Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1894-08-18
c o MALARIA.
n. Close Relation to Certain Conditions {
the Snll,

FACTS ABOUT MALARIA
lis Close Relation to Certain Conditions OIL
the Soil.
According to a table of admissions
for malarial fevers furnished by the
London hospital to Sir Joseph Fayrer,
and which extend over a period OF llo
vears--from ITO TO lSSO-whereas IN
l7sl out of 1,7sl patients admitted into
the hospital 60 were for malarial feVeri
in 1850, out of a total of 6,Sl" admis,
sions. II were for malarious fever, ana
in many years the proportion was sun
smaller. This is a very good example
of the diminution of malarlal disease
in the United Kingdom generally since
the time when we lost kings II nooies
from ague fits. As a contrast, how-
ever. Sir Joseph Fayrer teaches us that
in Ceylon in ten years oi,s@l persons
died from ague and remittent fever
and in the Madras presidency IN one
vear-yiz, fsSO-the deaths from these
Z: uses were 200, $40. increasing during
a famine year ns77) to 1921. Inc
monthly mortality varied from 1850
in June, 1850, to 1859 in January, ana
this appears to be greater IN winter
than in summer, increasing apparently
with the lowering of the temperature
after the extreme heat. Europeans are
thought to be more liable to malarial
fever than natives; but this is not alto
pether proved, for Waring shows by a
comparison of the relative prevalence
of fever in the European II ma
tive troops of the Madras army for
ten vears-1S29 1s3S-that, while the
percentage of admissions from
fever was for Europeans 12,S,
for natives it was 1917, and the mortal
ity for Europeans was OLE, against o.24
for natives. Malarious fever prevails
extensively in tropical Africa, but here
natives do not seem to be as liable as
Europeans: in fact, negroes were at one
time held to be exempt, but Surgeon
Parke proved that natives OF central
and western Africa, though they might
be acclimatized at home, if they re-
moved to another part of the country
lost this immunity and were as liable
to contract malarial fevers as Europe
ans. Therefore. it will be seen that
race does not insure protection.
The close connection of malaria with
soil is shown in various ways. If the
suns rays are prevented from reaching
the soil by the i%nterposition of paving,
as has been done in many parts of the
city of Rome. malaria ceases, and II a
marsh is flooded from the sea and thus
a layer of salt covers the soil, malari-
Gus influences disappear. On the other
hand. it is promoted by the rapid dry
ing up of marshes. beds of rivers and
streams, and especially by the breaking
up of such soil, when fresh surfaces are
exposed to the suns influence, Ac-
cording to Parke, the special soils
which appear to promote malaria are
the following: IN a~lluvial soils, old
estuaries and deltas; (@) sands, if there
be impermeable clay or marshy subsoil,
and old watercourses; (3) the lower
| parts of chalk, if there be "A subsoil of
clay or gault; az weathered granite
trap rocks. if vegetable matter has be-
come intermixed: (5) rich vegetable soils
at the foot of hills. Sir Joseph
Fayrer holds that subsoil water or
damp is the essential condition of ma
laria, and especially if the subsoil be
i%mpregnated with a certain amount of
stagnant moisture, and this is probably
present in many of those localities in
which the appearance of malaria is so
difficult of explanation. Malaria APP
| pears to be at its worst in the drying.
up season after rains, but during the
rains it is less severe, While turning
up new soil generally increases the
danger of malaria, draining and crop
| ping the same soil afterward dimin.
ishes it. In the south of Europe deltas
of rivers and low-lying districts with a
certain amount of marsh are the com
mon foci of malaria. Altitude exer.
cises some protecting influence, and in
sdnth Italy, in the m%alarious districts,
the villages are built on the hills for
this reason; but it has been shown that
wind may carry the malarial poison up
to the sides of mountains and, indeed
over their tops. Surgeon Parke men
toned having met with it in equatorial
Africa on a dry plain 10000 feet ir
height, so that elevation must not be
reckoned on as giving complete protec
ton. There seemed to be some relation
to rainfall. as in tropical countries il
appears to prevail in districts with
large rainfall, as in the Indian Terai
possibly on account of the constan'
pre- sence of subsoil water.
The cause of malaria is now held b,
competent authorities to be "a proto
Don or vegetable micro-organism in
habiting the blood of man and some o
the lower animals. 1t was discovere,
by Laveran in 1880 in human blood Il
A1piapS i nnAnn Innnat