Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-12-21
DIR. q. Ii. sEAsKHNS.


Those who remember this emil
nent GAINESVILLE physician-and
who among our old inhabitants
does not remember him will be
pleased to peruse the following
record of one of his scientific Opin-
ions preserved by GAINESVILLE gen.
tleman now resident in Texas:
The late DR.. +. b. Haskins, of
GAINESVILLE, Tennessee, was the first
to give anything like a satisfactory
explanation of Indian summer.
Believing that aqueous nists, dry
fOgs, and other like hypothesis,
were Inadequate, he adopted instead
natural combustion, as a better and
more plausible solution. This is his
idea: At the first coming Of frost,
vast quantities of leaves, grass,
weeds and other vegetable matter
all over the North American Con-
tinent begin to decay. This decay
is but another name for combustion
natural cOmbustiOn--W hich, though
mild and slow, is yet sufficiently in
tense to evolve heat as we'll as those
small particles of carbOnaceOus mat
ter which constitute smoke. Hence
the genial warmth and misty haze
of Indian summer.
An effort was made to deprive DIR.
Haskins of the honor of this dis
covery, though it was finally ac-
corded to him, as may be seen
not in all, bat at least in one edition
of BroUkleSby's MeteorolOgy.
In confirmation of this theory as
applied to North America, it may
be stated that an Indian summer
identically the same in essential
characteristics prevails in certain
regions of South America, and,
though seemingly contradictory, in
those regions where vegetation is a
perpetual evergreen. This is the
explanation The said region,
though equally or perhaps even
more densely settled than Texas, is
in quite a rude state of cultivation.
In March and April, which is the
beginning Of their dry or cold sea-
son, they cut down vast bodies of
timber and leaving it under a hot
sun and without a drop of rain until
the middle of August, then burn it
off preparatory to the rainy or plant
ing seasUn-Say the middle of Sep
TENDER. The plough being I'M
known, and land being both plenti-
full and cheap, the same field is not
usually cultivated more than two
or three consecutive years. 1t hence
results, as Il general rule, that all
the farmers cut down more or less
timber every year, and consequently
as the burning off goes on almost
necessarily for a month or more,
they have q corresponding Indian
summer, in all important respects
the same as ours.
Combustion is thus the cause in
both instances. In South America
ii may be called artificial combus-
ton, in cOntradistinctiOn to ours,
which is natural or spontaneous.
DIR. Haskins, though a resident OF
GAINESVILLE. occupied high position
in the faculty of the old Shelby
Medical College, at Nashville, up to
the time of his death. He was
friend, a gentleman and philosopher.
This is intended as a tribute to his
memory, also as a greeting to the
present beautiful Indian summer,
which would fain have us believe
ourselves in q dream-land where
frosty fingers never trouble the
blooming flowers.
Smile on, bewitching Syren, smile
on, that the foolish lamb, lately
shorn of his inconvenient fleece,
may still hop and skip in belief of
perpetual summer. Smile on, that
the ragged, the tattered, that all the
thread-bare tribe of human kind
NAV dream a little longer in secur-
ity against the northern blast
Alas! alas! beautiful deceiverI
wanton 10 the well-ciad, will-o'-the-
wisp to the thread-bare, thou art
no pious priestess following in the
merry train of departing Summer,
but rather a herald of despotlc
Winter-a far-reaching glimmer, a
silvery sheen refracted from his icy
crown. as he comes stealing on us
apace from behind the northern
horizon. TWILIGHT
Waco, Nov. 6, 1878.
Waco (IEr.l Examiner.