over, and the windows as the sluices which it passes through.  We defy any medical man, or meteorologist, to prove the contrary of what we assert, viz. that Buckingham Palace is a dam to a pond of watery vapour, and that the pond will always be filled with vapour to the level of the top of the dam.  The only question is, how far this vapour is entitled to be called malaria.  We have the misfortune to be able to answer that question experimentally....  A man must be something less or more than a king, to keep his health in that palace for any length of time.”

On the subject of malaria, an Italian term for the produce of marshy lands, the attention of the public has lately been powerfully excited by a series of essays by Dr. Macculloch, an abstract of which will be found at page 252, of our accompanying Number, under the head “Arcana of Science.”  Dr. M. is supported in his opinion by Lord Bacon and other philosophers; and he shows, that though it is commonly supposed that standing waters, when clear and free from smell, and all running waters, are perfectly salubrious, they may, in fact, be nearly as injurious as those that are putrid and stagnant; “that, besides proper marshes, fresh and salt meadows, and wet pasture lands generally, all woods, coppices, thickets, rivers, lakes, ponds, ornamental waters, pools, ditches—­plashy and limited spots of ground generally, &c., send forth more or less of this noxious vapour; that wherever, in short, any chemical compound of the vegetable elements is wetted, or held in solution by water, there the poison in question may be or will be produced, provided the temperature be sufficiently high; that the smallest spot coming under any of the above denominations is sufficient to produce malaria, and a single inspiration of that malaria to produce disease.”

Such is the theory of Dr. Macculloch; but, as observed by a contemporary, Why should he have observed any delicacy on this subject?—­why not have, long since, denounced the whole of the ponds in St. James’s, the Green, and Hyde Parks, Kensington Gardens, and the Regent’s Park, as pestilential nuisances to all around them?  Besides, he states that malaria is only generated in hot weather; so that the palace, being intended as a winter residence, the health of our gracious sovereign will, we hope, not be endangered by his residence.  That there is much show of reason in this objection, cannot be denied; at the same time it should be remembered, that in all great undertakings the conflicting prejudices and caprices of private interests generally work too prominent a part:  hence, opinions should be entertained with caution.