Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-08-19
THE EVENING STAR.
From Appleeon's Journal.

~,
Within the last few years there has been a
very remarkable spread of malasious sickness. At
one time malaria was confined in the eastern
and middle states to a few marshy districts. but
now it Is found almost everywhere II has an
peared in parts OF New England and New York
where all accounts agree that it was never
known before; it Is found on the hills rs well as
In the valleys, In cities well as in villages I'm
dry as well as wet places. At one time Boston
was declared to be the northern limit of it. and
Massachusetts, or Maine we do not know; but
the Berkshire country was equally considered
free from 1t, and now 1t has made its appearance
there. The question naturally arises as to the
cause.
good many answers to this question are
given. but they are mostly of a speculative
character. President Chadbourne Of Williams
college, has written letter in which he aflirms
that no answer Is possible. The theory which
once prevailed and which he had taught. shat
malarial poison Is the result of vegetable decom-
position, especially the decomposition pro-
duced by stirring soils rich in organic materials
so that the soil can readily be acted upon by
heat and sunshine" needs, he now believes
from observations in various districts. to be
greatly modified. "Any one" he says, '.who
has studied the subject in the west, will satisfy
himself that malaria abOunds where water is<oo
| scarce for comfort: where if the malaria comes
from the soil at all. it must come from soil that
is high and dry. He will be further confirmed
in the notion that neither abundant water nor
rich soil even is essential to the production of
this malaria, when he finds it in the Rocky
mountains, where the few streams flowing from
melting snow are as pure as our New England
trOut-brOOks while most of the soil is poor i'm
organic matter, as it must be where little be-
sides the sage-brush can grow. 1t is certain,
| therefore, that we have malaria i'm some places
that are high and dry, where the soils are well
drained and not highly charged with organic
| matter" Its unusual prevalence in New Eng
land and other portions of the Atlantic border
can not, he thinks, be satisfactorily accounted
1or Its origin and dissemination are as mystic
rous as potatO-rOt and other bi!::ghts which de-
strOy vegetation, or as an epiZoOty among
nOfses, which come without any known cause
run their course, and then disappear as mystic
rlouSly as they come. The yearly progress is
eastward and nOrthward; but President Chad
bourne thinks that in formertimes it ''undeubt-
edly prevailed to some extent where its pres
ence was not suspected. Now that attention is
generally called to the subject the physician
recognizes the effects of malaria where they
| formerly would have remained unnoticed. or
would have been referred to some other cause"
Admitting that the origin of malaria can not
DE accurately determined there are two circum-
stances in recent phases of our social life that
may in part account for the greater prevalence
OF the fever arising from it. Summer pleasur-
ing is one OF the circumstances to which we re-
fer Almost everybody now travels in the sum-
mer months, or changes his residence during
that period The seashore, the mountains, the
valleys, are all crowded with people from the
cities and towns; and, as these people are unac-
cllmated as their habits are not 80 judicious as
those of permanent residents exposing them
selves continuously to night air and hot suns
sickness becomes very common among them.
Every physician in the large cities knows how
many families that have gone to spend the sum-
mer in the country return in September i'll with
FEVER. A great many cases of malaria that have
fallen under the writer's observation have been
contracted in this way. The stranger i'm any
section Is naturally much more susceptible to
local influences than those who have always
lived there, and hence malarial fever may very
naturally appear among strangers in places
where it has scarcely been known before. An
observing countryman once said to the writer:
1--WE never get fever and ague. but city people
who come here are continually falling sick with
IT, They are fond of moonlight rides and
moonlight sails, and night air. everybody but
city people knows. is bad for the health" 1t is
certain that fever is frequently contracted by
toWn-people in country places, and it is just
possible that the apparent spread of malaria
may be largely due to this fact. great many
people in the city of New York are suffering from
it, and we do not know case of malaria occur
ring in the Older part of the town that did not
have its origin in the way we have mentioned.
The other circumstance to which we referred
is the greatly increased use of ice-water. This
viii probably strike many persons at first as
simply fantastic, but there are some good
grounds for the theory. Every one is aware of
the disagreeable favor of ice when melted and
has detected in it the evident presence of
earthy matter. Frozen water seems to hold
particles or substances which do not obviously
affect the taste when the water is ice-cold but
which become apparent as soon as the tempera-
ture is heightened. Whether this earthy matter
is unWhOlesOme or not must depend upon its
character; and this is exclusively within the
province Of the chemist to determine. We wish
simply to suggest the possibility that malarial
poison may Turk in ice-water, in view of recent
occurrence in England. In 1879 a sanitary
commission was appointed by Parliament to in
quire into the water-supply in many urban dis
tricts in England Some significant facts were
elected by the commission. In a little village
in Yorkshire the health of the inhabitants had
always been good, and especially free from zy-
motto disease. until. owing to failure of the
water-supply, the villagers were forced to make
| use Of the ice which had collected on little
stream on the outskirts of the village. They
melted the ice and used it for drinking pur-
pOses and shortly afterward low malarial fever
became prevalent. OF course, it can be said
that this was probably due to the character Of
the water in the stream, and of this fact the re-
port does not speak. We have had instances in
this country Of sickness produced by the use of
impure ice; it needs, indeed, no parliamentary
commission to convince us that impure ice is
unwhOlesOme. But the apprehension excited
by the report is. that ice supposed to be pure
may contain the seeds of malarial poison
Another instance cited by the commission
does not affect the question of ice, but of the
quality of water in use; it may however as we'll
be mentioned. number of troops stationed at
Dover obtained their water-supply from artesian
wells, but, the supply falling Short they were
obliged to draw from source outside the TOWN.
one which troops stationed without the town
had been accustomed to depend upon. 1t had
always been noted that troops stationed out
side of the city were subject to malarial fever,
while the troops within the city escaped; but no
sooner did the latter begin drinking the water
usually furnished the former, than fever broke
out amongs them. This simply shows, as far as
=. goes, the effect Of pure and impure water;
and, as change of water is disturbing to many
persons, our army of summer travellers may often
lay the seeds of malarial fever by drinking from
wells that do not in the same degree affect those
habituated to it from infancy.
We think it tOlerably certain that the greater
prevalence of malarial fever is, at least, par
TALLY due to the immense increase of summer
travelling and summer sojOurning, and possible
that the greatly extended consumption of ice in
recent years is an exciting cause; but we leave
both suggestions to the consideration of persons
who make subjects of the kind their special
study.
Mosquitoes Down in Texas.
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