The Opelousas patriot. [volume] (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1855-1863, 1855-04-28
Why Epidemic. Rage at Night.

| 1t was in one night that four thousand per-
sons persisted Of the plague in London. 1t was
by night that the army Of Sennacherb was de-
stroyed. Both in England and on the continent,
large proportion Of cholera cases, in its several
forms, have been observed to have occurred be-
tween one and two, o'clock in the morning.
The danger Of exposure to the night air has
been theme Of physicians from time imme.
mortal but it is remarkable that they have
never yet called in the aid of chemistry to ac-
count for the fact. 1t is at night that the
stratum Of air nearest the ground must always
be 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 respiration, and sulphuretted hydro
gen, the product of the sewers. In the day,
gases and various substances Of all kinds rise in
the air by the raretaction of the heat. AT
night, when this rarelaction ceases, they fall by
an increase ofgravity, if impertectly mixed with
the atmosphere while the gases evolved during
the night, instead Of ofascending, remain at nearly
the same level. 1t is known that carbonic acid
gas, at a low temperature, partakes so nearly
Of the nature Of fluid that it may be poured
out Of one vessel into another 1t rises at the
Temperature at which it is exha!ed from the
lungs, but its tendency is towards the floor, or
the bed of the sleeper, in cold and unventiiated
rooms.
AT Hamburg, the alarm of cholera at night
in some parts OF the city was so great that many
refused to go to bed, lest they should be at
tackled nnawares in their sleep. Sitting up they
probably kept their stoves or open fires burn
ing for the sake of warmth, and that warmth
giving the expansion to any deleterious gases
present, which would best promote their escape,
and promote their dilution in the atmosphere
the means Of safety were thus unconsciously
assured.
At Sierra Leone, the natives have practice
in the sickly season Of keeping fires constantly
burning in the hnts at nights, assigning that the
fires keep away the evil spirits, to which, in
their Ignorance, they attribute fever and ague.
Latterly, Europeans have begun to adopt the
same practice, and those who have tried it assert
that they have now AN entire immunity from
the tropical fever to which they were formerly
subjected In the epidemics Of the middle ages,
fires used to be lighted in the streets for the
publication of the air; and in the plague Of
London, in 1885, fires in the streets were at one
time kept burning incessantly, till extinguished
by violent storm of rain.
Latterly, trains ofgunpowder have been fired
and cannon discharged for the same object but
it is obvious that these measures, although
sound in principle, must necessarily, though 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 differ ent. 1t is quite possible to heat
q room sufficiently to produce rarefaction
and consequent dilution, of any malignant
gases it may contain and it is of course the air
Of the room, and that alone at night, which
comes in contact with the lungs of the persons
sleeping. Westminster Reyiew.