68 
On Malaria . 
spots, more particularly if he will compare the results with what occurs among the 
same classes of people in dry situations, I cannot doubt that he will find every- 
where such proofs as I might easily have brought before him, did I not dislike to 
name the places. Such are the houses of the opulent in such districts as those 
which border the Thames, the Ouse k or other slow rivers ; houses where ornamen- 
tal water has been introduced, and more especially where these are confined by 
woods ; ancient castles surrounded by moats, and, among the poorer classes, those 
placed by canals, mill-ponds, and in other analogous places: to which I might 
add what, however, is rare in our own country, if common on the continent of 
Europe, fortifications ; the diseases of which, when the ditch is wet, are notorious 
everywhere. And to these X may subjoin, what will excite more surprise from 
their apparent insignificance, the ponds of gravel pits, which will be very often 
found the causes of those fevers that occur in such situations. 
What will be observed in all such cases is. that the inhabitant?, even where 
opulent, are subject to what is called vaguely ill health ; while, to use a common, 
if a vulgar phrase, they are places where ‘‘ the apothecary is never out of the 
house.” And this ill health, where least marked, will be found to consist in a suc- 
cession of petty and almost indescribable levers, being in reality, the very condi- 
tion which torments the inhabitants of the pestilential parts of France and Italy, 
from their cradles to their graves, in a variety of painful disorders, including rheu- 
matism and sciatica; and in what, if difficult to ascertain absolutely, is well known 
to those familiar with Italy and France, namely, visceral obstructions, and very 
particularly, disordered spleen : well marked to those who know these countries, 
in the peculiar sullen complexions and physiognomies of the individuals. 
If such is the general character of this ill health, I might easily explain its ac- 
tion at greater length : while it will be remarked by any one who' will make the in- 
quiries that, very frequently, whole families which were formerly healthv, have 
become thus disordered on taking up such a situation ; and that others have, re- 
versely, recovered health by leaving it for a drier one. But if all this is too little 
marked to attract ordinary notice, particularly where the cause is unsuspected, 
(though even popular opinion agi-ets in the ’insalubrity of low and damp situa- 
tions,) there is disease enough produced by all the class of places which I have 
been enumerating, to satisfy anyone who is really acquainted with the disorders 
arising from malaria; I allude to the levers, the dysenteries, and diarrhoeas, and the 
choleras of autumn, which will be always found peculiarly attached to situations of 
this kind, and often in so marked a manner, that it is wonderful the fact has not 
excited attention long ago. Let any one attempt to recollect where it was that, 
m the last summer, he has seen a whole st reet, a whole village, or the whole of the 
inhabitants of one house suffering under fever, and he will as" surely find that such 
street, village, or house was situated near water in some shape ; and that water, per- 
haps, not more than the pond belonging to the gold fishes, or the gravel-pit on the 
common. r 
But to remove one doubt which will naturally arise, let me make one remark 
on gravel-pits which will explain every other objection of a similar nature. 
' s "Ejected that waters or wet lands cannot be productive of malaria, because 
rtLned Tbe TL /T‘V- SmCe " his> ““fortunately, in England, is too commonly 
reckoned the sole test of its presence. So far is this from being true, that in the 
most pestiferous parts of France and Italy, simple and original intermittent is a 
rare disease; so little is this the proof and the sole one of an insalubrious soil. 
To omit the various other disorders which malaria excites, it is the summer fe ers 
the’ nialar ,the f Iff, t8StS ’ aS are the produce of this poison ; and but for which 
indeed And' it isiMl,? 'VI "c P es ‘ llential “untry would be of little moment 
" o l V ■ 1 m these ’ therefore, that we must chiefly look for the evidences of 
S med 0U T 1Ve -Vn Whil ? ““*>nunatelj, as they are tmi genSv 
termed typhus it ith us, or else attributed to heat, fruit, or other fanciful causes 
the rea malaria which produced them is overlooked or’ denm d, as the pS 
generated remains unsuspected. ’ P • 
Commi rS^t’lw^^sfaunu V >tem!ttents ^ring, as it excites 
places do not excite the former 1 ere i ? a reason why the same waters or 
and hence also why ttv ! , W u th «7 a “ the causes of the latter, 
are denied : this is ^hat from tb " , .' S ' 1S!) < ’ ° r wh y.their pernicious properties 
and gravel-pits 686 ““facies «* water, 
of vegetation in spring • vvliiln fJ’ * It ed t0 map g*»s, and are often also void 
S P 8 5 Whlie from the heats ° f summer, the shrinking of the water 
