252 On Diseases and Accidents of Farmers. 



Mill-ponds and low swampy places near a house, have 

 often produced fevers of a malii^nant cast, or bilitjus re- 

 mittent fevers, which have proved fatal. Interniittent 

 fevers of an obstinate character, have arisen from the 

 same cause, and by producing obstructions in the liver 

 and spleen, have proved extensive sources of permanent 

 ill health. The wet places should be drained, late in the 

 autumn, or during the winter. Many mill-ponds might 

 be dispensed with, by the use of horse power to grind 

 grain for family use ; and a small steam engine would 

 obviate the necessity of overflowing many acres of land, 

 to obtain a water power. The expense of erecting one, 

 has now ceased to be an objection. The right to make 

 a dam by drowning an extensive surface of land, is a just 

 subject for legislative interference, and as in the case of 

 the erection of a bridge, or laying out a road, ought to 

 be decided upon by the local authorities, to whom such 

 measures are usually referred. 



In clearing wet land, it is of great importance to drain 

 and dry it thoroughly, before the trees are cut down, as 

 the inevitable consequence of an exposure of the wet soil 

 to the action of the sun, will be the production of highly 

 noxious effluvia, followed by fevers or dysentery. 



Care should be taken to prevent exhalations of decaying 

 vegetable substances, in and about the house. In Virgi- 

 nia, a mortal fever was occasioned, a few years since, by 

 exposing to the sun, a quantity of cedar or cypress shin- 

 gles, which had been stored for some years in the cellar 

 of the dwelling-house ; and a similar fever was more re- 

 cently produced in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, from 

 the decaying timbers and putrid water in the cellar of 

 an out-house.*- 



Accidents and complaints, apparently of a trifling na- 

 ture, often prove very serious in the end, and sources of 



* Many other cases of a similar nature might be quoted. 



