1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



413 



cures of this insalubrity should be accurately 

 known. JMost generally, tiie insalubrity of the 

 air is occasioned bvthe vicinity ofstairnant water; 

 but this cause is nimlifieil by a multitude of cir- 

 cumstances, often diifi(;ult to separate and distin- 

 guish. The neigliboiliood of nuu-shes is not al- 

 Avays unhealthy, and not always to the same de- 

 gree. This is a truth which has long been known. 

 Vitruvius, Silvias. Duuat, Priugle, and Lancisi, 

 ha\'e all remarked, that one of the principal causes 

 of the unhealthiness of marshlands is the over- 

 flowing of the ti-esh water marshes by the waters 

 ol' the ocean, for a longer or a shorter period du- 

 ring the summer. It hfis been distincily stated, 

 that this was the cause ot" the terrible diseases so 

 Avell known in Italy under the name oi' nialattie di 

 cattiva aria. As proof ol this, the author reiers to 

 the salt niarslies in the souih of France, the 

 marshes on the coasts of the Mediterranean, in 

 the kingdom of Naples, in the Ecclesiasiical 

 States, and in Tuscany, the neighborhood of 

 which, abhorred and denopulaled, presents a stri- 

 king contrast with the ierlility and population of 

 other provinces in the inferior, situated near 

 marshes of equal extent. Bui a more complete 

 proof ol this assertion will be Ibund in the follow- 

 ing interesting account : 



On the south of the Liofurian Appenines, there 

 is a marshy district, bwjnded on tlie west by the 

 Mediterranean, and extending about twelve miles 

 in this direction ; on the south by the Serchio ; on 

 the east by the foot of the Appenines, and on t,he 

 north by the Frigido — a torrent which rises near- 

 ly at the loot of the Appenines, on the es- 

 tate o^ Massadc Carrare, and fills into the sea af- 

 ter a course of three or four Italian miles. The 

 widtii of this plain from the sea to the toot of the 

 mountfiins, on the east side, is between two and 

 lour miles. It is traversed from east to west by 

 several rapid streams, rising in the mountains and 

 losing themselves in the marshes, or discharging 

 themselves into the sea. Including the Frigido 

 and the Serchio, are those which discharge them- 

 selves in the rivers of Camajore, and of Pietra 

 Santa or Finmetto. They have no communica- 

 tion with the marshes which they divide into three 

 separate and distinct basins. The marshy plain, 

 may be considered as having been formed by the 

 sands brought down by the Arno and the Serchio 

 into the gulph, which formerly extended to the 

 foot of the mount uns in the east. In fact the bot- 

 tom of the marsh is sand, like that of the sea 

 shore, which forms a sort of dyke, elevated a few 

 feet only above the level of the sea, and rising 

 from it very gradually. What renders this con- 

 jecture probable, is, that the deposites from the 

 Arno and Serchio, are now continued, and in- 

 crease the breadth of this dike four or five bracci 

 every year, so that the sea appears to retire every 

 year the same distance. 



It may easily bo comprehended how the Arno 

 and Serchio, advancing their e.'/(6rouc^)ire further 

 into the sea, and in the midst of the alluvial mat- 

 ter they bring down, have formed the sort of dike 

 on the side which bounds the marshes of the lake 

 of Massaciuccoli de la Torre and de Motrone, and 

 of the lake de Perotto. Originally, it is probable 

 these formed only one continued marsh, which 

 was subsequently divided into the three basins 

 mentioned above, by the alluvion of the Camajore 

 and the Pietra Santa, which, like the Serchio and 



Fritrido, have made themselves a course in the 

 midst of the stones and vegetable matter they 

 brought with them from the mountains, and with 

 a layer of which, ot"greater or less thickness, they 

 covered the neiu'hboring plains. The small quan- 

 tity of rain and spring water which runs or falls 

 inio these basins, is discharged slowly into the sea, 

 either by natural or artificial channels, which pass 

 through a dike of sand on the coast. Of these 

 there are three; 1st, for the principal basin of the 

 lake Massaciuccoli, the outlet ot'Barlamacca; 2d, 

 tor the lesser marshes and |)onds ot" the plains of 

 de la Torre and Motrone, tlie outlets of Motrone 

 and Tonlala ; 3d, for the small lake of Perotto, 

 and for the marshes in the neighborhood, the out- 

 let of Cinquala. The level of these several ditch- 

 es, or sewers, is very litile higher than the sea, du- 

 ring the ebb, and is lower than the level of the sea 

 during the flood, though the rise and \k\[ of the 

 tides is very trifling in this part of the Mediterra- 

 nean. Before the ereciion of the sluices, hereaf- 

 ter to be mentioned, the sea water, on the tide ri- 

 sing, or on tlie level of the ocean being elevated 

 by any other cause, entered into these ditches, 

 and forced back the noxious drains, and unless 

 the streams were particularly swollen by rains, 

 the sea water spreads itself over the basins, to the 

 foot of the mountains, particularly during a "Z/6e- 

 c/fl^a,''' or north-east vvind, when the boisterous 

 ocean rolled its waves lar into the canals. The 

 mix lure of salt and fresh wafer which resulled, 

 being slowlj and s(;ldoni renewed, putrefied, and 

 spread all around the most complete and the most 

 murtierous infection. 



I shall not stop, says Mr. Gior^ini, to describe 

 the condilion of the population in those parishes 

 nearest to the marshes and to Viareggio, which 

 was then only a collection of fishermen's huts, sit- 

 uated near an old tower, which the wisdom of that 

 age, not philanthropic, had converted into a pri- 

 son for those who ^vere sent to the galleys. The 

 effects of the Malaria are too well known that I 

 should describe them. In the places I have men- 

 tioned they occurred every year, in all their hor- 

 ror. The natives, lew in number, and perpetual- 

 ly attacked with diseases of the liver or the spleen, 

 presented through the whole year, the afilicling 

 spectacle of feehle and languishing chiKlren, of 

 men barely convalescent, in the midst of whom 

 age was unknown. At the close of the summer, 

 they were attacked by more severe disorders; and 

 those who were only attacked with intermittent fe- 

 vers, which gave way at the approach of winter 

 to repeated doses of bark, esteemed themselves 

 happy. In vain the greater number of them fixed 

 their dwelling on the hills, or in the interior, and 

 only went into the plains for the indispensable la- 

 bors of cultivation, thus seeking to escape the 

 more deleterious influence of the night ; fever and 

 death followed them to their miserable abodes. 

 Things were so b id, that the culture of the olive, 

 with which the hills on the border are richly cov- 

 ered, was entirely done by^ strangers, who came 

 during the winter to till a soil, the very fertility of 

 which was an evil, for it served to lure fresh vic- 

 tims. If the natives themselves could not escape, 

 woe to the stranger or the traveller who forgot his 

 situation, and passed a single night, in the months 

 of August or September, in these infectious count- 

 ries. His death was certain. Such was the situ- 

 ation of the country before 1741, and I have de- 



