FAEMERS' HOUSES. 317 



eleep in the upper stories of their dwellings. In this connexion it is practically 

 useful to know that the most malignant agencies of nature may be rendered 

 harmless by a little observation and the wise use of a little knowledge. Miasm 

 is most pernicious about sunset and sunrise, because the cooling of the atmos- 

 phere at the close of the day causes it to become condensed above, to become 

 heavy and fall to the earth, where it is breathed, while after sundown, it has 

 settled so near the earth as to be below the mouth and nostrils ; hence it is not 

 breathed. When the sun begins to rise in the morning the miasm begins to 

 warm and to ascend, but after breakfast it is so high as to be above the point 

 at which it can be breathed ; and besides, it is so rarefied, so attenuated, as to 

 be innocuous. Therefore the great practical truth beautifully follows, that miasm 

 exerts its most baleful influence on human health about sunrise and sunset ; hence, 

 of all the hours of the twenty-four, these are the most hurtful in which to be out 

 of dqors, and, for the same reason, the hours of midday and midnight are the 

 most healthful to be in the open air in miasmatic seasons and countries, that is 

 from June to October, north of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude. But, 

 unfortunately, the cool of the early morning and the late afternoon are the most 

 pleasant times in the twenty-four hours for field work, and the industrious farmer 

 will be exceedingly loth to spend these hours in doors, should his house be 

 already located in a miasmatic situation. There is, however, an almost infal- 

 lible preventive of any ill effects arising from such an exposure to miasm about 

 sunrise and sunset, and one that is easy of practical application under almost 

 any ordinary circumstances, and it ought to be made known and repeated 

 millions of times through the public prints every year, until the information 

 has reached every farmer's dwelling throughout the United States. Farmers, 

 whose houses are already built in malarial districts, such as in low "made" 

 lands, near ponds and stagnant water, or in the neighborhood of sluggish 

 streams or marshy places, may exempt themselves almost altogether from the 

 whole class of malarial diseases, such as diarrhceas, dysenteries, chills and 

 fevers of nearly every grade, by eating a hearty and warm breakfast before 

 they put their heads out of doors in the morning, and by taking their suppers 

 just before sundown. The philosophy of the matter is that a hot or hearty 

 meal so excites the circulation, and so invigorates the whole frame, that it ac- 

 quires the poM'er of resisting the disease-engendering influences of miasm. A 

 neglect of such a simple precaution, in certain districts where malaria is known 

 to exist in a concentrated form, is a cause of death so common as to be known 

 and guarded against by the most uneducated laborers. A gentleman, a native 

 of the city of Rome, informed the writer that multitudes of agricultural laborere, 

 who have been employed during the day in the low, level, damp fields near the 

 dty, come into town about sundown, and sleep in the streets and on the steps 

 and stoops of houses, in order to avoid the sickly atmosphere of the evening in 

 tlie "marshes." No less a pei'sonage than a young king lost his life within 

 two years, under the following circumstances : Having to pass the night in one 

 of his journeys at a house located in the midst of an extensive lowland or 

 marsh, and wishing to be on horseback early in the morning for a hunt, the 

 landlord pressed upon him the danger of being out early, and that, at least, he 

 ehould take his breakfast first. The impatient youth was observed early next 

 morning sitting at his open window, enjoying, as he thought, the delightful air, 

 a.s it blew in upon him, and soon after ordered his horses. He became ill, and 

 died of a fever in a few days. 



The writer has lived among the Creoles of Louisiana, where vegetation is rank 

 in swamps, upon which the hot summer's sun beams with fiery power for many 

 hours every day, but they are proverbially exempt from fevers, as are north- 

 erners, also, who adopt the habits of the Creole — that is, to have their break- 

 fast, or at least a cup of hot, strong coff"ee, with milk, brought to their bedsides 

 h^ore they get up of a morning. The value of this practice is known and 



