The morning news., 1894-08-13
THE EUCALYPTUS TREE.
Would II Not Answer for Savannah
and Vicinity.
It's Anti-Ma1arial. Ant

One Of the most important problems to
a city or community is the health Of the
people and their sanitary surroundings,
and the improvement OF the same in every
possible direction
The people Of Savannah recognize
this well enough, and have agitated
and worked with great trouble and
expense in the matters of drainage,
sewerage, Quarantine and other sanitary
precautions, to do away with and prevent
the introduction or spread of disease
within her borders. These questions, at
the present time, are claiming attention
through the popular expressions. and,
while so, the writer has thought perhaps
description of the value of the Euclypti
10 this end might possibly prove Of inter-
est, and be productive, in a way, of some
good to the public
In the course of events. and in the light
Of cold facts, TO say nothing of philos-
ophy, there is no effect without its cause,
ana the producing agent, or creative
thing, II you please. must antedate the
consequence. So, in disease, as in other
Things, to have malaria dad air. or any
other OF the manifestations of departure
from health, the cause must be present,
and he is the best, and at the
same time most common sense,
sanltarian or physician who knows
now quickest to remove that
cause. In so doing it must be granted
that the effects, if nature is supported,
must disappear.
1t is not in the province of an article of
This kind TO attempt discussion of the
cause Of swamp fever, or a harangue
about the plasmodium malarial found in
the blood corpuscles of those Sick with
this disease, or even of the bacillus. of
crudei manned for that distinguished
Italian who first focused them before his
objective after they were captured in the
soil of the Pontine Marshes
1t is enough to state, however, that it
Is acknowledged that the cause of inter
and remlttent fevers is present where
ever there exists the proper temperature.
moisture and condition of decaying vege-
Ia Die matter, and sub-SOil water.
The factor producing this ''clogging of
The vital stream is not potent in day
light, but is more active in the late sum-
mer and autumn, when the days are
warm and the nights cool When the
hygrometric state of the night air ap-
proaches tie dew point and fog. on ac-
count of the condensation of the water of
evaporation by the lowered temperature
In the day, under sunlight, heated vol
umes of air are continually rising, carry
ing evaporated and expanded moisture
At night the change is the opposite: the
air becomes cooler, hence heavier, and
falls while the moisture in it is condensed
and water, or drops of dew, are
deposited on suitably exposed surfaces.
This disposition of super-saturated mois-
ture of for may contain or afford a
ready means through which these micro
scopic manifestations of creative power
may easily travel. Like sl1illful general.
thus do they attack the victim, when his
powers of estance are dormant and at
their lowest ebb.
Sleeping well above this strata of fog,
even in the most deadly dens of fever
poison, gives immunity almost from the
disease; and apropos of the sailor ordin-
ance; If it were possible for mariners to
sleep aboard, high up in the rigging,
they would, most certainly, rob this
thief in the night, who steals, so far as
we know, that which does not enrich it,
self, but makes the ''Toilers of the sea, ;"
and those who navigate the ''Ships that
pass in the night" poor indeed
To come to the subject. The Eucalypti
are genus of trees, belonging to the
natural order, Myrtace8 and its family
comprises about 140 varities, indigenous
to Australia and Tasmania, in the region
between Appolo bay and Cape Wilson
The variety of most interest, perhaps. is
the Eucalyptus Globulus, fever tree" or
blue gum tree; an evergreen of Victoria
and grows only from seed, which in semi
tropical climates like Savannah, may be
planted in March or April, in the open
ground. They may be raised like ca b.
bage or tomato plants and then trans
planted with little rich earth and mold
IN the place where they are desired The
growth is wonderfully rapid and great,
about lS13 inches per month, and eight to
ten feet per year. In Toulon they have
q a Trrbf Of g., e.
two years. An eight-year old trunk, sent
to the Paris exposition, had the ample
| girth measurement of five and half feet.
| In its native home it and its family are
the tallest of trees, and has gone up" as
high as four hundred and fifty feet. This
sees the Wellengtonia (Sequoia) Glgan-
tea, the mammoth conifera of the Yose-
mite valley, and goes them one hundred
and fifty feet better, more than the red
wood has ever been able to call. This
growth would put Jacks bean stalk in
the shade, not to mention the biblical
| gourd vine
The blue gum has large, smooth, leathery
leaves about foot in length, and of blush
color, which, instead of growing with one
side to the sky and the other to to the
earth, grow vertically, with their sides
presented to the sun. The leaves are COW
cred with glands, that are filled with the
fragrant volatile oil of eucalyptus of the
pharmacopeia. The flowers resemble
| those of the myrtle, and grow singly or
in clusters and, within the hardened
calyX the fruit and seed, which are about
like tobacco or mustard seed.
1t is remarkable, with its rapid
growth, that the wood should be hard,
yet, while green, it is easily cut or sawed.
but when dry, there are but few harder
woods.
1t has been extensively introduced into
the south of Europe, North and South
Africa and in California, to limited ex-
tent in Florida, and is cultivated on a
large scale near Buenos Ayres in the Ar
gentine Republic. AS to its anti-malarial
properties, there are many examples that
may be cited, and yet, which some say
are overestimated. In 1870 the tree was
planted in the cloisters of the monastery
of ST. Paolo la tire iF'ontana (St Paolo
by the three springs, and the place has
since become habitable throughout the
year, whice formerly was not so, as it is
situated IN the most fever infested region
of the Roman Campagna. The Pontine
marshes are said tc be healthy localities
compared to what they once were when
no fever trees grew around them.
In Algeria, around Lake Fezzara, and
other marshes and ponds, malaria and
mosquitoes have been caused to almost dis
appear. Prof. Bentley of London wrote
an article on it and called it the fever
destroying tree. DR. Ernest Aberg of
A -.