223 DR. R. ANGUS SMITH ON THE PRODUCTION 



XV. — On the Production and Prevention of Malaria. 

 Bij Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S. 



Eead February i9tli, 1861. 



I. On the Production of Malaria. 



By malaria I mean simply bad air rising from land or 

 water not contaminated with impure substances from the 

 habitations of man. In this short paper I by no means 

 propose to myself to enter upon the whole question of the 

 production or prevention of malaria. The subject would 

 require not only more time than can be given to it on 

 this occasion, but much more information than I possess. 

 It has been my intention to examine the matter tho- 

 roughly, but I have not had the necessary opportunities, 

 and I give here only some ideas towards an elucidation 

 of the subject, founded on a few simple observations. It 

 has been shown by numberless writers that malaria is a 

 very frequent evil ; that large portions of Europe are more 

 or less subject to it, and considerable districts rendered by 

 it quite uninhabitable. But besides those dreaded evils, 

 such as almost instantaneous illness or slow and lingering 

 death. Dr. Macculloch has shown that large portions of 

 very healthy countries, such as England itself, are subject 

 to emanations which diminish their healthiness to an extent 

 which careful observation can detect, alttiough the sufferers 

 themselves are unable to account for the loss of strength, 

 or look on it onlv as one of the inevitable evils incident to 



