The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1828-12-31
From the Hampshire Gazette.
MAIApTA

l.
ates from swampy, marshy, moist ground,
wherein vegetables die and putrefy in warm
weather, is called malaria fbad airl when
mixed with the atmosphere This poison is
the source of half the diseases to which the
human race is subject. In Italy it extends
200 miles in length and 40 in breadth, and
threatens to reduce Rome to desert. The
fairest portions of that fair land are prev
to this invisible enemy its fragrant breezes
are poison, and the dews of its summer
evenings are death. Its rich meadows,
luxnrant plains, and flowery Valleys, are the
chosen seats of this plague, and the laborer
wanders amid the luxury OF vegetation, the
ghost OF man, sufferer from the cradle
to the grave. The malaria detracts one
half from the value of life in many parts Of
Holland and many places of France, Sici-
ly, Greece, and other countries are similarly
affected. To this cause are ascribed vel
low, remlttent, intermittent and nervous
fever, dysentery, cholera, dropsy, tic don-
leureux, dengue, Instructions of the liver
and other vlscera, rheumatism, tooth -ache,
lassitude, asthma, dyspepsia, sc. These
disorders in many cases originate from 9TH
er causes, but in many cases they are fair
ly ascribable to the effects of malaria.-
Swamps, marshy places, the borders of riv-
ers, lakes and ponds, thick woods-all pla-
ces where vegetables grow, die and putre-
~, and all receptacles of vegetable filth,
are productive of malaria. The intermit-
tent and remittent fevers of our autumnal
seasons must be referred to putrefying veg
etables and what at New Orleans will
produce yellow fever, in Virginia will give
rise to bilious remittents, and in New Eng
land, to agnes, dysentery, cholera, and d.
arShoea.
Damp wood in damp cellars, the waste
vegetables Of a family, the filth of alleys and
by-places, putrefying flax, hemp, potatoes,
&C., flooded cellars, land productive of
PUSHES and coarse grass, land where the
trees canker, mill dams, thick strawberries,
moist, DOGGY high ground, produce malaria
in one degree or other. The canals in the
United States will not improve the health of
the country.
The malaria or bad air is waited away
by breezes, and sometimes causes diseases
at'some distance from the place where it is
generated; and even on high grounds. 1t
is connected with fogs, vapor, mist, and a
moist atmosphere generally. 1t is far more
easily propogated by the damps of the
night air, and 10y morning dews, than in
midday; this is the opinion of all medical
men. Hence the dangerous character of
evening rambles in the meadows, by brooks,
rivers, lakes, &C., in the summer and au-
tumn. The times and seasons, the places
and circumstances where miasma abounds,
are the same as where mosquitoes and 9TH
er insects abound-warm weather, moist
places, putrid vegetables. The insects
produced are Of all sizes, from the largest,
to the myriads of various kinds which can
he seen only by the aid of the most power
full microscope. From this connection he
tween malaria and insects, it is suggested
that the infectious matter consists of invisi-
bile insects, or animalcules floating in the
atmosphere not far from the ground,