Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1850-08-10
WHY EpIDEMICs RAGE AT NIGHT.

| III was III one nlgnt mat 4,OUU perlsneu o.
the plague of London of 1865. 1t was at nigh
that the army of Sennacherib was destroyed
Both in England and on the continent larg
proportion of the cholera cases, in its setera
forms, have been observed to have occurred
between one and two o'clock in the morning
The "danger of exposure to night air." ha
been theme of physicians from time i'm
memorial; but it is remarkable they have
never yet called in the aid of chemistry tc
account for the fact.
1t is at night that the stratum of air nearest
the ground must always he the most charged
with the PARTICLES of animalized matter given
out from the skin, and deleterious gases, such
as carbonic acid gas, the product of respra-
tion, and sulphuretted hydrogen, the product
OF the sewers. In the day, gases and vapo-
rous substances of all kinds rise in the air by
the rarefaction of the heat at night, when
this rarefaction leaves them, they fall by an
increase ofgravity, fimperfectly mixed with
the atmosphere, while The gases evolved du-
ring the night, instead of ascending, remain
at nearly the same level. 1t is known that
carbonic acid gas at low temperature par
takes so nearly of tho nature of fluid, that
it may be poured ont of one vessel into ano-
ther; 1t rises at the temperature at which it
exhaed from the lungs, but its tendency is
toward the floor, or the bed of the sleeper, in
cold and unventilated rooms.
AT Hamburg, the alarm of cholera at night
in some parts of the city was so great, that
on some occasions they refused TO 60 TO bed,
lest they should be attacked unawares in
their sleep. Sitting up, they probably kept
their stoves or open fires burning for the sake
OF warmth giving the oxpansonto to any dele
terious gases present. which would best pro-
mote their diluton in the atmosphere, the
means of safety were thus unconsciously as
sured. At Sierra Leone, the natives have 4
practice in the sickly season of keeping fires
constantly burning in their huts at night, as
signing that the fires kept away the evil
attribute fever and ague. Latterly, Euro
P~''''S '''''S ~ w tilc SlIlt IldCllCe
and those who have tried it, assert that they
have now entire immunity from the tropical
fever's to which they were formerly subject.
In tho epidemics Of the middle ages, fires
used to be lighted in the streets for the puri-
fcation of the air and in the plague of Lon
don, of 1885, fires in the streets were at one
time kept burning necessarily, till extnguist-
ed by violent storm of rain. Latterly, trains
of gunpowder have been fired, and cannon
discharged for the same object, but it is OBJ
vious that these measures, although sound in
principle, must necessarily, out of doors, be
on too small scale, as measured against an
ocean of atmospheric air TO produce any
sensible effect. Within doors, however, the
case Is different 1t is quite possible to heat
room sufficiently to produce rarefaction
and consequent dilution of any maglinant
gases il may contain, and it is of course the
air OF the room, and that alone at night,
which comes in immediate contact with thc
lungs OF person sleeping,