Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-05-30

occasion interrnittents, and their mode
of treatment is familiar; but we cannot
fully analize this miasmata, owing to the
changes which all substances undergo
during the different stages Other putre-
faction. Should it be azote or nitrogen,
unmixed, it could have no deleterlous
effect; for this is one of the component
parts of the atmosphere. Hydrogen or
carbon uncombined would act on our
systems in different manner; but COM
bined, the gravity of the one and the
Iighmess of the other would make them
about of the weight of our air, and to
float indifferently through our atmos-
phere.-Whether these of themselves
could occasion intermittents, or whether
they must be combined with that pecu-
liar sceptic principle accompanying one
of the stages of putrefaction, l will not
pretend to say-certaln 1t is, that the
mystery is hidden, and my touching on
it here is more to elicit inquiry, than to
establish facts. The decay OF vegeta-
bles in first opening a country, produces
an effect somewhat similar to what
have been speaking of, in marshes, ex-
cepting that it is carried on IN less
humid way. And here l may observe
as before, that any of the simple ele-
ments escaping alone could not produce
disease; but as l before observed, the
principle component parts OF vegetables
are hydrogen and carbon-if these COM
bined, can alone produce disease, then is
the mystery unravelled; but If 1t re-
quires a third ingredient, then, fear,
we may long look in the elements OF
nature for an ingredient to answer the
purpose. True, oxygen may be pre-
sumed to be the sceptic principle which
occasions putrefaction, as well as sus-
tains life; and if | were to venture
conjecture, would attribute the sick
ness of newly cleared countries, to the
combination, in peculiar way, of these
three simple elements, carbon, hydro
gen, and oxygen, and call it, tor name
sake, the oxy-carbonet of hydrogen
Here, must avow, that no mixture that
we can ourselves make OF these sub
stances, will, in my opinion, produce the
like effect; yet the tendency that oxygen
has to purify matter, may occasion it to
act on the vegetables while decaying, in
such manner as to take up some OF the
particles which have only in part under
gone change-that if the change had
been completely effected it would have
correspondent with the description have
given. Something must be raised when
vegetable or animal matter decays,
which has never as yet been sufficiently
analized, to reduce to demonstration
what it is.-And although fugitive es-
says, like this, cannot convince, yet they
may produce inquiry and conjecture
and we must, in many cases take proba-
Bile conjecture in the room of positive
proof.
Dur has tire decay OF vegetation no
other effect than that which is produced
on the human frame? 1t has. Great as
it may, in that, seem to be, its effects are
still greater on the soil, and nothing
more fertilizes land than the decay of
vegetation. This accounts why new
countries always produce better than old
ones. But the vegetables and crops of
grain draw as much of their sustenance
from the surrounding air as from the
soil in which they are planted.-Thls
corresponds exactly with my first posi-
tion-that they inhale that part Of the
atmospheric air which is deleterious to
animal life, and that this contributes to
their growth. But in an old settled
country, where piece Of land happens
to be cleared, the quantity of vegetable
cxhalation arising from its decay, is SO
small in proportion to the extent of I'M
contaminated atmosphere, that it is
quickly dissipated; accordingly we find
that land now cleared in Kentucky does
not produce those abundant crops, which
twas noted for doing on its first settle
ment. The land must be the same now
that it was then; but the same quantity
of nutriment cannot he drawn from the
atmosphere-we therefore find health
increasing, whilst fertility is on the de-
cline. But this does not apply general
ly to the world at large. We may sup
pose nearly the same fertility exists now,
taking the globe at large, as always has
existed; but then it f1uctuates, and
changes places. We know that tract
of land, or a whole country may be
worked till it has lost all its capacity for
producing grain--by rest it will produce
a sod of grass, whichseing turned under
will again enrichthe land. We all know
that by the decay of this grass an ex-
halation takes place, and this enriches
the atmosphere as well as the soil