66 
On Malaria . 
he practises, and who, without system on this subject, entertains no doubt that the 
cause lies in the close and damp coppices of his neighbourhood. 
If I have noted, in the preceding catalogue, plashes of moist ground, meaning 
under that term to comprise all kinds of insignificant wet or marshy spots, I need 
not specify more minutely what they consist in ; while their abundance every where 
renders all reference to places unnecessary They are in reality marshes, 'though 
small ones ; and if what I hare said respecting space or bulk as to h marsh is valid, 
then are they sufficient to produce disease, provided the proximity is sufficient. 
And it it would he fruitless to quote examples of disease produced by them, from 
the impossibility of reference, I must trust that my own experience of such events, 
combined wich the general argument, will be a sufficient warranty. 
The last variety of mere-land production of malaria, and requiring enumeration, 
comprises sea-walls and river embankments; and the reasons for pointing it out 
are, chiefly, that being very often implicated with the remedy for marshy lands, it 
is the more apt to be unsuspected. Yet it is a species of land extremely productive 
of malaria ; and not unfrequentlv the sole or principal cause of that which conti- 
nues to be generated after the reformation of such lands, while seldom viewed as 
such. Such walls are, in truth, very generally petty marshes in themselves, as is 
eas.ly seen along the hanks of tl.e Thames ; and there is abundant proof that the 
a° ' T Wh Ch 0C ™ py them ’ are » frequent source of the 
same disorders as those lands were accustomed to produce before their drainage and 
r 2 k ," 0W th ' S . T n,,t bUt fail 40 l,e u&ef " 1 1 sllue it is possible, at 
:r s ’to dTmini^Sd^iT not to — 
I may pass to the localities or situations which have a nearer reference to water 
than to land. What relates to lakes is simple ; and if it little concerns us inas- 
as our own lakes he in a climate scarcely productive of malaria, the demon- 
stration of their pernicious qualities in Italy and Switzerland .sample. The 
causes, immediately, are various ; and I need not do more than name them 
f r v , K ”’ hethw \ at the e *i« or entrances of the rivers, are meadows of the 
worst kind, because subject to inundation ; their borden are rftm, I.! i 
in addition, they frequently contain creeks or shallow , daces productive^ 
trefying aquatic vegetables and stagnant ' Productive ot pit- 
diminished by the heat of summer, they often also expose o»Fensl* 0me 8 . Unation V s 
of the same poison. ' ' expos:, offensive mud, generative 
st^on'T Volney^’t \Zl TrTT^Tn T U h the ° b ' 
malaria ; and when, after enumerating in addition T»7l ta thSt does not P rodu ce 
meadows, and lakes, he says that, through his wht.le WrenuTe MA ***! fi rai !'- p '? nds ’ 
houses without fevers, it is n testimony which /' f he did not 6nd a dozen 
to this and many other of the facTan^ b ® ,UOted as 
ed. And in France and Italy, the same LiniiL h b •, f heen enum « ra ‘- 
the reasons, it is apparent in the nature of their banks ’* " - ® . consider 
tation ; m the diminution, during summer of tbi- ’ K a mf * rsh y vege- 
their casual inundations, rendering- the enclosing Yand, *”’ exp ? s . in K murt ! in 
character of the sail and vegetation bv which ^ ‘ 1< ? S we J ; an< * m the general 
cu instances may exist and'art ^ on r ^wu c t,mX H ° W thesC cir - 
ment of others to determine ; and it will be eas/t!n\^!?w W l eave t0 tlu *judg- 
be suspicious or insalubrious. We need not look a hat * ar ' et - v of r 'ver mav 
northei-n climate, or a hilly region ; but the Ouse ' '' rdan » er in a rapid stream, a 
not possibly he exempt, unless EAglanrliZ ;* !,^’ and Simi,ar ^vers, can. 
different from that which exists in France and Italy. Xemptlon on s,lrne principle 
therr^fwdTom ^ *"*'*”* that 
brious, and that stagnation and putrefaction are essential tot f ntl . ot he insalu- 
ria. It would be fortunate, indeed, for France and Italy [> '''’ duot,( 'n of mala- 
tunate for all the tropical climates, even in a crre nei- ,i,.' Vere T t l ls tn,e ; and for- 
that putrefaction is not necessary ; while the fact that 1 i>ave alread y said 
tions in the world are the hanks of the trootal rk-L Tf pernici ous situa- 
judgmemT Vhe ear 
judgment. I he rivers which I have iust named tU truttl of this popular 
eluding the Tliames in many places are decidedly m ? an 7 Ino,r ‘ i among us, in- 
running streams ; but the evidenced too „ 0 mrio L P10duet ! ve of disease, though 
And therefore, when, with regard to mUUda™^ 
el Ponds, forming the class 
