The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-12-16

Coon NEwsFOR FEVER AND AGUE REGIONS
THE EUCALYPTUS TREE, A Tree THAT De-
sTRoYs MALAR1A.-[From the London Tcle-
graph. AT the last meeting Of the French
Academy of Science a very interesting pa
per was read by NJ. Gmbert. Its subject
was the alleged febrifugal properties OF the
Australian tree, eucalyptus globulus, which
is said TO have the curious and valuable
power of destroying the lnalarious element
in any atmosphere where it rrows. The
species in question is one of that family in
digenoua to New South Wales, which the
colonists call gum-trees. They shoot up very
quickly, aud TO an enormous height, some uf
them reaching $50 feet, with a girth Of
from twenty-five to forty. The sparse and
stIaugely-twisted foliage grows in thin
crown at the top of the pillar-like stem, but
the characteristic of the whole genus is the
rapid habit of increase, seen equally III the
"iron bark 1.-THE 81 blue gum, and this par
tic,llar specimen, the eucalyptus gobulus.
The tree in question absUrbs an Immense
Zeal of water from The earth, and ut the same
time emits an aromatic odor. which has per-
baps something to do with The beneficial in.
tluence attributed to it. Where it is thickly
planted in narshy tracts the subsoil is said
by extensive piping. Miasma ceases, Weare
told, wherever the eucalyptus iourishes.
It has been tried for this purpose at the
Care, and within two or three years has COM
plelely changed The climatic condition of The
unhealthy parts of that colony. Somewhat
later its plantation WAS undertaken on a
large scale in various parts of Algeria. st
farm twenty miles from Algiers, situated
#. ri nd fnri *
tremeIy Presidential mir, about $4,000 e!lci-
Ivpti were planted. In the same year, at tile
time when the fever season used to set IN,
not Il single case occurred, yet the trees were
not more than nine feet high. Since then
complete immunity from fever has been
maintained. In the neighborhood of Con-
stantinu, it is also stated, was another noted
fever spot, covered with marsh-water both
in winter and summer. In five years the
whole ground was dried up by $4,000 OF
these trees, and farmers and children
enjoy excellent health. Throughout Cuba
marsh diseases arc fast disappearing from all
the unhealthy districts awhere this tree has
been introduced.-A station.house, again, at
one end of a railway riaduct in the Depart.
ment Of the Var, was SO pestilential that the
officials could not be kept there longer than
a year; forty of the trees were planted, and
it is now as healthy as any other place on
the line. Such are some OF the facts brought
forward by NJ. Gimbert. Ifthey are well estab'
lished it would be most desirable to try whe.
ther the eucalyptus would thrive ON the west
coast of Africa and ether malarious districts OF
the warmer attitudes. II is affirmed that the
suDf1Ower possesses similar capacity to dry
up the subSoil and neutralize miasma. MOI
should botanists neglect these suggestions
There are more wonders yet in the vegetable
world than arc dreamed of in their philoso.
ply. How passing strange, for example, is
that property of the papaw-tree to turn meat
tender! A joint Of mutton stepped in solll'
ton of its juice becomes instantly succulent,
and the flesh of animals fed upon its leaves
"melts in the mouth" upon cooking.