96 LATENCY. 



LECTURE V. 



EXPLANATORY CHARACTER OF OUR THEORY LATENCY 

 LIMITATION DRYINGS MOULDY SHEETS YELLOW 

 FEVER CHOLERA TROPICAL HEALTH SUCCESSION 

 OF EPIDEMICS. 



A THEORY of malaria should not, in this enlightened 

 age, be received, "which does not, at least plausibly, ac- 

 count for the apparent irregularities, seeming contradic- 

 tions, and anomalous inconsistencies of the subject, which 

 now so greatly obscure all the usual modes of explanation. 

 In this respect I hope to show the very great superiority 

 of that which, I presume, is, by this time, not unfavoura- 

 bly viewed by my hearers. The diffusion of the fungi; 

 their properties as a class; their acknowledged power of 

 producing diseases of a febrile character, marked by pe- 

 riodicity; their nocturnal power and autumnal prevalence; 

 their love of the damp dark places in which febrile epi- 

 demics delight; their companionship with epidemics and 

 epizootics ; their obvious association with many cutaneous 

 and some mucous diseases; their production of some con- 

 tagious diseases of insects; and the progress of diseases 

 from cattle, which are sickened by eating mildewed food, 

 to human beings, sometimes by the use of the flesh, and 

 Sometimes, as in the cases reported by Vimat, by the 

 simple exaltation of epidemic influence : all these details, 

 numerous, diversified, and well sustained by authorities, 



