How could one maintain,
for example, that this ferment is a product of chemical reactions taking
place in the ground, when it is seen to remain constantly the same
whatever may be the composition of the soil from which it emanates! As
long as the paludal theory held sway, the chemical interpretation of this
identity of the product in every latitude was easy. Rica does not hesitate
to admit that when a swampy tract is heated by the sun's rays to the
necessary point for the putrid decomposition of the organic matters
contained in it, the "chemical ferment," or rather the "mephitic gases,"
to which is attributed the morbific action, are developed, whatever may be
the distance from the equator at which this marshy region lies. But since
it has been ascertained that malaria is produced in soils of the most
varied chemical composition, _the persistent identity of this product_ has
become chemically inexplicable; while it is however readily conceivable,
if one admits that malaria is an organized ferment which easily finds the
necessary conditions for its life and multiplication in the most varied
soils, as is the case with millions of other organisms vastly superior to
the rudimentary vegetables which constitute the living ferments.
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