West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-10-12
THE CAUSE OF MALARIAL
DISEASES.


plement appears an essay by DR.. Jas.
II. Salisbury upon the cause OF ma
laria. which he finds in minute
plant growing upon the freshly ex-
posed soil of bogs and humid
grounds. The plant fourishes in
any rich, low-lying soil, provided the
temperature of the atmosphere be
not too frigid DR.. Salisbury's ex-
periments extended through many
years and prosecuted with the aid
of all the scientific instruments APP
plicable to his purpose, seem to show
that the ague-plant is always to be
found where malarial fevers shew
themselves; that it is carried by the
wind from ponds, bitches or spots
of upturned earth TO considerable
distances; that it is sustained in the
atmosphere during the evening,
night and early morning at certain
dennite levels corresponding to those
of the fog that hangs over infected
localities; that its first effect when
inhaled is to cause, after few min
utes, a "dry, feverish, CONSTRUCTED,
feeling in the mouth, fauces and
throat" which feeling 'soon extends
downward to the bronchial and pull
monary surfaces, producing in them
4 CONSTRUCTED, feverish, heavy, con-
gestive feeling and dull pain" The
malarious matter appears to be pois
onous to the surfaces with which it
comes in contact and "there seems
to be an effort on the part OF the ex-
posed mucous surfaces to close up
their absorbent organs until this
poisonous matter can be dislodged
by the swallowing, hawking and
splitting They excite. The only con-
slant foreign bodies found in the ex-
pectorations Of those afflicted with
the local symptoms here named, ex-
cited by walking over ague bogs, or
by exposing ones self to heavy
night air of ague districts, are the
minute unicellular algae mentioned
above. The theory is that, as these
organisms are capable of exciting
local fever in mucous surfaces, "by
repeated and continuous exposure
to them they may cause general fe-
yer of an intermittent or remittent
type" Whatever be the theory
adopted, the Doctors facts are very
interesting. Among the rest, he in
stances cases of malarial fever pro-
duced in persons residing many
miles from infected districts, simply
by exposing them to the emanations
from cakes Of boggy soil on which
the ague-plant was growing. The
experiments took place in a high,
hilly country, having dry, sandy,
and rocky soil, and where case of
aoue had never been known to occur.
Il here placed" says the Doctor,
six boxes of ague-plants on the sill
OF an open second story window,
opening into the sleeping apartment
of two young men. On the twelfth
day one of the young men had a
well marked paroxysm of ague, and
on the fourteenth the other was TAX
Ell down with the disease. Both had
begun to feel dull and unnatural on
the sixth day. All these stages of
the paroxysms were well marked, the
type being tertian." The Doctor
found the result ''highly satifactO-
ry," and repeated his experiment at
another point in the same neighbor-
hood on young man and two boys.
In this instance "the boys were TAX
en- down with the disease, one on the
tenth and the other on the thir-
teenth day of exposure, while the
young man escaped. Another in
stance is cited in which physi.
clan, his wife and daughter were al
afflicted with well-marked parox.
ysms of ague from having spent sew
eral evenings in room in which a
''pan of ague soil" had been put
away covered closely with news
paper and forgotten What adds
interest t. this case is the fact that
it occurred iu winter, after the
ground had been frozen and all dan
ger of taking the disease outside the
house had ceased. 1t is inferred
that the artificial warmth of the
room had protracted theague-plants
period of summer growth.
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