PROCEEDINGS OF THE FAHMERS' CLUB. 109 



adjoining hills or bluffs were so sickly some seasons as scarcely to 

 be habitable. 



Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. — A few miles south of Indianapolis, 

 upon a high bluff of White river, one of the highest in that 

 locality, in the early settlement of the country, there was a town 

 built. Upon the opposite side of the river there was a small 

 settlement, but slightly elevated, upon the water-level. Accord- 

 ing to the usual theory about malaria, these houses should have 

 been sickly, and those in the town healthy; the reverse was the 

 fact to such a degree that the town was entirely abandoned, and 

 the houses left to decay and waste. The laws of health are not 

 always to be measured by high or low situations, nor by high or 

 low sleeping-rooms, if they are properly ventilated. 



Mr. J. Disturnell remarked. — The miasma rising; and floatin«- ia 

 the atmosphere, being the noxious exhalations from diseased bodies, 

 or putrifyiug animal or vegetable substances, exercises a deadly 

 influence according to its density. From well established facts it 

 would appear the pestilential atmosphere possesses a considerable 

 specific gravity. In Cairo and Lower Egypt, whore the plague is 

 most fatal, the coutas-ion is not found to ascend so hi";h as the 

 tops of houses; where the Europeans freely appear, and survey 

 in security the havoc of death in the streets below. 



The same may be said of Calcutta, in India, situated in the 

 midst of a flat, marshy country, and exposed to tropical heats, can 

 never enjoy a salubrious atmosphere, while cities in the same par- 

 allels of latitude, being more elevated, are comparatively healthy. 



So in regard to the southern portion of the United States, lying 

 near the level of the sea, disease is found to exist in various forms 

 of fever, while in the elevated portions of the country, where the 

 yellow pine abounds, it is remarkably healthy. 



Thus in regard to habitations, it would seem that elevated 

 dwellings or sifees, rising above the general surface of the earth, 

 were more healthy than low dwellings or positions subject to an 

 itnpuro atmosphere. 



• Bone Manure. 



Mr. L. L. Abell, Conway, Mass.— "What benefit shall I derive 

 this year from the use of crushed bone upon tobacco or corn ?" 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — It depends altogether upon the fineness 

 of the article. If you use the Boston Milling Go's flour of bone it 

 will give your crops immediate benefit, because it is in a condition 

 to be at once assimilated. Crushed bone is sold of various degrees 



