That preventive of ague, draining the land, must affect the water of a district quite as much as it affects the air, and there is direct evidence to prove that intermittent fever has, at all events in some cases, been caused by drinking the water of marshes. In the “General Report of the Poor Law Commissioners on the Sanitary Condition of Great Britain,”[39] Mr. Wm. Blower, surgeon, of Bedford, states that typhus and ague, which had long infested the village of Wootton, near Bedford, had been much diminished by digging a few wells, and obtaining good water. He also states that, in the neighbouring parish of Houghton, almost the only family which escaped ague, at one time, was that of a respectable farmer who used well-water, whilst all the other families had only ditch water. M. Boudin[40] relates a very marked instance in which intermittent, and apparently also remittent, fever were caused by drinking marsh water. It is as follows:— “In July 1834, 800 soldiers, all in good health, embarked on the same day in three transports at Bona, in Algeria, and arrived together at Marseilles; they were exposed to the same atmospheric influences, and were, with one essential difference, supplied with the same food, and subjected to the same discipline. On board one of the vessels were 120 soldiers: of these, 13 died on the passage, from a destructive fever, and 98 more were taken to the military hospital of the lazaretto at Marseilles, presenting all the pathological characters proper to marshy localities. On seeing the physiognomy of these patients, altogether so unusual for Marseilles, one would have said that the Gulf of Mexico, the Delta of the Ganges, and the marshes of Senegal and of Holland, had supplied passengers to this ship. In short, by the side of a simple intermittent, there was a pernicious fever. On an inquiry being instituted, it was ascertained that on board the affected ship the water supplied for the soldiers, owing to the haste of the embarkation, had been taken from a marshy place near Bona; whilst the crew, not one of whom was attacked, were supplied with wholesome water. It further appeared that the nine soldiers who had escaped had purchased water of the crew, and had consequently not drunk the marsh water. Not a single soldier or sailor of the other two transports, who were supplied with pure water, suffered.”