708 The Sanitary Millennium . [November, 
the alluvial valleys of the La Plata, the Amazon, and the 
Orinoco. In Europe earthquakes have occurred chiefly in 
the mountainous peninsulas bordering on the Mediterra- 
nean, and the adjacent islands, whilst the great plain ex- 
tending from northern France through Belgium, Holland, 
North Germany, Poland, and Russia, has, in historical 
times, suffered little from this agency. 
Iceland, Jamaica, New Zealand, all mountainous, have 
all been the scenes of great volcanic activity. On p. 117 
the author remarks that “ in the region of the Andes, the 
oldest range of volcanos next to extinct volcanos, epidemics 
would appear to be unknown, while endemics are extremely 
rare. Dr. Bryson states that with some few exceptions in 
which ague and malarious fevers exist, both sides of this 
volcanic chain are extremely salubrious.” Yet he else- 
where speaks of yellow fever as occurring at the port of 
Islay on the western side of the chain. 
Dr. Parkin, if we understand him aright, considers that 
springs are more abundant in alluvial tracts than in rocky 
districts. This is exadtly opposite to what we have always 
found. Springs are, e.g., far more numerous in the moun- 
tainous distridts of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and North 
Wales, than in the valleys of the Thames, the Trent, and 
the Mersey, or in the plains of Buckinghamshire, Essex, 
Suffolk, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Bedford, &c. This is a 
point of some moment if, according to Dr. Parkin’s fourth 
law, “ the effeas of volcanic adtion — and if his theory be 
corredt epidemic diseases— are always much greater and 
more perceptible near the sea, lakes, rivers, springs , &c.” 
There are, therefore, several points on which we should 
desire further light before we can accept the causal connec- 
tion between pestilence, volcanic adtion, and abnormal me- 
teorological phenomena as proven. Nor can we forget that 
much of the historical evidence brought forward as to the 
earthquakes, storms, floods, famines, and the like visita- 
tions in the Middle Ages, is not absolutely free from suspi- 
cion. Even if we absolve the old chroniclers of any inten- 
tional exaggeration, they had very scanty means of ascer- 
taining the truth. There were in those days no observers 
armed with thermometers, barometers, wind and rain 
guages. The descriptions which have been handed down 
to us are merely the guesses or the random fancies of igno- 
rant peasants transmitted by hearsay from distridt to dis- 
trict, and from kingdom to kingdom. It is only from the 
beginning of the 17th century that the record can be 
accepted as trustworthy. 
