Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-10
WHAT rs MALARIA:

Inc cOuSOEuCtdOu VI Vic dAaL1d
Railroad cost eighty-one thousand hu-
man lives-a death-rate equal to one
man per yard of the track. Certainly
the agencies which prove thus destruc-
tive to human life deserve more atten-
ton from the press and the public than
they receive. What is malariaP Afew
years ago no one suspected that ty-
phoid fever was the.product of organic
life, which WAS able topropogate itself IN
milk and in many other rich animal
and vegetable substances; yet this is
now known to be a well established
fact.
Malaria from the Pontine marshes Of
Rome has been killing mankind for
unknown centuries without any one
ever finding out how it was done. This
special ignorance has been at last, in
good degree, removed, and the abate-
ment Of the evil will be next In order.
There is great reason for believing
that parasites too small to be seen by
the best microscopes abound in nature
Dissolve a grain of pure salt in gal
lon of pure water, and when the parti-
cles of salt are equally diffused, take a
drop, aud with the best magnifying
glass or glasses ever made, see, If you can,
molecule of the dissolved salt. By
other tests and experiments it is known
that vision hardly approaches the diff
fused particles of salt in the drop of
water. But if matter really exists In
masses so inconcievably small, who
dare limit the minuteness Of molecules
of protoplasm and monads? 1t is known
that the egg Of the parent of the silk
worm often contains the germs of the
parasite which kills the worm, and pre-
vents its forming any silk. The mala-
dy is strictly hereditary; but it is life
'Uithin life, descending in the egg from
one generation to another.
All malaria are organisms, some of
which are killed by frost like those
which produce yellow fever. Frost
kills growing corn and cotton, but not
the vitality in their ripe seeds. In the
same way frost and medicine may kill
growing parasites, vegetable or animal,
but not their germs. The extermina-
ton of these appears to demand more
advanced science. Civilization begets
many sharp necessities, and among
them an ever-expanding wisdom is,
perhaps, the most conspicuous. Tribes
and peoples who refuse to study and
learn become extirminated. Pressed
by these stern necessities, many have
cursed God and died. Still the laws
of nature are memorable; industry and
learning revive; and true science makes
society wiser and happier.
Fifty years ago chemistry taught the
world, and especially the medical stu
dent, the names and origin of the me-
phitic gases which produced, as was
then believed, all malarial diseases.
But frost never destroys poisonous
gases, nor volatized minerals and
metals, like those of mercury and ar
senic. Malaria is not a gas, nor va
por, nor a subhmated metal, but a
living organism. Some varieties Of
these parasites XII hogs under the
name of cholera, cattle under the name
of murrain, sheep under the name of
rots, chickens under the name of gaps,
and children under names Of worms
and fevers. Surely all these evils
should not be held as sacred from
popular consideration and notice by
the press.
If spectrum-analysis, minute dissec-
tons, and many nameless appliances
are doing much to increase human
knowledge in Europe, telegraph wires
and daily papers are the proper instru-
ments to bring this useful knowledge
home to the fresides of the American
people. None are too old to learn, and
the press is the worlds greatest school
master.