In very moist lands, which lend themselves
readily to deep drainage, the combination of the latter with a clearing
of the surface has, in almost every quarter of the globe, rendered
possible a very widespread and sometimes a quite lasting freedom from
malaria. But, although a nearly universal experience proclaims this fact,
there is a school which, following in the footsteps of Lancisi, maintains
the contrary opinion, that it is necessary to preserve the forests in
malarious districts, and even to increase their extent, since the trees
filter the infected atmosphere and arrest the malaria in their foliage.
This strange theory was formulated by Lancisi in 1714, on the occasion of
the proposed clearing of a forest belonging to the Caetani family, and
lying between the Pontine Marshes and the district of Cistema. Lancisi was
completely imbued with the paludal notion, and consequently believed that
the very severe malaria of Cistema was brought by the winds from the coast
marshes, instead of being produced in the soil surrounding the district,
which was then covered by this forest. He believed then that the forest
acted as a protective rampart, and he prevented its being cut down.
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