Arizona weekly citizen., 1886-06-26
THE MOVEMENTS OF MALARIA,
The Disease Creeping Into Many New England Places for the First Time

The Disease Creeping Into Many New
 England Places for the First Time
 That there is really a germ" in the air, that produces this depressing and life cheapening afIiictiOn in so many regions, in all parts of the globe, is the firm con victiOn of those physicians who are the best micrOscopists. 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 DunglisOn, by some morbid principle acting on the system Ike a ferment1 They are claimed to be veg etable growth, of a fungOid nature, ana the theory is that during the process, or "period- of each-a period of growth, Ike mildew, the victim is a sufferer from more or less violent fever; that this pc riOd varies-in typhoid it is assumed to De twenty-One days, in other forms of lever perhaps a shorter term, till the microscopy ical fungOid growth may be said to ei- fOresce and shed it's spores.
 Right here appears one of the seeming mysteries which, however clear they may tor may not be to the professional phys ician. are always puZzling to the layInan. In~malarial" diseases-old- fashioned fever and ague-these hypothetical spores Qf 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 a sufferer for years, It may be through life, like the ten thou sands of miserable people who make such a dismal appearance at the doors of thelr cabins in the western and southern states Why these alleged spores of "malarla should behave in this way, while those of other diseases don't, is one of the conun- drums that few outside of -the profes- siOn' have ever solved.
 The disease, whatever it is, has been creeping into New England since the war; and appearing in localities where it's presence never was known before. Since the days of George Washington nothing seems to have been known of 1t in Connecticut, for instance, until some time in about the last twenty-five years. It was not until some years after the war that it began to spread over large parts of the state-mOving in aspOradic and highly eccentric way; leaping over large areas of twenty miles, and appearing in other and totally separated localities. here and in Massachusetts. People have been in- clined in every instance to attribute its appearance to some local cause-SOme de- feet in drainage, some neighbOring pond or marsh; but the truth seems to be that its cause, while it is no coubt in the air, is nevertheless largely generic. It visits the tops of the Berkshire hills as well as the levels of the Connecticut valley. A little pamphlet bearing the title, ~The Epidemic of Malarial Diseases in Southwestern New England, by Dr. K. Griswold, traces the course of this disorder in Connecticut, and in parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It was known in this state in the last century; but for about seventy years down to the outbreak of the civil war 1t seems tO have been unknown in our borders. It came, mostly after the war, but spread itself over the state in the most leaping. partial, eccentric way.-HartfOrd Times.