Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-06-02
THE MOVEMENTS OF MALARIA.
The Disease Creeping Into Many Ne

The Disease Creeping Into Many New
England Places for the First Time.
That there is really germ in the air,
that produces this depressing and life
cheapening afliiCtion in so many regions
in all parts of the globe, is the firm con
victiOn of those physicians who are the
hest miCTOsCUpists. The germ" theory
seems to include a germ for the cause of
all the ZymOtiC diseases diseases that are
contagious, epidemic etc. and produced
IN the language of Dunglisou, by "some
morbid principle acting on the system like
a ferment.' They are claimed Ia be veg
etable growth, of IA fungu:d natIre, and
the theory is that during the prpCess, or
period of eaCh-a period of growth, like
mlldew. the victim Is sufferer from a
more or less violent fever, that this pc
riod varies-in typhoid ii is assumed To he
twenty one days in other forms of fever
perhaps shorter term, till the miCruscop-
lCal fungOid growth may be said to eff
tioresce and shed its spores.
Right here appears one of the seeming
mysteries which, however clear they may
lor may not be TO the professional phys
ician, are always puzZling 10 the layman.
ln"malariaT diseases old fashioned fever
and ague-these hypothetical spores df
not artfully killed incidentally in the nick
Of time will sprout up anew, unlike their
method in scarlet fever. diphtheria, etc,
and have another run-thus keeping the
miserable victim sufferer for years, it
may be through life, like the ten thou
sands of miserable people who make such
dismal appearance at the doors of their
cabins in the western and southern states.
Why these alleged spores of malaria
should behave in this way, while those of
other diseases don't, is one of the conun-
drums that few outside of the prUfes-
sion have ever solved.
The disease, whatever il is, has been
creeping into New England "since the
war" and appearing in localities where
its presence never was known before
Since the day. of George Washington
nothing seems 10 have been known OF il
in Connecticut for instance. until some
time in about the last twenty five years
1t was not until some years after the war
that it began to spread over large parts of
the state-moving in sporadic and highly
eccentric way; leaping over large areas o
twenty miles, and appearing in other and
totally separated localities. here and in
VI OoPiC btth -
clined in every instance TO attribute its
appearance to some local cause-some de
feet in drainage, some neighboring pond
OF marsh; but the truth seems to be that
its cause, while it is no coubt in the air, is
nevertheless largely generic. 1t visits the
tops of the Berkshire hills rs well as the
levels of the Connecticut valley. A little
pamphlet bearing the title, The Epidemic
of MalaIial Diseases in Southwestern New
England" by DIR. X. Griswold, traces the
course of this disorder in Connecticut, and
in parts of Massachusetts and Rhode
Island. II was known in this state in the
last century; but for about seventy years
down to the outbreak of the
civil war it seems to have been
unknown in our borders. 1t came,
mostly after the war, but spread
itself over the state in the most leaping,
partial, eccentric way:-Hartford Times.