1882 - Malaria in Connecticut

I came across this article when researching the use of sunflowers to suck dry swamps. 

People connected malaria with wetlands but did not know about the mosquitoes role ...they just thought it was some miasma produced in stagnant waters that caused illness.  

While this article wasn't useful for the sunflower theme, I liked it because I live in CT and had never considered malaria as a New England disease!   

Connecticut - May, 1882 -  Engineering News-record, Volume 9

MALARIA—WHAT IS IT AND WHENCE ITS SOURCE?


This term, we believe, was first used in connection with the emanations from the low lands of that district of Italy extending from Leghorn to Terracino, and from the sea to the Apennines. The term has now become of general application to deleterious emanations from decaying organic matter of any description, while the term miasma is now more restricted to the emanations from marshy lands and stagnant waters which are fruitful in producing various forms of intermittent and remittent fevers. 

Malaria has been called the modern Proteus, varying in character as influenced by local conditions, temperature, place and time; adopting any form that accommodates it to prevalent influences; mingling its characteristics with those of almost every human malady and modifying their essential features.  Position and environment do not bar its progress. It occupies alike reeking bog and marsh, valley or hillside, flourishing alike upon arid plains and deserts, nor disdaining the dry precincts of a granite quarry perched high among the hills. Climate affords but little check to its progressive march, and the character and form of its attacks are as various as the localities. Can we wonder then that so little being known of it beyond its effects, its presence may be, and is, assumed as the cause of  a list of diseases having but little to appearances in common with each other, but all susceptible, at least, of modification through its influence. 

Disbelief in its existence, even as a source of disease, has become extended by reason of the readiness of the modern practitioner to attribute to the influence of malaria any disease brought to his notice the pathology of which is at all obscure.

A paper on the comparatively recent appearance of malaria in Connecticut, a section of country heretofore enjoying the reputation of high healthfulness, appears in the Fourth Annual Report of the Connecticut Board of Health for 1881, from the pen of C. W. Chamberlain, M.D., the Secretary to the Board;  and the answer to queries addressed by him to the medical profession practicing throughout the State gives the local information bearing upon this subject. 

From this source we quote very briefly from a few towns, not by any means aiming to epitomize the report, which is exhaustive and highly interesting, but simply to give so much as shall indicate to our readers the subtle character of this foe to health, and the necessity that every individual shall to a greater or a less extent inform himself of what is known of the sources of malaria, that his own local observations may be of use in increasing the general store of knowledge upon the subject, for unlike many branches of science, this is not one "where a little learning is a dangerous thing"; but great results may flow from apparently very inadequate means and limited observations.

The reports from the various towns of the State of Connecticut are very interesting, and in many cases curious, and, according to Dr. Chamberlain, "generally disprove the necessity of marshes or vegetable decomposition for the production of malarial poison, however they may favor its continuance.

Of 40 towns in the State, out of 140 from which reports have been received, malarial fever appeared first upon the high land; in four of them, upon the highest land in the place.

New Haven.—About 1875 a freshet carried away the tide-gates at the mouth of Nest River. For the first time in this century the salt water inundated one or two square miles of fresh meadows, killing the trees and all vegetation. The gates were not replaced for two or three years. Vegetation was almost wholly destroyed. When the gates were replaced, and the water receded, large amounts of vegetable deposits were left, including dead trunks of trees. Here we have, on a large scale, one of the most favofable conditions for the development of malaria, according to the writeis, nor was the germ of particulate of malarial fever wanting in the region threatened, yet there was no epidemic of malarial fever resulting therefrom.

Naugatuck.—I have lived the most of my life in this town and never heard of any one having chills and fever, until 1865, when I came home from the war, and then I knew of none except in cases of returned soldiers. In 1872 or 1875 I began to hear, more or less, of dumb ague and malaria, and since then both have been apparently on the increase in this locality. 

Stratford.—As near as I can learn, intermittent fever first appeared here on high ground, about a quarter of a mile from a marsh. Malarial diseases are constantly increasing in frequency. Those living near the low-lying, salt meadows seem to be more exempt than those living far away.
New Canaan.—Intermittent fever first originated here about 1870. The first cases were of persons living upon low ground near streams. Its appearance was gradual from the towns bordering on the Sound, and was three years In reaching the village, following the stream at the rate of two miles yearly. On it went, northward and inland more slowly, but by steady steps for years, until out of my jurisdiction. I know of no local conditions about ponds, dams or streams, that differ materially from their condition fifty years ago. In general, the well-fed, well-to-do classes are less affected, while the hard laborers suffer most. 

Trumbull.—Tertian in 1874, on the highest ground in the town. No local causes to induce malaria—no chances of land or water from the condition that had existed many years. Malarial diseases since 1874 have generally prevailed, affecting all ages. 

Stepney.—There is absolutely no cause to account for the extensive prevalence of malaria in this region, which has affected nearly every inhabitant. All the old theories about its causation have been badly damaged by the manifestations in the recent outbreak. There has not been a dam constructed for fifty years. Typhoid fever, very prevalent ten or twelve years ago, is steadily diminishing—no case in three years part. 

Bloomfield.—Intermittent appeared first 1875. Town occupies a level sandy plain, but few hills and but little meadow or swampy ground. The locality had no influence in inducing its appearance, as there have been no changes favorable to its production during the thirty years which I have practiced here. Whatever may be the theories in regard to marsh miasm and other recognized causes, we must admit that here it travels very independently and with very great disrespect for the rules which have been laid down for it. Malarial diseases have increased in frequency this summer, and with their increase, the decrease of typhoid fever has been regular and rapid—hardly a case for the past two years.  

North Manchester.—The first cases of intermittent fever appeared here in 1878 on high ground, a half-mile from any pond or meadow. There have been no changes whatever to induce malaria that have not existed for years. The greater number of cases appeared near a low swampy tract, but this latter has existed in its present condition for a great many years. About 70 per cent of all the cases I see appear to be of malarial origin, affecting all ages. Regular intermittent the prevailing type. Can find no record or history of the existence of malaria in the early settlement of the town. After investigating and watching its features closely, I conclude that vegetable decomposition alone is not sufficient to produce it, nor does the elevation of the land, nor the best sanitary surroundings protect. Telluric (of or relating to the earth) changes have little influence upon its production.

Hebron.—First case occurred in 1870, upon moderately high ground, a pond half a mile distant; no marsh or swamp in vicinity; a railroad built eight or ten years ago partly through a swamp; no natural drainage thereby obstructed, but more ague in the vicinity: no other favoring local conditions, actual or possible. About eighty or a hundred years ago people living in the vicinity of a tract of flooded land affected by fever and ague; malarial diseases appear to be increasing; less typhoid fever since the appearance of malaria. The reason for the present spread of malaria is not found in local conditions, but the producing cause or source has been introduced by some general agency, and has found, so to speak, a soil fitted to reproduce it where formerly it did not exist. 

South Glastonbury.—No cause for the unusual frequency of malarial disease, except the unusual low stage of the river be considered such. I think the germs of malaria reach Connecticut from the flats of New Jersey, and, passing along the coast as they meet the streams, follow their course. This used to be a hot-bed of typhoid fever, but for the past ten years there have been but few cases. 

Wethersfield.—Since the prevalence of malaria typhoid fever has been rare, and consumption far less frequent. No local cause to produce malaria. There have been no changes for years, with the exception of the construction of the Valley Railroad; but malaria was already there, and its prevalence no greater near the railroad than elsewhere. 

Newington (formerly part of Wethersfield).— Same general condition prevalent here. As it lies back from the river, there are no lands to be overflowed, except near small streams. Hills more abundant, and the dwellers thereon equally affected with those on the low lands, but not as severely, nor the cases so persistent.

Rocky Hill.—First case in 1872 of typical intermittent, occurring on high ground entirely away from the vicinity of marshes, ponds or streams. During the summer there were four cases near a mill pond, which was in the same condition that it had been for seventy-five years. 

Do not believe that the local surroundings have had anything whatever to do with malarial diseases in this town.  Do not know of any disturbances or conditions  out of which malaria could be evolved. Have not possible causes capable of generating that hypothetical factor denominated marsh miasm that has not been present with us for the past hundred years. 

Have two mill ponds in lower part, of the town on the same stream. They have been in the same condition as at present for over a hundred years. A third pond between the two built twenty-five years ago. In the summer of 1876 the three ponds, all within a distance of half a mile, were drawn off, and the vegetable decomposition collected in them left reeking in the sun in the condition supposed to favor the evolution of paludal poison. Yet there were no cases of fever of any kind in the neighborhood, but there was intermittent in other parts of the town remote from them. Typhoid fever has been absent since malarial diseases came in. Whether the facts are simply coincident may be a matter of doubt. My opinion would be that there is some unknown relationship between the increase of intermittent and the outgo of typhoid, but not fortified by such evidence as to render it an established fact. The acceptance of the idea of the substitution of one form for the other would militate against the doctrine of specific germs as the etiological factors for each special fever. The theory that there are living microscopic existences that get from the soil into the human system and produce there the phenomena of intermittent and the cognate diseases as developed by the Italian physician, Crondelli, is plausible, but it lacks confirmation.

Old Lyme.—First case in 1877, on low ground surrounded by marshes. Families who have paid particular attention to drainage and all sanitary measures are as violently attacked as those whose dwellings are surrounded by filth and swamps.Those who live on high hills, with no swamp near are not exempt—malarial diseases the length and breadth of the town; but few have escaped.
Middletown.—Ever since this place was settled it has been exposed to all the elements one would suppose favorable to the production of malaria. Running the whole length of the territory is the Connecticut River; on the south and southwest are ponds and streams, and the same on the north and northwest. Joining the two is an extensive marsh and swamp, leaving only a space of high land perhaps fifty rods wide to connect us with the main land of Connecticut; yet, with all these surroundings, and with only imperfect drainage, malaria was unknown for 238 years, or from the first settlement in 1685 to 1878. Since 1870, pure water has been introduced, and the city has been thoroughly sewered and now malarial diseases are abundant.

The above-named towns are selected from a large number of returns as exhibiting local peculiarities in reference to the existence and spread of malaria in the late outbreak in Connecticut. 

It is to be presumed that the reporting physicians were equally reliable in all cases, and we have the evidence of the danger to be apprehended from a hasty generalization based upon a few isolated facts. In other wards, we know absolutely nothing as to the source of malarial disease. The chemical analysis of the air of malarious swamps shows nothing having any relation to the production of periodic fevers, or at least no proven relation; and the theories to account for the source of the poison have been of the most varied character—many of which are noted by Dr. Chamberlain, but which space will not permit us to quote, further than to refer to that of Krebs and Crondelli, who attribute the poison to a form of bacteria known as bacillus malaria, which is figured in a plate accompanying this report as a rod-like microscopic body containing a spore at each end and sometimes one in the middle, and grows in long, curved filaments divided by joints, and so far as we can judge, analogous to. if not identical with, Professor Koch's bacillus found by him to be the parasite which gives rise to tubercular consumption, a discovery which may be characterized as the discovery of the age,  the possibilities of which in the early future towards diminishing the ravages of disease, may prove incalculable to the human race.