Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-09-20
PUBLISHED DAILY BY
A NJ UEL SN D w ID E n.
FALL FEyERS.

Causes &c. OF AuTuMNAL rE'hHs. w H
commend it to the serious attention OF every read
er Of this paper:
The great annual mortality from fevers m most
regions of the earth, the various anu alarming
features which they so often assume, the srifer-
ines Of the sick, and intense anxiety OF friends IN
attendance, to say nothing Of the protracted dis
orders which not unfrequently become the Por-
tion of the survivors, are circumstances well cal
culated to invite attention to the causes and pre-
yention of such formidable maadies.
Az il destined TO check the exuberant pride,
IN which we should be SO prone to indulge, at
,he advantages Of our own favored land, the Wis
itation of febrile diseases often presses heavily
upon many portions Of it. Were we. indeed. to
credit the accounts, and be swayed by the fears
and preiudices Of the writer's, and no small por-
ton of the inhabitants Of Europe, we should be
tempted to regard ourselves as peculiarly exposed
10 this evil. But slight examination OF the sub
iect must soon satisfy any o5servant inquirer,
that such belief is not borne but BY facts. An
Enyiishman forgets that within trumpet's call
of London, are to he found localities for remit
tent fevers, of high grade; while in the fens of
Lincoln and Cambridgeshire, and districts Of
Hampshire, he NAV find the counterparts of the
eastern shore of MARYLAND. and the neck of Vir
gina, tor asues and their sequelse. Provence,
so celebrated for the baimy purity of its air. has
also, as the well-nformet Frenchman knows, its
low grounds and its marshes, where diseases,
characterized By all the violence Of our own Dil-
ious levers, are Of common, if not of annual oc-
currence; and in Brittany the same topography
is attended with the same infections Travel
lers love to descant, and we love to join them in
the theme, on the bright ceruean sky OF Italy;
but let US not forget that the fertile plains Of the
n. 4 - A s ric md
and the country near the mouth vt the Arono.
around Pisa. and near Leghorn, are the seat Of
fevers not inferior in VIOLENCE and mortality to
those Of the low grounds Of the Carolinas and
Georgia. Of the horrors Of the Campagna Oh
Roma, and the Pontine Marshes on the road from
Rome to Naples, we need not here speak: they
have acquired an unfortunate celebrity, in this
particular, Of which few readers are ignorant.
In thus Indicating community ofdiseases be-
tween the inhabitants of the United States and
those OF Europe, we are far from meaning there
by TO foster sulen quietism under evils which,
from their p evidence and duration, are Supposed
BY many to DE unavoidable. 1t is, indeed, too
much in the nature of the human mind to either
hunt after remote. foreign, and improbable caus-
es of disease, OF, II assured OF their home pro-
duction. to sit down. and, with the apathy OF a
Turk, when the plague is raging around him, to
ought not to be avoided. For the present, we
shall content ourselves with brief enumera-
ton Of the more prominent causes of our autum-
nal reyers-which of itself will indicate most of
what is necessary in the way Of prevention.
/. Hat.-Solar heat. when intense. as in hot
climates. or during our own summers, has pre-
judicial effect on the animal economy. greatly
Increased by partially stagnant atmospheric
The sickness aud mortality of young children in
our large cities. and the numerous sudden deaths
among the adult class, especially where the pow
ers Of life have been overstrained by great prior
excitation, as in the incorporate, and those who
have travelled and abored much in the sun. are
examples in point. Between these and the more
dreaded cases of yellow fever, the difference is
more in duration and degree than in kind.-One
man is struck down with the sun, and there en-
sues at once a rapid decomposition of his solids,
and alteration Of his fluids: in addition to the
heat from without, his own internal organs e.
volye il IN destructive excess, and he dies sense
less and apoplectic. Another. with more grad
ual deterioration Of function, becomes a victim
10 nearly similar changes. with distressing
stomachic pain, and unquenchablc thirst; and
he sinks. delirious. under yellow fever. Would
we ward of these dire evils, before the danger
has vet become iminent, and, when the indlvldu-
al complains IF what he calls an overhead or IA
tigue; when his skin is hot. temples throbbing.
mind confused, thirst urgent, appetite gone. we
recommend GOODNESS, quietness, mental tranquili-
tyobedience to the instinct Of nature, IN abstaining
from all solid food, and ia merely using simple
drinks, cool. slightly mucilaginous, and acld.-
The present weakness IS from excess of one kind,
viz: Of heat aud bodily exercise, and not to be
relieved by excess Of another kind, viz: of vinous
or alcoholic drinks and strong food, the effects of
which are directly to stimulate and increase the
heat, and consequently the debility: with fresh
cir, in place of the close stagnant atmosphere in
which the person breathed before, we also advise
the use of cool water, by sponsing.to the surface
2. Moisture. Most air when associated with
heat in the day, is found to be very oppressive,
by preventing Transportation both from his lungs
and skin. the senses are dull, and there is gene
raj lansuor and debility Of the animal economy.
This stste is readily converted into violent fever,
such as we see in the latter part OF summer. at
the msaths Of rivera, in lew alluvial soil, and