54 ^ 
the plagues of the Boeotian farmer, but Plutarch, a native of Boeotia, 
has a different tale to tell. There can, I think, be no doubt that 
malaria was rapidly on the increase^ from the fifth century B.C., and 
that it was largely responsible for the lack of energy that the Greeks 
began to exhibit during the fourth century. 
Plutarch noticed that the feverish attack is often preceded by 
melancholy and crossness of temper,* two most noticeable symptoms 
of malaria. The physician Hippocrates went much further. After 
carefully describing what regions are most malarious, he goes on to 
say that the inhabitants of such regions are stunted in growth, and 
have neither courage nor powers of endurance.t Plato declared that 
ill-health (the symptoms point to malaria as much as anything else) 
produces crossness, melancholy, rashness, cowardice, forgetfulness and 
stupidity.^ Surely it is reasonable to conclude, not only that 
malaria produced disastrous changes in the Greek character, but 
‘^ so t ^at the great thinkers among the Greeks were perfectly con¬ 
scious that it did. Plato would have introduced remedial measures,! 
but, of couise, his advice was not taken, and Greece gradually fell into 
the unhealthy state which is manifest in the pages of the treatise 
dc sani/atc tuenda. 
used in non-medkaf^i become more common, and are regularly 
Demosthenes, i i8 t 2G r s o mean intermittent (i.e. malarial) fevers. See 
*'*9 c. 
+ Airs, Waters, Places, Kuhn I, 566 s 6 7 
XTimaeus 87 A. 5 5 7 ' 
°ne of'the Smarlfof 'wi!!* 1 ' 6 and g °° d instit utions (Timaeus 87 B.). This reminds 
fibre of malariou k s Hoc cit.) that might restore the moral 
1 lat ° s ,at ^ views oS vFce%J &£** draina S e bri "K back their health. For 
6 see Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Vol. Ill, 225, 226. 
