place the explanation of the 

 cause of plague," says Fodere, "in the category of that of 

 all endemic maladies: that it is unknown." 



" Malaria is a specific poison producing specific effects 

 on the human body, and is probably gaseous or aeriform. 

 Of its physical or chemical qualities, we really know no- 

 thing. ' ' (Watson . ) 



According to Robert Armstrong, "we are utterly igno- 

 rant of the nature of this poison, and no two authors 

 agree respecting its constitution, the circumstances under 

 which it is generated, or its effects on the human body." 

 (p. 70.) Again, "of the existence of miasm we have 

 no positive proof. It has never been obtained in an in- 

 sulated state, and consequently, we are totally ignorant 

 of its physical properties." 



"If asked what is Malaria, I answer, I do not know." 

 (Caldwell.) 



"Hence, physicians have been reduced to the necessity 

 of inferring the existence of hidden atmospheric influences, 

 as a cloak for ignorance." (Tweedie.) 



"Epidemic fever may be attributed to a mysterious 

 3 



