14 Report from the Select Committee appointed to eomider 



if they have been so to sleep, or have a cold a short time after- 

 wards ; so that it would appeiiv, that all land wind has something 

 contagious attached to it, in a greater or less degree. Is of opi- 

 nion that epidemic diseases, under any circumstances, may be- 

 come contagious by a very near approach to the bodies of persons 

 labouring under the disorder. The vapour arising from the bodies 

 of persons infected, would produce the di^'-rder readily and vio- 

 lently; but in all epidemics they arise in . uch a great many 

 points at once, that it would be almost impossible to say that 

 they were produced by contact with infected individuals. In a 

 conversation about four years ago, with a ve'v intelligent Spa- 

 niard, who was secretary to the embassy goin;; from Spain to 

 Sweden, he mentioned a very curious fact, with ; .:^^pect to tiie 

 town of Medina Sidonia, which is about twelve miles from Cadiz. 

 The first time it was affected with the contagion of the epidemic 

 of Cadiz, only a few houses on one side of a street were affected ; 

 and the next season, when it occurred in Cadiz, it attacked the 

 greater part of the town of Medina Sidonia; but it was insulated 

 in the first instance. 



Being asked. Whether he attributes that to a current of air ? 

 answers, ''There are many circumstances which escape common 

 observation, and which cannot be accounted for by many, that 

 have yet an influence upon human health. It may be illustrated 

 by a fact, which is commonly observable in this country, by the 

 excessively offensive smell arising from our sewers on particular 

 occasions, which has usually been attributed to the wind setting 

 in a particular quarter, or blowing up a particular grating, and so 

 up into our houses. But it appears to have no connexion with the 

 direction of the wind, nor any se?isiMe state of the atmosphere ; 

 but rather depends on some peculiar change that has taken place, 

 apparently of an electric nature, between the earth and atmo- 

 sphere. The point may be further illustrated by a variety of phae- 

 nomena, that are constantly occurring before our eyes, but which 

 are little attended to, and still less inquired after, as to their 

 causes. Frequently during the summer in this country, you may 

 observe a puff of warm air come against your face as you are go- 

 ing along, without any circumstance that can explain it, except 

 that owing to some local cause acting upon such portion of the 

 general atmosphere, is to render i;, sensibly hotter than the ge- 

 neral mass : it is what is commonly called a hot gleam. This 

 appears to be only a lesser degjee of the same phaenomenoti which 

 produces the sirocco of Sicily, the hot winds of India, the harmat- 

 tan of the Coast of Guinea, the samiel winds of the Desert. You 

 will also frequently observe, in a day when the air is perfectly 

 still and calm, that in travelling along the road, or crossing a 

 plain, like that of Salisbury for example, without a tree, a wall, 



or 



