“Break up the cesspools,” shout the interested, “the receptacles of the filth of millions for a quarter of a century, and pour them at once into the Thames.” “It will poison the river and the adjoining country for a lengthened period,” suggests the prudent observer of passing events. “Persevere,” exclaims the go-ahead party; “have we not proofs in Macculloch that nearly all known diseases arise from the cesspools? Leave the river to take care of itself.” What, in the mean time, is the course of action of the Mayor and Corporation of the richest city in the world? Fully occupied with the distribution of their revenues, they abandon the river and interests of a vast metropolis to a host of talented and needy adventurers, whose name is legion. The people in Holland and Belgium think that the refuse and excreta of the inhabitants of towns, villages, and single houses cannot be too soon or too effectually buried under or incorporated with the soil; we, in this country, act evidently from a belief that this refuse, the product of civilization, cannot be too extensively spread abroad in the open air, and accordingly a formidable and well-paid staff of more than 2000 persons is organized to carry out the delusion to its conclusion. Luton, Birmingham, and London, afford hints as to what these delusions may one day end in: that they will proceed in their course, I doubt not, for, like Macbeth, they are so far involved, that it were safer to proceed than to back out from their position. This could only have happened in the land where the greatest of all railways does not pay the proprietors one shilling of interest on the enormous capital expended in its construction. Located by the mouths of the Rhine and Scheld, the ancient Batavians must early have commenced their struggle with nature. We have no information from early history of how that struggle began; but one thing is certain--it was of great antiquity, for in the Morini--the last of men--Cæsar encountered no fever-stricken, wasted, dejected people: they must already have discovered the existence of that hidden enemy, malaria, and taken measures for at least a mitigation of the evil.[20] [20] For Note on this subject, see page 54. CHAPTER V. ON THE PRESUMED SOURCES OF MALARIA.