The modifications of the external aspects of organic nature produced by man's interference / by George Rolleston.

  • George Rolleston
Date:
1880
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modifications of the external aspects of organic nature produced by man's interference / by George Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    as well as “ Naclelholzer,” of an entire country; he can burn then], and by his domesticated goats and cows and camels he can prevent their suckers and their seeds from replacing them by fresh plants. What consequences follow when the square area which a tree in full leaf represents is abolished ? Firstly, whatever else may be disputed, there can be no doubt the loss of this square area means the loss of a very considerable area upon which dust and particulate matter can be caught and filtered out of the atmosphere. The more sticky the leaves, of course the more perfect the interception. And as modern investigations, such as those which Mr. John Simon, C.B., used to have cariied on whilst in the Medical Department of the Frivy Council Office, have taught all those who have ears to heal’, even if not also eyes to see, that the germs of many or most infectious diseases are particulate,* we can understand how * We liave such accounts from Eavenna and Beyrout; from the East and the West Indies, and from Guiana. Lord Mark Kerr (see ‘ Kcport on Measures adopted for Sanitary Improvements in India for June 1871 to June 187i2,’ p. 14) did much planting in Delhi in 1864, and, on coming eight years later to take stock of the effects of his hygienic work, was able to persuade himself that the almost entire disappearance of the Delhi boil was due to this particular cause. But the Indian Government had to report in the succeeding year’s volume of the same series, p. 17, that they had not received from the authorities they had con- sulted “ reliable data to warrant any general conclusions being drawn as to the effect of trees and vegetation on these sores.” Still they proposed “ to institute a more particular inquiiy into the matter, and to submit a Keport on the invi-sti- gations in due course.” Upon this subject something may be found in Mr. Menzies’ ‘ Forest Trees and Woodland Scenery,’ 1875, p. 101, q. v. ibique ah ipso auctore necnon a me citata. Since the appearance of Mr. Menzies’ work the literature relating to the Eucalyptus qlohulus as an agency for “ purging the unwholesome air” has attained a great development. Especially to be recom- mended is a paper, ‘ The Eucalyptus near Rome,’ by Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S., published in the ‘ Proceedings ’ of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, vol. xv.. No. 9, pp. 150-164,1876, as also some pai)crs in the ‘ Edin- burgh Medical Journal,’ February 1878, and May 1879, pp. 1052-1053, by Dr. Bell. And what is better even than good memoirs, good progress has been made in the way of actually planting this tree by no less conspicuous warriors than Garibaldi in the Roman marshes, and by Sir Garnet Wolseley in Cyprus. I have not, however, heard of any further development of the use of the Ilelianthus annuus as an anti-malarious agent, non of the adoption of Mr. Menzies’ recom- mendations of the employment of the horse-chestnut, the sycamore, or the balsam poplar and white poplar for the same purpose. To the references given 1. c. may bo added, as spealdng in the same sense, Becquerel, ‘ Mem. Institut,’ xxxv., 1866, p. 444, and Boudin, ‘ Geographic et Statistique Me'dicales,’ vol. i. p. 229. Much has been written by the two last-named writers on the electrical action of trees; I will quote the following sentences from the latter of the two, 1. c., ‘‘ Enlin lo deboisement doit etre considere comine equivalent a la destruction d’un nombre do paratonnerres egal au nombre d’arbres qu’on abat; e’est la modification de l’4tat electrique de tout un pays; e’est I’accumulation d’un des elements indis- pensables k la formation de la grele dans une localite oil d’abord cct ele'ment se dissipait inevitablement par Taction silcncieuse et incessante des arbres. Les observations vieunent ii Tappui de ces de'ductions the'oriques.”