Marsh miasms are
conveyed, no doubt, a considerable distance. Sufficiently authentic cases
are recorded to show that the influence of marsh miasm extends several
miles." Other physicians testify to the fact, that near the Thames
marshes, the prevalent diseases are all of them of an aguish type,
intermittent and remittent, and that they are accompanied with much
dysentery. Dr. John Manly said that, when he first went to Barking, he
found a great deal of ague, but since the draining, in a population of ten
thousand, there are not half-a-dozen cases annually and but very little
remittent.
The following Extract is taken from the testimony of Sir Culling Eardly,
Bart.:
"Chairman:--I believe you reside at Belvidere, in the parish of
Erith?--Yes.--Ch.: Close to these marshes?--Yes.--Ch.: Can you speak from your
own knowledge, of the state of these marshes, with regard to public
health?--Sir C.: I can speak of some of the results which have been
produced in the neighborhood, from the condition of the marshes; the
neighborhood is in one continual state of ague. My own house is protected,
from the height of its position, and a gentleman's house is less liable to
the influence of malaria than the houses of the lower classes. But even in
my house we are liable to ague; and to show the extraordinary manner in
which the ague operates, in the basement story of this house where my
men-servants sleep, we have more than once had bad ague. In the attics of
my house, where my maid-servants sleep, we have never had it.
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