320 On Malaria. 



couraged population had neither wish nor ability to return to the 

 pursuits of industry : and from the period of this melancholy des- 

 olation, when the luxuriant gardens and fields, and the beautiful 

 courts and pleasure grounds in the city, and contiguous to it, had 

 been for some time neglected, malaria commenced its frightful and 

 gloomy reign. As a consequence upon these political animosities, 

 estates were wrested from their owners, and fell in vast domains 

 into the possession of individual proprietors. Thus upon luxuri- 

 ant soils, and in places that had been pampered with the utmost ef- 

 forts of culture, lazy weeds, and thickets of herbage, accumulated, 

 unthought of, sending forth pestilence, at once the " cause and 

 the consequence of the insalubrity of the atmosphere, banishing 

 the rural population from the fields." The sun shines here with 

 the purest light; the softest airs woo the lingering and admiring 

 passenger ', the winds blow with the most exhilirating freshness ; 

 but all these advantages are turned to deadly agencies, for the want 

 of an enterprising, vigorous, industrious, and persevering population. 

 Neglect creates what is equivalent to a marsh in every thicket of 

 herbage ; and the evil increases, and will increase, while there are 

 no effective laborers, and while only a few ignorant, half savage, and 

 decrepid herdsmen roam over the lands, haggard, and trembling with 

 the annual visitation of disease, " possessing hardly spirit enough to 

 ask strength from heaven to resist the coming attack," or scarcely a 

 wish to survive it. 



The celebrated plain which surrounds the city of Rome, extends 

 from the promontory of Circe to the hills of Etruria, thirty leagues 

 in length, by ten or twelve broad. The surface is uneven, but nei- 

 ther are tiie valleys deep, nor the hills precipitous. The plain seems 

 an immeasurable extent of turf, spotted with thorns and briers ; and 

 a few solitary post houses, on this deserted tract, alone " reveal to 

 the traveller that he is approaching the city of Rome." There is 

 no example of so rapid a depopulation, as that which now wastes 

 this imperial city, unless by siege, or by some elemental catastro- 

 phe. This is owing as well to political as to physical causes, 

 but the proximate cause is malaria. So late as 1791, the city 

 contained 166,000 inhabitants. " The streets," says M. Chateau- 

 vieux, " at that time were filled with sumptuous equipages and 

 liveries, and decorated with magnificent palaces: in 1812 I en- 

 tered the city by the same road, but instead of equipages, it was 

 filled with droves of cattle, goats, and half wild horses, which a num- 



