Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-11-24

are transported about, or what the con-
ditions Of receptivity and susceptibility
are under which they are developed,
nobody can yet tell. There is evidence
that sporadic cases occur in dry upland
regions, but the disorder loves marshes,
clings to artificial lakes or ponds, riots
by the banks of sunken streams and
works its burning and shivering dam
age most Indignantly where the nor
NAL mutual relations between soil, veg
etable matter and stagnant or moving
water have been unsettled. Mention is
made of some compact rural popula-
tons near foul mill ponds, where half
once. Speculation as to causes, as
might be expected, has been busy.
WHAT causes of malaria exist now which
were nonresident, or in allowance, so
long prior to this late day? Not only
is science shy of hasty conclusions, but
property, too. has its self-preserving in
stincts, and the mill owners and manu-
facturers are not unwilling to have a
part, at least, of the curse rest on other
shoulders than their own. What then
are the new conditions?
Railroads and tobacco culture are two.
The railroads are apt to open the sur
face on low ground. and If there were
enough of them itmight happen that an
unwholesome gas escaping would affect
the workmen, as it is said the upturning
of acres of old sod on building lots af-
fects the health of the people in the
upper part of the island of New York.
But there are altogether too many rail
ways where there are no chills and too
many chills where there are no railways,
to allow much plausibility TO this theory.
1t fails twice over. Much of the same
may be said of the tobacco fields The
idea that the sickness comes of fertil-
izers used for tobacco raising has even
less support, for that nuisance is of but
a very brief annual continuance, and is
far from being conterminous with the
malady. So tar as the great forces OF
nature are concerned, not much can be
done in the way of remedy. If, as there
is some reason to think, there is a con-
slant shrinkage going on in rivers,
fountains, brooks and lakes, with a
diminished rainfall throughout this
part of the country, all we can do about
that is to employ every personal effort to
remove or deodorize the stencil breeding
and fever breeding matter along the
banks and to increase our forests by
planting or protection, as many thought
full landowners are now doing and as
the late forestry convention in Mon
treal leads us to hope may be done
more and more. There are thousands
of citizens who, with only moderate
outlay, can stanch, on their own
premises at least, the offensive sources
! of pain and death-for, though not re-
garded as ordinarily fatal, fever and
ague sometimes takes congestive
form or otherwise overmasters the vital
power, in spite of the best treatment,
and the patient dies. Dwellers in bad
climates study the laws of sanitary
safety and heed them. Out of door
night air can, to a great extent, be
avoided. Fires can be built evening
and morning. The human system can
be kept free, vigorous and protected by
right living, temperance and tlannels.
Some Psychologists think a fine wire
gauze at open windows may keep out
the spores. A line of thick trees with
underbrush has been supposed to ar
rest them. There is plenty of proof
that good drainage counteracts this as
it does other kinds of sickness. Boston
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