The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1871-09-23
The ChiEJs and their Causes.

The ChiEJs and their Causes.
Following the ancient fashion of predicting
times and seasons our modern almanacs might
safely string along the pages devoted to Sum-
mer and early Fall prophecy like this
Aboutithis time Chlls and Fevers
Some thousands of our citizens have fed to
suburban retreats, or regularly flee the city at
nlghtfall, to enjoy the country,ar and cool re-
pose. Hundreds of them will probably return
to their city homes the victims of Malaria,
cherishing any thing but kindly thoughts to-
ward the entcing purveyors ofrural en- tertain-
ments, whose assurances that their particular
neighborhoods are "perfectly healthy" will
have been so grievously disappointing. Yet
the good people of the country may not be to
blame after all-nO more the country, notwith-
standing fevers abound The healthiest region
is not proof against indiscretion or wtlessness.
In the natural world ignorance is punished as
ruthlessly as wilful wrong doing. The incau-
tous laborer who tested lump. of frozen nitro
glycerfiIe With a pi5kaxe, departed th+ss iffe es
suddenly, and in as many pieces, as If he had
purposely blown himself up. fla man expo
ses himself to Notwithstanding conditions,
however unntentionally, and suffers in conse-
quence, he need not blame the locality. To be
sure, such conditions are more easily found or
less easily avoided in some places than others
vet that simply calls for greater precaution and
"a closer attention to ones physical condition.
In the case of "malarial" fevers, particularly,
there is no place so productive of them that
they may not be avoided no place so healthy
chat they may not be engendered. This is a
sweeping assertion, but the facts sustain it.
Sufficient exposure to sudden reductions of
temperature will bring on levers in the balmiest
climate while the most noXious African
swamp or Indian jungle becomes harmless
when sufficient care is taken. Properly pro
vided with fire food and flannel, man, whether
native or alien, may invade by night or day
the deadlest haunts of miasma, and escape
unharmed. With well to-do- people, in tenn
perate climate like ours, these preventives are
seldom beyond the reach of reasonable effort,
SO that, as worthy medical friend asserts, our
blue nosed victims OF chiliS have only ignor-
ance or earelessncss to plead in excuse for
their disease.
People accustomed to sitting out in the even
ing air of city, whore heated walls and pave
ments keep up the temperature until late at
night, or prevent the air from cooling altogeth-
er, carry the same into the country, where the
contrasts OF daily heat and nightly cold are
very much greater. Exhausted by the swell
terng heat of the sun, they fnd the shawdows
of evening ntenseley grateful and, with no
increase of clothing, sit in the open air until
the grass is drenched with dew, harmless in
itself, but evidence of lowering of tempera-
ture then one after another arises with a
shiver, and remarks, "Why, how chilly it
grows! !" After a few evenings spent in this
way, the more thinly- clad, and those whose
vital heat is.insuflicient, began to accuse the
innocent lrog-pond over the way of generating
f'pestlential vapors," or the fresh earth up
turned by the Street Commissioners Celtic
Army in anticipation of election day, of fsending
forth "miasma." 1t is true that both of these
conditions may have been ntrumental in pro-
II. l. L,,T, Nnln ,chn Nryl
would have been antdote enough for all their
nox.ous properties.
Is there, then, no such thing as Malaria ?
There is certainly some cause for the disease
called MdlariuS-but what is it EXhalations
given off by the stagnant water, swamps,
marshes, rank vegetation, and the like, say
most writers If this were the case, all such
localities should be malarious but they are
not. Among the bOgs of Ireland malarious
diseases are almost unknown. Is the exemp-
tion owing to the lack of heat There is no
such lack in the Valley Of the Amazon. 1t
lies under the Equator The land is, for the
nlbst part, low and level. II aD0unus in swanps
AMI the densest tropical growths. Yet the
coantry is remarkably free from malaria. The
region around Singapore affords another ex-
ample. If malaria arises from rank vegetation
and ktagnant water, it ought to appear in these
cases; and not to appear where there is neither
Vegetation nor dead water. But it does. Our
soldiers suffered severely from malarial and
typhoid levers on the coast of North Carolina,
where the soil is entirely seasand, and so dry
ION tue surface that but the scantest vegeta-
tion is possible In the Desert of Sahara, where
the water and vegetation are far enough from
abulidant fever is rife in the hot season and
in autumn In the desert districts Of India
mal.rious fevers are likewise very prevalent.
H Malarious diseases are not confined 20 low
Hands, whether wet or dry. They occur on the
table lands of Mexico, 5000 feet above the sea /;
in Central America and Peru, and among the
Himalyas at an elevation of 5000 or 3 900 feet.
Barnn rocks are not exempt. On the sun
bakid rock of Alden, ''where vegetation does
not exist, and where water is a luxury" inter-
mitisnt and remittent fevers are sadly common,
and The Alden fever is a scourge of peculiar
virtlence.
/ Dr. Salisbury, of Cleaveland, believes that
malarious fevers arise from the invasion of the
body by form Of algoid vegetation, abundant
in al marshes, damp places, and on the sur
face of newly eXcavated EARTH Such being
the case, it is as difficult to account for the alb
sen:e of these diseases from the places above
named, as their presence in mul'tudes OF
fothsrs that might be named. The same difficulty
Fis found with the theories that malaria comes
from dead and decaying matter-animal and
vegetable and it is breathed in poisoned ar,
or drank in poisoned water, or that 1t proceeds
from exhaations from certain rocks and lis
The conditions are too various and conflicting.
The only condition that invariably tends the
inception of these diseases is chill. In h;Sh
lands as in low, on arid plains as in swamp ~
forests, on naked rocks or sands as amidst the
rankest vegetation, extremes of heat and cold
in rapid alienation are almost invariably t'l
lowed by fevers of the class Malaral.
On the other hand, there may be great heat
newly disturbed soil, rank vegetation marshes,
decaying organic matter and all other supposed
cailses of malaria, and yet if the temperature
is equable, fevers will be rare, and always
traceable to special exposure. In tie most
"malarious" districts plentiful food, warm cloth
ing, fire at night, good housing, ave idanee OF
Sudden damps, and whatever means serve to
prevent or counteract the effects of rapid re
>duction of temperature, are found q be pre-
ventatives to malarial diseases. In the lever
6districts of India the ill-1ed, ill-clad and un-
'fhoused Hindoos suffer most the hotter pro-
1tected common soldiers less the b9tter fed,
better clad and less exposed officers still less,
Though all drank the same water and breathed
the same air. In many cases q slight change
III position to avoid chilling night-wlnds, or the
Exsecton of huts to keep off sudden damps, has
converted a most unhealthy military station
INTO one of comparative healthfulness.
Sir Samuel and Lady Baker passed through
The swamps of the White Nile in safety, while
Never. The explorers were well provided with
Shelter, dry clothing and good food the boat
men were i'll clad, and frequently in the water.
In like manner Livingston, sleeping in wagon,
and sheltered from nightly chill, passed through
hot and flooded country unharmed, while his
native attendants, who slept on the ground
and were often exposed to wet, were all but
one smitten with fever. AT other times, when
deprived of shelter, exposed to rain, and suffer-
ing from fatigue and hunger, neither Livings-
ton nor the Bakers enjoyed any immunity from
disease.
Multitudes Of similar cases might be cited,
ssll going to show that malarious diseases,
which constitute the chief source Of sickness
and mortality over a large part of the earth,
arc due to cause that men, more generally
speaking, do not guard against.
I'm our Western States, where agues are
abundant, it is we'll known that comparative
Immunity is enjoyed by those who are well
housed at night, and who refrain from eX-
Sbsihg themselves to the morning air before
Breakfast. Food is no antidote to poison, nor
Whit kill organic germs ; but it does fortify
the system against the chilly air that settles at
nigl4tfall over ill-drained places, and other
spnts where radiation is excessive. The more
accustomed person is TO high degree of heat
the more susceptible he is to cold. AS conse-
quenee, those who spend the day in the heated
city are more liable to suffer from the cold
night air OF the suburbs, than those who have
always lived there. For either class, the one
greaticaution needed is-Beware of Chills
A Coon GAME FOR RAINY DAYs-The unusual
oc,,. h ;o6 ho1