Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-05-30
FROM THE ILLINOIS INrELLIGENcEn.
DR.. WIN. L. REYNOLDS,

thoh THE ILLINOIS lNTELLIGENCEHs
DR.. WIN. L. REYNOLDS,
President cfthe .hedicat Society, Kaskaskia.
SIR-Owing to the healthiness of the
last quarter, scarcely any cases have oc-
Cured worthy of report; but as the law
Is explicit, that report must be made
| every three months, proceed to redeem
the pledge which ] gave in my last, of
accounting 6 for the disorders of new
ly opened country"
In doing this it may be necessary to
take a wider range than is commonly
done in reports of this nature; yet as the
subject is new, hope for the patience Of
my readers and the indulgence of the
printer.
Before the trees are fallen or the
ground opened, we find the inhabitants
|of the forest enjoying as great a'degree
OF health as in old inhabited parts, where
the state of the atmosphere has under
went a change, and where the conven-
fences of life can easily be procured.
But it is during this change from the
savage to the civilized state, that the
human family is subject to that variety
of disease, which shall endeavor to
prove, has its rise in a peculiar state of
the surrounding air, occasioned by the
innovation of the ak and the plough.
We may suppose, and the science of
botany reduces it almost to a demon
stration, that vegetables, by means of
their leaves, which answer for lungs,
inhale peculiar principle from the at
mosphere, and that an exhalation, at the
same time, is going on, through these
vegetable lungs, which has tendency
10 support animal lie. Tbs tSrStae Of
this takes place in the lungs of animals ;
for at every breath we draw we consume
given portion Of oxygen, or the vital
principle of the air, and exhale given
portion of air which is unfit for respira-
ton. From this we may see that AMI
NAL and vegetable life mutually support
one another---the one inhaling what the
other exhales, Or rejects, and in each the
principle, which to them may be called
vital, updergoes change, while it con-
tributes to their growth and life. This,
sir, will account for our languid feelings
while in large cities or crowded assem-
blies, and why the canear of disease so
much more frequently makes innovations
in these places, than in the airy regions
of the country. 1t will account for the
hypochondries and pale visages which
distinguish the inhabitants of cities from
those of the open country--and it will
account why we have that peculiar felici-
ty of feeling while wandering among the
shooting buds of the forest, in the spring
Of the year. For here oxygen is abun-
dant and there it is scarce. From this
it would appear, that the forest has much
the advantage Of the city, in point OF
health but then the conveniences oflife
which are enjoyed in old settled coun-
tries, nearly counterbalance the pure air
and unclogged respiration of the unopen-
ed woods. Having promised thus far
the qualities of the living vegetable,
it is time to look at it in state of decay,
and what effects the exhalations there
from has on the human system.
Chemistry will teach us that the two
principal component parts ofvegetabless
are, carbon and hydrogen. Besides
liiCoCi SGSi pSooSoSSo "iA SooS'A't't zip
peculiar to its own species, water, earth,
and various other ingredients, though in
| small portions. While in the living
state, the process of life going on in this
beautiful arrangement of trees and
shrubs, contributes to. the health ofman.
But no sooner are they fallen, and the
plough share enters the sod, than the
order is reversed, till, by length of time,
the floating exhalations again incorpo-
rate with the soil.
We all know that the putrefactive fer
mentation of animals, if not SO injurious
to health, at least are very unpleasant to
our olfactory nerves. But from tbs
best accounts which we can find, it is the
proximate cause of all the plaques which
depopulate the eastern world. The
plague, there, is always preceded by an
innumerable quantity oflocusts, which
dying and putrefying on the ground, in
those hot climates, occasions this dread
/ full epidemic. From the same parity Of
reasoning, we may reasonably suppose
that the decay and putrefactiye fermen-
tation of vegetable matter, will occasion
diseases, thoughof a less malignant type,
and somewhat peculiar to themselves.
We all know that marsh mjasmata vii,