4:28 
IMPROVEMENTS IN LUCCA. 
trie, or catarrhal fever. Very few agricultural laborers escaped 
fever, though the disease did not always manifest itself until 
they had returned to the mountains. In the province of Gros- 
seto, which embraces nearly the whole of the Maremma, the 
annual mortality was 3.92 per cent, the average duration of 
life but 23.18 years, and 75 per cent, of the deaths were among 
persons engaged in agriculture. 
The filling up of the low grounds and the partial separa¬ 
tion of the waters of the sea and the land, which had been in 
progress since the year 1827, now began to show very decided 
effects upon the sanitary condition of the population. In the 
year ending June 1st, 1842, the number of the sick was re¬ 
duced by more than 2,000, and the cases of fever by more than 
4,000. The next year, the cases of fever fell to 10,500, and in 
that ending June 1st, 1844, to 9,200. The political events of 
1848 and the preceding and following years, occasioned the 
suspension of the works of improvement in the Maremma, but 
they were resumed after the revolution of 1859, and are now 
in successful progress. 
I have spoken, with some detail, of the improvements in 
the Val di Chiana and the Tuscan Maremma, because of their 
great relative importance, and because their history is well 
known; but like operations have been executed in the terri¬ 
tory of Pisa and upon the coast of the duchy of Lucca. In 
the latter case, they were confined principally to prevention 
of the intermixing of fresh water with that of the sea. In 
1741, sluices or lock gates were constructed for this purpose, 
and the following year, the fevers, which had been destructive 
to the coast population for a long time previous, disappeared 
altogether. In 1768 and 1769, the works having fallen to 
decay, the fevers returned in a very malignant form, but the 
rebuilding of the gates again restored the healthfulness of the 
shore. Similar facts recurred in 1784 and 1785, and again 
from 1804 to 1821. This long and repeated experience has at 
last impressed upon the people the necessity of vigilant atten¬ 
tion to the sluices, which are now kept in constant repair 
The health of the coast is uninterrupted, and Viareggio, the 
