Very few neighborhoods within thirty miles of the city of New York are entirely free from these scourges, whose influence has greatly retarded their occupation by those who are seeking country homes; while many, who have braved the dangers of disease in these localities, have had sad cause to regret their temerity.
Probably the most striking instance of the effect of malaria on the growth and settlement of suburban districts, is to be found on Staten Island. Within five miles of the Battery; accessible by the most agreeable and best managed ferry from the city; practically, nearer to Wall street than Murray Hill is; with most charming views of land and water; with a beautifully diversified surface, and an excellent soil; and affording capital opportunities for sea bathing, it should be, (were it not for its sanitary reputation, it inevitably would be,) one vast residence-park. Except on its extreme northern end, and along its higher ridges, it has,—and, unfortunately, it deserves,—a most unenviable reputation for insalubrity. Here and there, on the southern slope also, there are favored places which are unaccountably free from the pest, but, as a rule, it is, during the summer and autumn, unsafe to live there without having constant recourse to preventive medication, or exercising unusual and inconvenient precautions with regard to exposure to mid-day sun and evening dew. There are always to be found attractive residences, which are deserted by[pg 210] their owners, and are offered for sale at absurdly low prices. There are isolated instances of very thorough and very costly draining, which has failed of effect, because so extensive a malarial region cannot be reclaimed by anything short of a systematic improvement of the whole.
It has been estimated that the thorough drainage of the low lands, valleys and ponds of the eastern end of the island, including two miles of the south shore, would at once add $5,000,000 to the market value of the real estate of that section. There can be no question that any radical improvement in this respect would remove the only obstacle to the rapid settlement of the island by those who wish to live in the country, yet need to be near to the business portion of the city. The hope of such improvement being made, however, seems as remote as ever,—although any one at all acquainted with the sources of miasm, in country neighborhoods, can readily see the cause of the difficulty, and the means for its removal are as plainly suggested.
Staten Island is, by no means, alone in this respect. All who know the history of the settlement of the other suburbs of New York are very well aware that those places which are free from fever-and-ague and malarial neuralgia, are extremely rare.
The exact cause of fever-and-ague and other malarial diseases is unknown, but it is demonstrated that, whatever the cause is, it is originated under a combination of circumstances, one of which is undue moisture in the soil. It is not necessary that land should be absolutely marshy to produce the miasm, for this often arises on cold, springy uplands which are quite free from deposits of muck. Thus far, the attention of scientific investigators, given to the consideration of the origin of malarial diseases, has failed to discover any well established facts concerning it; but there have been developed certain theories, which[pg 211] seem to be sustained by such knowledge as exists on the subject.
Dr. Bartlett, in his work on the Fevers of the United States, says:—"The essential, efficient, producing cause of periodical fever,—the poison whose action on the system gives rise to the disease,—is a substance or agent which has received the names of malaria, or marsh miasm. The nature and composition of this poison are wholly unknown to us. Like most other analogous agents, like the contagious principle of small-pox and of typhus, and like the epidemic poison of scarletina and cholera, they are too subtle to be recognized by any of our senses, they are too fugitive to be caught by any of our contrivances.
"As always happens in such cases and under similar circumstances, in the absence of positive knowledge, we have been abundantly supplied with conjecture and speculation; what observation has failed to discover, hypothesis has endeavored and professed to supply. It is quite unnecessary even to enumerate the different substances to which malaria has been referred. Amongst them are all of the chemical products and compounds possible in wet and marshy localities; moisture alone; the products of animal and vegetable decomposition; and invisible living organisms. * * * * Inscrutable, however, as the intimate nature of the substances or agents may be, there are some few of its laws and relations which are very well ascertained. One of these consists in its connection with low, or wet, or marshy localities. This connection is not invariable and exclusive, that is, there are marshy localities which are not malarious, and there are malarious localities which are not marshy; but there is no doubt whatever that it generally exists."
In a report to the United States Sanitary Commission, Dr. Metcalfe states, that all hypotheses, even the most[pg 212] plausible, are entirely unsupported by positive knowledge, and he says:—
"This confession of ignorance still leaves us in possession of certain knowledge concerning malaria, from which much practical good may be derived.
"1st. It affects, by preference, low and moist localities.