HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY .RESIDENCIES. 47 



laws as developed by modern scientific research may enable us to 

 avoid the sources of all this evil and its sad results, and that this great 

 Samson can be shorn of his locks, and made to yield gentle submission 

 to the dictation of science as directed by simple means, in prudent 

 hands guided by common sense. 



Residences Liable to be Affected by Malaria Some 

 time since, a paper, published in New Orleans, stated, "The yellow 

 fever has broken out in the city, under every conceivable variety of 

 circumstances ; when the streets were clean, and when they were 

 filthy; when the river was high, and when it was low; after a pro- 

 longed drought, and in the midst of daily torrents ; when the heat was 

 excessive, and when the air was spring-like and pleasant; when ex- 

 cavations and disturbances of the soil nad been frequent, and where 

 scarcely a pavement had been laid or a building erected. Almost 

 the only fixed and undeniable fact connected with the disease is, that 

 its prevalence is simultaneous with the heats of summer, and that 

 frost is its deadly enemy." 



From these facts, then, we may draw two important conclusions 

 in reference to malaria, viz., that heat and moisture are essential 

 factors in the production of this disease ; and that it cannot exist 

 when there is severe frost. 



It is known that some thirty or forty years ago Louisville, 

 Kentucky, was one of the most pestilential spots in the habitable 

 West. But by a wise system of draining and filling it is now a 

 healthy and beautiful city. 



Means of Avoiding and Counteracting- Malaria 

 Growing hedges or trees, between a malarious locality and a dwelling, 

 counteract the miasmatic influences of the former. The leaves seem 

 to absorb and feed upon the malaria; and for the better protection of 

 health, there should be a space of 50 feet or more, between the trees, 

 or hedge, and the house. The thicker and broader and higher the 

 hedge, and the nearer the- leaves to the ground, the better; for it is 

 there that malaria seems to exist in its greatest malignity. It is 

 seldom concentrated enough at the height of ten feet to be materi- 

 ally hurtful. 



Localities in Time of Plagues In the cities of the Old 

 World, in the times of the plagues and pestilences, the inhabitants 

 had a custom of living in the upper stories of their dwellings while 

 the disease was raging. They would not even come down to obtain 

 marketing, but would let down baskets by ropes to the country peo- 

 ple, for the provisions they wished to purchase. They failed to dis- 

 cover why the country people could come to town with impunity, 

 while they themselves were only safe from disease when they lived 

 in the upper stories of their dwellings. From this we infer the ex- 

 istence of the prejudices now universally prevailing in level, prairie 

 districts, to have the sleeping rooms in the second story. 



The philosophy of this affair is this: malaria is condensed 'by 

 cold, made heavy and falls to the earth, hovering, as it were, near its 



