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Medical Topography of Upper Scinde. By K. W. Kirk, 

 M.D., Assistant Surgeon, 1847. 



Who can tell us what malaria is ? According to Liebig's 

 view, hydro-sulphuric acid has a great deal to say in the 

 matter. Dr. Gardner is of the same mind, and has written 

 at great length to prove its generation in stagnant water. 

 Professor Daniel!, when he found water of the Niger, which 

 had been bottled up for some months, strongly impregnated 

 with it, thought he had stumbled on a great discovery — that 

 of the true cause of fever. 



March etti thinks he has found out the great secret in the 

 mixture of fresh and salt water, and no doubt they form a 

 noxious enough compound in the Pontine marshes. Simple 

 damp and cold have also of late been represented by some 

 as being the active cause of malaria, and some curious expe- 

 riments have been made in the way of artificially producing 

 fits of ague by the application of cold and moisture in the 

 hopes of frightening away epilepsy according to one of the 

 favourite theories of the day, the antagonism of diseases. 

 We might easily adduce other opinions, but in this country 

 of fever, it will be more interesting to turn to the latest 

 views of Indian writers. 



Dr. Heyne, of Madras, has, from a consideration of the 

 fever which infests many hill forts, come to the conclusion, 

 that it is caused by the geological nature of the formation 

 on which they stand, and this he finds to be primitive gra- 

 nitic ferruginous rock — the impregnation with iron and 

 electrical action being, according to him, the exciting cause 

 of disease. Ingenious enough as are his views, we doubt not 

 that Dr. Heyne will soon be satisfied, that they are founded 

 on too limited a consideration of the subject. But if primary 

 formations are in Madras to bear the blame of the pro- 

 duction of fever, we have Dr. Kirk in Bengal, who is as 



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