Furthermore, we have had in Rome, during the past few years, some very evident proofs of the efficacy of atmospheric methods of purification.  I will confine myself to the relation here only of the most striking instance, one which has been furnished us in the building up of new quarters of the city.  There was much discussion at first as to whether the improvements should be undertaken in the parts where they now are or in the valley of the Tiber, for the uncovered lands of the Esquiline and of the Quirinal were malarious, and, as nearly everybody then thought that the malaria of Rome was carried into the city from the coast marshes, it was supposed that this state of things was irremediable.  We opposed to this view the fact of the salubrity of the Viminal, which is situated between the Esquiline and the Quirinal, and which ought to be as unhealthy as the two other hills were the malaria of the latter imported into the city instead of being indigenous.  Believing it to be indigenous, we hoped that by shielding the surface of these hills from the direct action of the air (by building houses and paving the streets), the malaria would cease to be produced there.  That is precisely what has happened, for the new quarters are very healthy.  But the malaria is only held in abeyance, and is not definitely overcome; for if an extensive excavation is made in these hills, and the contact of the air with the malarious soil is thus re-established, during a hot and damp season, the production of malaria commences anew.  A complete atmospheric purification is nevertheless the most stable of all the methods of obtaining a suspension of malarial production, but unfortunately its realization is very limited, for it is restricted to inhabited localities and to sodded surfaces.

The ideal method of insuring freedom from malaria should be to obtain a permanent immunity, that is, to be able to modify the composition of the infected soil in such a way as to make it sterile as regards malaria, without taking from it the power of furnishing products useful for the social economy.  But all the elements indispensable for obtaining such a result fail us utterly just here.  We do not yet know what ought to be, in general terms, the composition of a soil incapable of producing malaria, yet retaining those properties which are suitable for vegetation.  When we shall have arrived at this first stage, there will still be a long road to travel; and the most difficult part will be to discover a practical means of imparting this salutary composition to all the numerous varieties of malarious soils.