Remedies, Cures and Old Time Practice

Osceola Sun
5 December 1878

What Will Prevent Malaria?

As dwellers in some of the country districts in the vicinity of this city are troubled both in body and mind by malarious exhalations arising from the soil, it is interesting to know that the subject of abating this evil by natural means is receiving earnest scientific attention. One of the best known facts in botany is the absorption by trees and plants of gases which would, if not taken up, tend to render our atmosphere impure, and it also seems to be settled that different trees act in this respect in different ways. It is claimed of the gum-bark trees of Australia, that, if planted in sufficient numbers in a malarious district, they will neutralize the dangerous effects of these emanations. The same preventive virtue is said to belong to the red and blue gum trees which grow profusely in Algeria; but these, in common wit the Australian trees, are natives of a country favored with such comparatively warm and even climate, and would hardly be likely to survive, if transplanted, the severities of an American winter. But another tree has been mentioned, which should, if it will perform the service claimed for it, be very generally cultivated, as it can be easily obtained and readily grown. This is the common willow. It is asserted by those professing to have had experience, that, if cordons of these trees are planted around areas from which malarious gases exude, they will effectually prevent their diffusion. The remedy is certainly a simple one, and it can be demonstrated to be reliable, there is no reason why certain parts of Staten Island, Long Island, and New Jersey should not be wholly relieved from the somewhat undesirable reputation they now have. – New York Times.