Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-08

nection with latent moisture standing o we from previous superabundance- Pntrefacr ton does not necessarily engender malaria. Excessive heat, though promoting 1t, is not l indispensable. What is obligatory is that at little distance below the surface matter of l kind to rot with damp should exist, and that the surface itself should not be covered I with water to drown or purge in it's transit 1 the deadly vapor Floods while they last are as inimical to malaria as the refusal to let water stagnate underground. Summer and early autumn are it's peculiar season, as much because the surface waters of winter and spring are by that time dried up, as that the scorching rays of the sun tend to draw the noxious vegetable fumes at that period most readily forth Earth in which moisture is not allowed to accumulate undisturbed puri fies the clements of corruption. Malaria works its mischief by means of moisture not enough to saturate the soil to its surface and more than enough to be absorbed thor oughly. In 8 state of nature vegetation of ten effects it's own cure by sufficiency of foliage to condense and neutralize the dan gerous emanations. With 8 perfect system of cultivation the evil Is obvlated by the compulsion imposed upon river and rain water to circulate where they are bid, and to confine themselves to their proper purpose of irrigation. Miasmatic ailments are most inveterate and malignant in lands subjugated to the uses of human industry, and subjuga- ted inadequately. As physical condition of malaria is that there should be some moisture Where once there was much, a corresponding historical condition is the gradual retreat of human enterprise from an area it once ruled Malaria in the Campagna is legacy of. the departed Roman yeomanry; 1t tells of van ished Volscian energy and prosperity along the Appian highway; it is a memorial ot Greek magniicencs and populousness in the fever-stricken plains of Asia Minor.
 Absolute human occupation is the real remedy for malaria. In Italian cities 1t is notoriously worst where habitations are few
 At Rome 1t has long reigned in the thinly peopled vicinity of the Basilica of St. Paul. no quarter is less visited by it than the
 crowded Ghetto and the purlieus of the Pan
 theon- In the Campagna and the neighbor-
 hood of Terracina it is supposed to have
 hardly been known until Roman conquests
 and patrician wealth expelled the petty far mers and turned provinces into sheep-walkN and buffalo pastures. The seaboard of Asia
 was healthy while it remained miracle of
 cultivation and nursery of multitudinous
 human life Cause and effect are shown in
 it's modern aspect of sprinkling of pauper
 villages stamped with fever and clamorirg to
 the traveller for quinine difficulty is that, even where political and social circumstances
 are far more favorable than in Asiatic Tur-
 key stops cannot be retraced with impunity
 Southern soil has the secret of preserving
 the seeds of malaria implanted by neglect to
 punish posterity desirous to repair the omis
 sion Low fever Is more prevalent In the
 new quarters of the Italian capital, which
 have been lying half waste since they were
 burial ground for slaves thousands of years
 ago. than in the narrow lanes of the medle
 val city Military statisticians report that
 the railways, which reviving the stir of
 life in innumerable recesses of the peninsula,
 have seemed to open vents and breathing
 holes for bad forms of fever. Admitted as it is that the only way of healing the sick ness which desolates the Campagna is to break it up with the plough, the peasant farmers selected to make the experiment will
 have to pay first fruits in ague before they
 are acclimatized. The richest soil in Italy
 cannot be suffered to remain forever a graz
 ing ground for buffaloes and preserve of
 wild boars. When the dunes are cut which
 bark up the issues of the streams, and the
 torpid, overgrown pools are forced to find
 an exit to the sea, the Pontine Marshes will
 cease to have right to the nau1e. But the
 laborers may be pitied whose lot it is to dig
 the channels Malaria turks in the soil, and
 springs like bated wild beast at the throats
 of the men who presume to disturb it. In
 compensation it may be thought that Italians
 who are not unwilling to undergo the destl-
 tuition and disappointments and diseases of
 the South American jungles described the
 other day in these columns will scarcely be
 the losers by the possible risks of retaining
 marshes and heaths at home. scheme for
 reafforesting the stripped wastes of the king
 dom might diminish in advance the dangers
 to the first agriculturists, whatever they may be- Reckless destfdctfon- of timber is be-l
 Iieyed to have facilitated the attacks of mias-
 ma, and careful plantation would sap the
 sources of it's strength. Thorough cultiva-
 tion, however, is the one true specific.