But the malaria is only held in abeyance, and is not definitely overcome; for if an extensive excavation is made in these hills, and the contact of the air with the malarious soil is thus re-established, during a hot and damp season, the production of malaria commences anew. A complete atmospheric purification is nevertheless the most stable of all the methods of obtaining a suspension of malarial production, but unfortunately its realization is very limited, for it is restricted to inhabited localities and to sodded surfaces.

The ideal method of insuring freedom from malaria should be to obtain a permanent immunity, that is, to be able to modify the composition of the infected soil in such a way as to make it sterile as regards malaria, without taking from it the power of furnishing products useful for the social economy. But all the elements indispensable for obtaining such a result fail us utterly just here. We do not yet know what ought to be, in general terms, the composition of a soil incapable of producing malaria, yet retaining those properties which are suitable for vegetation. When we shall have arrived at this first stage, there will still be a long road to travel; and the most difficult part will be to discover a practical means of imparting this salutary composition to all the numerous varieties of malarious soils.

Scientifically, then, in the present state of our knowledge we are unable to affirm anything on this point. Practically, we are not much further advanced. It is very probable that the combination of hydraulic purification with a forced cultivation of the soil has sometimes determined changes in its composition by which it has been rendered sterile as regards malaria. If that has happened, it has happened by chance, and we are unable to reproduce the result at will; for we have not all the data which might enable us to understand how it has come about. Most of the purifications obtained in ancient times, by means of forced cultivation, continued during centuries, have not been definite at all, but the production of malaria has been simply suspended. Hardly was the regular cultivation of the fields interrupted than the production of malaria recommenced. Among the numerous examples that I might cite in this connection, I will limit myself to that of the Roman Campagna. This seemed to have been made permanently healthy under the Antonii, but after the fall of the empire it began again to produce malaria, as if the forced cultivation through so many centuries had never been.

One might, strictly speaking, be content with such a result, and boldly undertake forced cultivation of all malarious districts, without stopping to ascertain whether the freedom from malaria so obtained would be definite, or whether the production of the poison were only suspended. Unfortunately, one is never sure of arriving at such a result, and no one can say, à priori, whether the forced cultivation of a given malarious tract will render it healthful. It must always be remembered that the first effect of forced cultivation, which requires an overturning of the soil by means of the plow, the spade, and the pick, is an unfortunate one, from a hygienic point of view, whenever we have to deal with a malarious country. Experience has shown, especially in Italy and America, that this overturning of the soil almost invariably increases the local production of malaria. And this can be readily understood, since the plowing and the digging in a soil containing the specific ferment increase the extent of surface of the ground in immediate contact with the atmosphere. This first mischievous effect is often gradually weakened by the continued cultivation, and may end by disappearing.

At other times, on the contrary, it persists obstinately, and one is often forced in desperation to the resolve to level the ground again and to varnish it, so to speak, with a thick sowing of grass, if he wishes to suspend or weaken the malarial production.

However, when the local conditions will permit, it is well to try whether, by means of forced cultivation of the soil, it may not be possible to increase the efficacy of the hydraulic method of procuring immunity from malaria, or of the hydraulico-atmospheric method of "overlaying." The moment that it is known that this cultivation has frequently been advantageous, there comes forward a crowd of social reasons which induce us to attempt it, even though we be persuaded that we are about to engage in a game of chance. But to dare to attempt it is not all that is necessary; we need also the possibility of so doing, and just here we find ourselves in a vicious circle from which it is not easy to emerge. Forced cultivation cannot be accomplished without the presence of agriculturists in the region during the entire year; and the agriculturists cannot remain in the region during the fever season, for they run thereby too great a risk. For the solution of this question there is but one means: try to increase the power of resistance of the human organism to the attacks of the malaria.

It is to a search after the means of accomplishing this result that I have devoted myself during the past few years.

There is nothing to hope for, as regards malaria, in acclimation. Individual acclimation is, and always has been, impossible. The malarial infection is not one of those a first attack of which confers immunity from other attacks. It is, on the contrary, a progressive infection, the duration of which is indeterminate, and which is of such a nature that a single attack may suffice to ruin the constitution for life. Collective or racial acclimation certainly existed in the past, at a time when specific remedies for pernicious malaria were unknown; and even later, when the employment of these remedies was very limited. The acclimation was due to a natural selection made by the malaria upon successive generations, from which it took away, almost without opposition, all those who possessed but a feeble individual power of resistance to the specific poison, while it spared those who possessed this power of resistance in an extraordinary degree. The first were, according to the Grecian myth, the human victims destined to appease the monster or demon who opposed the violation of the territory over which he had up to that time exercised an absolute sovereignty.

The second became the founders of the race, and through them, from generation to generation, the collective power of resistance to the malaria was progressively increased. In our own days a like selection may take place among barbarous races, as it does among the cattle and the horses in a malarious region, but it has become an impossibility among civilized nations. By means of the specific remedies which we possess, the use of which is now so general, the lives of a large number of individuals whose resisting powers are very feeble are preserved; and these individuals beget others whose power of resistance to the action of the specific poison is still more feeble. This results after a number of generations in the physical degradation of that part of the human race which inhabits malarious countries.

We cannot, therefore, in the future, count upon the assistance of external natural forces to increase the power of resistance of human society against the assaults of malaria. Such an object can be obtained only by artificial means. It has been sought to attain this end by the daily administration of the salts of quinine, of the salicylates, and of the tincture of eucalyptus, each and every one tried in turn. But the salts of quinine are dear, exercise a prompt, though very transient anti-malarial action, and, when administered for a long time, disturb rather seriously the functions of the digestive and nervous systems. The salicylates, when well prepared, are rather dear, and there is as yet no proof that they possess prophylactic powers against malaria. The alcoholic tincture of eucalyptus is useful in malarious regions (as are all the alcoholics, beginning with wine) in quickening the circulation of the blood; may it, perhaps, also act as a preservative against light attacks of malaria? Possibly. But it is very certain that it possesses no efficacy in places where malaria is severe.

It will suffice to prove this to recall the two epidemics of fever which afflicted the colony of the Tre Fontaine, near Rome, in 1880 and 1882. Everybody was attacked, and there were several cases of pernicious fever, although a good preparation of eucalyptus is manufactured in the place and is distributed largely to the colonists during the dangerous season of the year.