Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1874 — The Australian Fever Tree. [ARTICLE]

The Australian Fever Tree.

A question of considerable general interest was recently discussed at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences. The subject was the remarkable sanitary influence of the eucalyptus glohulus, when planted in marshy grounds; and the tree, in brief, it seems, has the curious and valuable power of destroying the.malari.ous element in any atmosphere where it grows. The species is indigenous to Tasmania, and is known among the colonists by the name of the Tasmanian blue gum tree, on account of its dark bluish tinged leaves.— Growing in the valleys and on thickly wooded mountain slopes, it often attains a hightof from 180 to 220 feet, with a circumference of trunk of from 32 to 64 feet. The foliage is thin and oddly twisted, surmounting, with a thin crown, the top of the pi 11 ar-1 ik e them, TlitT wood exhales an aromatic odor, and } after seasoning, is said to be incorruptible. For this reason, it is largely used in the building of piers, vessels, and other structures exposed to lhe ravages of the weather. It is largely exported, to themggregate value, an authority states, of $4,000,000 per year. To the peculiar camphor-like .odor of the leaves and the large absorb! ion of water by the roots is doubtless owing the fact of the beneficial influence of the tree. — it is thickly planted in marshy tracts, the subsoil is said to be drained, as if by extensive pip- . big. Miasma ceases, we are told, wherever the eucalyptus flourishes. It has been tried for this purpose ■at the Cape; and, within two or i three years, completely changed the climatic condition of the un- , healthy parts of that colony. — . Somewhat later, its plantation was undertaken, on a large scale, in va- ( rions parts of Algiers, situated on . the banks of a river, and noted for ! its extremely pestilential air; about 13,000 eucalypti were planted.ln the sain,e year, at the time when the fever season used to set in, not a \ single case occurred, yet the trees were not more than nine feet high. Since iminunity from fever has been maintained. In the neighborhood of Constantins, it is l also stated, was ano'therjioted fever spot, covered with marsh water both in winter and summer; in five ! years*, thp whole ground was dried up by 14,000 of these trees, and farmers and children enjoy excellent health. Throughout Cuba, marsh diseases are fast disappearing from all the unhealthy districts where this tree has been introduced. A station house, again, at one end of a railway viaduct in the department of the Var, was so pestilential that the officials could not be kept there longer than a year; forty of the trees were planted, and it is now as healthy as any other place on the line. - Careful experiments Irave proved ’that, in a- med icinal preparat ion, it cure's the worst cases of intermittent fever, against which quinine proves powerless. It is also valuable as a disinfectant, and as a dressing for wounds; while more recent investigations point to the fact that it may be rendered of great service in catarrhal affections. The tree has been acclimatized, to a certain extent, in the South of France, Algiers, Corsica, Spain, Cuba, and Mexico. We should imagine that it might be cultivated, with immense advantages, in the swamps of our Southern States.— Scientific American.