The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-08-14
Dangers of Dense Shade Around Country
Dwellings.
FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF AN EMINENT PLY
SICIAN.
,yuZu 18th.

l visited to-day, With an Old practitioner,
in an adjoining county, family in which
consumption had for years claimed its vic
tins.
AS we rose to the summit of a command
ing eminence which overlooked wide
stretch of country, dotted with farm-houses,
and waving with the ripe and abundant
harvests for which that county is distin-
guished, the physician frightened the reins,
and halted to enjoy more fully the beautiful
panorama. Certainly, fairer or more
mellow landscape never shimmered in the
rays of September sun. The harvest
crowned hills heaved with gentle undula-
tons; the deep-green valleys, embosoming
glistening streams, pursued their devious
windings as far as the eye could reach; the
white farm-houses, indicating wealth, re-
fnement, and comfort, cleaned out of
many grove of densely shading trees.
81 take it," said my old friend, as we
pursued our journey, ''that however readily
we may explain the causes of typhus and
typhoid fevers, we have made little pro-
gress in determining the sources of such an
insidious disease as consumption. If any
disease can be truly considered a visitation
of God, it is consumption. You must
agree with me that all the conditions of
high degree of public health exist in this
community, and yet consumption, which,
from it's very name, would seem to imply
the existence of poverty and want, is not
an unfrequent disease over this entire dis
trict. Indeed, think it is greatly ON the
increase, for withl- my recollection the
number of deaths from this cause annually
has more than quadrupled. And what is
most remarkable to me- is that this disease
seems to increase with the increase of
wealth and the personal comforts of the
people. In my experience, it is not the
poor that suffer most from consumption,
but the rich, and of the rich it appears to
single out our oldest and most respectable
families
"It is quite true" replied, shat con-
sumption is an insidious disease, and hence
more difficult to understand; but yet, like
all diseases, it must depend upon some per-
version of the conditions of health, and
these may always be explained and deter
mined by careful and logical inquiry
Certain facts are now we'll established in
regard to the causation of consumption,
though they do not explain all that per-
tains to its etiology. This we know-viz:
that the disease occurs by preference among
those who live much in damp, shaded at
mosphere, as i'll apartments which are
close, dark and wet. Thus we find it very
prevalent among the poor in cities, and
especially among those living in dark base
ments and cellars as compared with the
same class living in high, airy, and sum
lighted rooms. In the country, you know,
we meet with it more often in wet districts,
so situated as to have but little exposure
to the sum-
"But how do you explain" said he "the
action of these causes in producing con-
sumption?''
GA person living in dark room, with
out the sun, and without ventilation" I
replied, sis nourished like plant in eel
lar: he is very succulent, but has no
stamina; he grows rapidly, but has no real
vitality; his tissues are weak, and fall into
decay by kind of over-growth. The
chemistry of life wants its chief factor
sunlight; and hence all its processes are
performed"
"But it strikes me, said he, SHAT your
theory strikingly fails to explain why in
this dry, airy, and sunlighted region we
have consumption, and in increasing fire.
quency. The soil is daily becoming more
dry by drainage, and the removal of the
forests has given us more sunlight, and
much freer circulation of air. And yet
can recall several old families which forty
years ago had not a faint of consumption,
but now are nearly destroyed by that dis
ease. Consumption has seemed to be de- |
veloped in these families, and with great
81 nevertheless believe" l answered,
''that a careful inquiry will disclose the
fact that these families have grown up I'M
der very different circumstances from those
which surrounded the parents and grand |
parents in their early life. They have lived |
too much indoors; in houses situated in
damp localities, and perhaps enveloped i'll !
a dense shade. l venture to AFFIRM" |,
added, pointing to venerable gateway |
leading into the dense and impenetrable |
shade of a grove, and through the carriage
way of which we caught a plimpse of a low,
moss-covered building, situated upon the |
margin and level of a wide, shallow, slug
gish stream, ''that if family has been
reared in that house during the last fifteen
years, consumption has appeared in fatal
form, especially among the female men,
bers; and through that gateway most of
the children have already been carried to
their graves-victims of that malady."
"Alas"' said the physician, SIT is only
too true. Five times have 1 witnessed the
professions which have borne, mid the fall
ing leaves of autumn, the female members
Of that interesting family group to yonder
All died of consumption, the
seeds of which we have believed were in.
herited- The father and mother and grand
parents still live here in feeble health, but
they show no signs Of consumption. Two
sons are living and healthy-one in the
farmhouse on the hill and the other in
New York, both having left home early in
life.'
"Your statement" l resumed, "con-
firms my remarks. The old settlers were
hardy pioneers; they lived in the open air,
and had vigorous exercise, and were con-
very healthy. But unfortunately
too often they selected as sites for their per-
dwellings low grounds, and gener-
ally the margins OF streams. The first inn
provement was the removal of forest, or
5he clearing this was an important sani
,ary measure. But Immediately they plant
I'd fruit and ornamental trees thickly about
heir houses, and these in time grew so
hriftily that they came too often to over
lang the houses, and completely shut out
sun and air. In these damp, unaired, and