HEALTH. 57 



lands, with distinct ridges here and there, such as we have 

 shown Florida to possess, and malaria are antagonistic, and 

 that therefore the reign of the latter must be local, and on 

 a small scale. We do not for one moment intend to assert, 

 or wish it to be believed, that there is no malaria in Flor- 

 ida. ' She is "of the earth, earthy;" not. by any means a 

 paradise, not without drawbacks nor imperfections ; but 

 only better, balancing all things pro and con, than any 

 other land we know of. 

 / Yes, Florida has malaria. Can you name a country or 

 a State that has it not in some localities ? Can you point 

 to districts low, marshy, where vegetation is alternately 

 covered by water and exposed to the air and sun, and say 

 that such districts are healthy and fit for human habita- 

 tions ; that malaria, in all its many phases, finds no foot- 

 hold there ? 



If a man chooses to locate his home in such spots as 

 these, either in Florida or any other land, when all around 

 him are high, dry, healthy lands, then he really deserves 

 to lose his health and his life ; but we pity his family, and 

 counsel them to rise up in rel^ellion while yet they may. 

 We know a man here in Florida, whose home was in the 

 pine woods, as healthy a location as could be found any 

 where, and his family grew and flourished apace. But 

 there came a day when work was offered a few miles away, 

 and he preferred taking his family to leaving them at 

 home. He rented a house that had been deserted by its 

 owner because of the malaria lurking around it. It was 

 built in a low, wet place, surrounded by swamp and low 

 hammock ; but it was lower in rent, as well as position, 

 than any other offering. So the family dwelt in this 

 ' ' Black Hole " while the husband and father went off to 

 his work on a high pine ridge a mile or two away, so that 

 the malaria affected himself but little. What was the 



