The dwelling house / by George Vivian Poore.

  • Poore G. V. (George Vivian), 1843-1904.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dwelling house / by George Vivian Poore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    punishes a man with taxation for preventing waste, re- cuperating worn acres, or developing the latent resources of nature, is wicked.’ There can be no doubt that taxation presses very hardly upon agriculturists, especially those whose land happens to he within the boundary of a ‘ progres- sive ’ corporation. I have mentioned (p. 14(1) a friend who farms 200 acres of land (of which fifteen are grass) in the Thames Valley who pays more than 300/. a year in imperial and local taxes. This is due to the fact that he is under the heel of a ‘ progressive ’ hoard, which, finding it can borrow money at 3 per cent., is making full use of its powers and is fast converting a pretty village into something scarcely distinguishable from Houndsditch. We may now profitably turn to the consideration of IMalaria, a disease which is undoubtedly connected with the soil and which has its habitat in the soil of certain places. Malaria requires for its development decaying organic matter, a high or moderately high temperature, and usually an excess of moisture. Tropical marshes are the elected scats of malaria, but not the exclusive seats, for it is known that certain rocks and arid plains, as well as the sandy estuaries of rivers, Eire liable to he malarious. The one thing which all, or almost all, malarious districts have in common is the fact that they are barren, or nearly so, uncultivated, and in mtiny cases uncultivable. ]\Ialaria is rare in England, but once it was common, and we must not forget that James I. and Cromw’ell are both of them said to have been victims of this disease, wdiich was rife in London in their time, especially in the Essex marshes and on the south side of the Thames, in Lambeth Mtirsh and the adjoining districts. An undrained country is unculti- vable, and it has been found that drainage followed by cultivation has in this country enormously lessened the amount of malarious disease. Cultivation of land finishes