"It appears from the evidence of highly intelligent and eminent gentlemen of the medical profession, residing in the neighborhood of the marshes on both sides of the[pg 218] Thames below London Bridge, that the diseases prevalent in these districts are highly indicative of malarious influences, fever-and-ague being very prevalent; and that the sickness and mortality are greatest in those localities which adjoin imperfectly drained lands, and far exceed the usual average; and that ague and allied disorders frequently extend to the high grounds in the vicinity. In those districts where a partial drainage has been effected, a corresponding improvement in the health of the inhabitants is perceptible."
In the evidence given before the committee, Dr. P. Bossey testified that the malaria from salt marshes varied in intensity, being most active in the morning and in the Summer season. The marshes are sometimes covered by a little fog, usually not more than three feet thick, which is of a very offensive odor, and detrimental to health. Away from the marshes, there is a greater tendency to disease on the side toward which the prevailing winds blow.
Dr. James Stewart testified that the effect of malaria was greatest when very hot weather succeeds heavy rain or floods. He thought that malaria could be carried up a slope, but has never been known to descend, and that, consequently, an intervening hill affords sufficient protection against marsh malaria. He had known cases where the edges of a river were healthy and the uplands malarious.
In Santa Maura and Zante, where he had been stationed with the army, he had observed that the edge of a marsh would be comparatively healthy, while the higher places in the vicinity were exceedingly unhealthy. He thought that there were a great many mixed diseases which began like ague and terminated very differently; those diseases would, no doubt, assume a very different form if they were not produced by the marsh air; many diseases are very difficult to treat, from being of a mixed character[pg 219] beginning like marsh fevers and terminating like inflammatory fevers, or diseases of the chest.
Dr. George Farr testified that rheumatism and tic-doloreux were very common among the ladies who live at the Woolwich Arsenal, near the Thames marshes. Some of these cases were quite incurable, until the patients removed to a purer atmosphere.
W. H. Gall, M. D., thought that the extent to which malaria affected the health of London, must of course be very much a theoretical question; "but it is very remarkable that diseases which are not distinctly miasmatic, do become much more severe in a miasmatic district. Influenzas, which prevailed in England in 1847, were very much more fatal in London and the surrounding parts than they were in the country generally, and influenza and ague poisons are very nearly allied in their effects. 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[pg 220] 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. Persons are deterred from settling in the neighborhood by the aguish character of the country. Many persons, attracted by the beauty of the locality, wish to come down and settle; but when they find the liability to ague, they are compelled to give up their intention. I may mention that the village of Erith itself, bears marks of the influence of malaria. It is more like one of the desolate towns of Italy, Ferrara, for instance, than a healthy, happy, English village. I do not know whether it is known to the committee, that Erith is the village described in Dickens' Household Words, as Dumble-down-deary, and that it is a most graphic and correct description of the state of the place, attributable to the unhealthy character of the locality."
He also stated that the ague is not confined to the marshes, but extends to the high lands near them.
The General Board of Health, of England, at the close of a voluminous report, publish the following "Conclusions as to the Drainage of Suburban Lands:—