The Romans themselves of the better class seldom suffer from
it, and I cannot but think that with a little prudence it may be easily
avoided. Those who are most attacked by it are the laborers and
_contadini_ on the Campagna; and how can it be otherwise with them?
They sleep often on the bare ground, or on a little straw under a
_capanna_ just large enough to admit them on all-fours. Their labor is
exhausting, and performed in the sun, and while in a violent
perspiration they are often exposed to sudden draughts and checks.
Their food is poor, their habits careless, and it would require an iron
constitution to resist what they endure. But, despite the life they
lead and their various exposures, they are for the most part a very
strong and sturdy class. This intermittent fever is undoubtedly a far
from pleasant thing; but Americans who are terrified at it in Rome give
it no thought in Philadelphia, where it is more prevalent,--and while
they call Rome unhealthy, live with undisturbed confidence in cities
where scarlet and typhus fevers annually rage.
It is a curious fact, that the French soldiers, who in 1848 made the
siege of Rome, suffered no inconvenience or injury to their health from
sleeping on the Campagna, and that, despite the prophecies to the
contrary, very few cases of fever appeared, though the siege lasted
during all the summer months.
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