Hygienic Conditions — By rea son of its conditions of soil and climate, Italy, of all countries in Europe, offers the largest field for malarial disease. Levy estimated, many years ago, the number of victims of malaria at 60,000; but since 1881 Sormani shows these figures to be exaggerated. From the Statistics on Causes of Mortality it is seen that during the period of 1887-1902 there was a maximum of 21,033 cases in 1887 and a minimum of 9,910 in 1902. The work of improvement, the preventive and curative means employed to combat the malady have contributed to lessen the rate and the intensity of the disease. The •miasmatic belts were, in 1906, 3,349, distributed over the territory of 2,654 communes of which 938 are considered totally malarial. The only movinces free from malaria are Ancona, Arezzo, Cuned, Florence, Piacenza, Genoa, Lucca, Macerata, Parma, Pesaro, Urbino and Porto Maurizio. Malaria has been fought by the government through a series of laws, the principal one be ing the distribution of quinine by the govern ment. In 1905.06 the government sold 18,712 kilogrammes of quinine; the mottality wet 1F,838. • • •Pellagra,--- It' has now been ascertained that pellagra is caused by a toxic poison induced by the eating of maize; and there i9 no 'pellagra Where 'maize is not used for 'food. From the investigation instituted by the government in 1899 into the nature of the disease it was found that theta are 40 provinces (all in upper and middle Italy) more or less severely afflicted by this endemic disease. Abruzzi, Molise, Cam pania,' 'the Apulias, Bisilicata, the Calabrias, Sicily and • Sardinia 'be considered entirely free from the disease. The census of 1::I showed that Ma population of 6,386,504 persons (which did not include all the provinces afflicted With this malady) the' number of those suffer ing from pellagra was 104,067; while the census of 1899, made by the Interprovincial Pella. gralogical Committee of Udine, gave 72,603 among a population of 7,033,440 inhabitants. In the 15 years from 1890-4904the annual average tate of mortality from pellagra reached 3,767. By the middle' of the 15 yeara 1900-94, it wit 2,846.
Civic Customs.—In Italy, besides the cot 'active property -which varies' in origin and form, there exist private landed property landed property over which the community has the rights of forestry, graziug and agriculture, etc.
Collective Property is an institution here and there in all districts, and is especially common and of great extent in the ex-pontifical states and in Emilia, where it had an approximate value of $4,800,000 in 1905, and was held, al together, by families. (about 280,000 in dividuals) United in'associations as communes: The domain of the southern provinces and Sicily is also for public a survival of the laws of the feudal system, which septesent another typical form of , collective pwnership, the legal authority over which is vested in the commune, whilst the. profits de rived. from it to the citizens. These however', have in part 'taken Pos session of by private individuals or by teligious bodies who hold them as their patrimony.
Closely related judicially to the institution of government domain' is that of the beni ademPrivili of Sardinia.
The Trotturi are roads which extend from the mountains of Abruzzi across' the slope of the sub-Apennines to the tableland of if' the mountain pastures should extend to he Tavoliere,• to the Murge; to the Salentine These grazing lands will always ex ist, and will preserve their character as public property, and hence unrestricted, inalienable; always renewable. Without them the migra tions of the flocks and herds would not be possible, as the summer pastures are hundreds of kilometres distant from the winter pastures. The rratturi, tratturelli and bracci are 83 in number, of varying area, the four largest of which have a total length of nearly 2,000 miles. ' The number of head of cattle in • the 10 provinces gathered together in these networks or reads (Aquila, Chieti, Teramo, Benevento, Cam pobasso, AveUino, Potenza, Bari; Lecce and Foggia) amount, to about 2,7211000, of which 1,120,000 are nomadic grazers and 1,600;000 are stationary, Five hundred and twenty-eight thousand, head of sheep. and 304100 cattle, and horses still make use of the tratturi of the government domain, to travel to the plain of Apulia, and the other 321,000 head of sheep migrate to the Roman territory.
Mortgages.— Until a few years ago it was claimed that the interest-bearing mortgages that burdened the Italian landed property exceeded $1,800,000,000. Instead of that, according to the results of the first investigation — made by the general administration of demesnes — on 31 Dec. 1903, the entire capital burdened by mort gages amounted to $608,480,558, the number of titles to 8251,259 with an average value of $733. Of the 829.259 mortgages, 407,997 were on land alone; 184,232 were on manufactories, and 241,030 on lands and factories.
The 65 per cent of mortgages among private individuals did not exceed a rate of 5 per cent interest; 31 per cent of the same at 8 per cent rate of interest. Four per cent of the mort gages at 8 per cent interest were principally in the following provinces: Abruzzi and Molise, 20.5 per cent; Campania, 9 per cent; Apulia, 142 per cent; Basilicata, 15.2 per cent; Cal abria, 15.9 per cent; Sicily, 8.5 per cent, and Sardinia, 9.6 per cent.
Catasto agrario del Regno d'Italia, current publication (General Direction of Agriculture); Notizie periodiche di statistica agrarsa (Agrarian Statistics Bureau); 'Rivista del servizio minerario,> annual of the Agricul tural Department (Royal Bureau of Mines) ; Censimento generale del bestiame 10 marso 1908 (Departments of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce) ; territoriale e superficie agraria e forestable dui Comuinidel Regno d'Italia al 10 gennaio 1913) (Agrarian Statistics Bureau). Concerning silk consult (Notizie statistiche sul raccolto bozzoli d'Italia nel (Milan 1917).