The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1870-08-23
Docs the Earth Grow SICK.

From k EfoVidEHEE JOErN1l.
Professor Tyndall startled the reading
world, not long ago, by announcing that
living germs in the atmosphere are taken
into the lungs by respiration, and may &C.
casion fatal disease, or give rise to cpl
denies whose cause has been hitherto un'
known. His experiments settled the fact
that such germs exist in large numbers,
and the inference seems inevitable that
they must oflen originate disease in the
human system.
Students OF physical science, observing
Oh larger scale, sugges! that there may
BIZ n subtle connection between the physi.
cal changes of the earth and the fearful
cpidemics which traverse the globe,
sweeping away millions of victims. The
observations have not yet been long or &C
curate enough to determine the precise
connection, but enough is known to indi-
cate that such q connection exists. The
atmosphere surrounding the earth Is in
sympathy with forces operating beneath
the surface. Earthquakes Oeget tenn.
pests, and it seems natural that abnormal
telluric influences should manifest them
selves in organic life.
A Mr.. Parkin, ofEDgAnd, has prOSccut-
ed extensive inquiries in respect TO at
mospheric and telluriC conditions, pTeced-
ing and accompanying the ruvageS Of the
black death in past ages, and the cholera
in our century. He finds that the black
death began its fatal progress in China, in
1888, and during the next seventeen years
swept across Asia and Europe, gathering
in a terrible harvest COincident with its
birth, China was rocked with earthquakes
swept by deluges, and parched by
drouGhts. The disturbances in the ele'
nentS, celestial and terrestrial, were in
harmony with the plague. All were en-
gagged in the work Of destruction.
As the disease spread westward, through
Asia and Europe, the abnormal phcnom
ena outran its progress. They generally
manifested themselves before It's work
began, and heralded its advent. Whether
the disturbance of tue clements occasion
ed the disease, or whether both alike wert
the result of some unknown law, science
cannot, at present, determine. 1t is enough
TO know that some subtle bond OF cOnnec
ton exists, which may at future day bt
discovered.
The same facts reveal themselves in thu
history of the cholera. 1t began its rava
ges, like the black death, in eastern Asia
NOT spreading, however, beyond the noun
tain ranges into the north. A singular
paralIelism marked the progress Of tn
two diseases. Breaking out in China, tn
black death reached the frontiers 0
Europe, at Constantinople in fourteen
: years. The cholera, starting in eastern
I India, reached the borders Of caster
Europe ut Astrakhan, in twelve yeas, bu
did not cross the frontier for another year
They both completed the circuit o
Europe, one by southern, the other by l
nothern route, in four years.
The physical phenomena were equal!
remarkable. Earthquake, flood ant
drought went before the messenger o
death. In all the countries il visited, SOM
OralI Of these terrible heralds announced
its coming. The earth was cOnvulset
with sickness, no less than the human
race.
These facts are suggestive. In this agr
OF scientific knowledge and achievement
when human genius aspires TO solve nj
problems and to vanquish all obstacles, i
teaches that there is vast realm OF the
, unknown which may lie beyond human
penetration, and there are forces operating
on human destiny which man can neve
control. Sanitary precautions in ordinary
seasons may regulate the public health
but they cannot ward off these extraOr
binary visitatiOns. Within certain limit
man is master Of his own destiny; beyond
these limits he seems powerlesS, the vic
tim Of circumstances he can neither un
, lerstAnd nor control.