NORTH CAROLINA 115 



cribe their better condition of health to the beneficent 

 effect of the pitch and tar odors they are almost con- 

 stantly inhaling, and they set particular store by the 

 volatile, balsamic exhalations from their pine-woods ; 

 just as many take it to be an established fact that 

 standing water among pines, on account of the proper- 

 ties communicated by the rich heart-wood, is less sub- 

 ject to pollution and gives off exhalations less un- 

 healthful. However, it appears that where large 

 swamps are near by, the pitch and tar atmosphere is 

 not a protection generally against fevers and other 

 autumn sickness. At the same time, it is confirmed by 

 experience that swamps, so long as they are occupied 

 by trees and bush, are less injurious to the health of 

 people living round about than if naturally bare of 

 such growth, or when the fertile marshy soil is cleared 

 up for cultivation. The well known air-improving 

 property of plants makes this explicable and was the 

 ground of Dr. Franklin's advice that the forests in 

 Virginia and Carolina should be cut off with circum- 

 spection, way being given for the air to dry the rich 

 marsh land, but sufficient vegetation being left for the 

 purification of the air. Over the low, exposed, half- 

 dry swamps which almost encompass Albemarle 

 Sound, the unstirred hot air must all the more rapidly 

 grow corrupt, because ebb and flow are very insignifi- 

 cant here, and the cool winds which elsewhere accom- 

 pany these movements of the water are very largely 

 absent. In addition to the usual bilious and inter- 

 mittent fevers, there prevailed last fall a bad form of 

 quinsy, which carried off many people in these parts. 

 In so small a place as Edenton there were 9 bodies to 

 be buried in one day. The people here are too much 



