1847.] Basilosaurus. 285 



Old persons as already stated, are more exempt from marsh in- 

 fluence. Food and exposure furnish conditions which favor its 

 influence. Bad and ill conditioned food, night air, especially when 

 heavy dews are formed, favor very strongly miasmatic disease. 

 When ill clothed and ill fed troops are forced to march by night 

 in a marshy country, it may be expected their ranks will be deci- 

 mated. The emigrants from New England to the rich w^est- 

 ern prairies, or to the rich bottom lands of the western rivers, 

 may expect disease and death; provided they plough up 

 those prairies or bottoms, and thereby expose themselves to exha- 

 lations from a surface charged with animal and vegetable matter. 

 These are calamities which the first settlers can scarcely expect to 

 escape; circumstances may delay the development of diseases, 

 when a favorable season may occur, but they seem to be inevitable 

 in the end. 



From observation it appears that disease will be in proportion 

 to the concentration or amount of miasm to which an individual 

 may have been exposed. Hence precautionary measures w'ill not 

 be useless. A residence by the side of a marsh or upon a prairie 

 where the turf has been newly turned up should be closed upon 

 that side towards the miasmatic grounds, when the wind blows 

 from them. So the night air should be avoided, especially after 

 hot and sultry days when much dew will be formed, or rather 

 where much exhalation will take place when the miasm will be 

 concentrated in it at night fall. So it is important that the vigor 

 of the system should be promoted, and that during the period 

 when there is greater exposure to poison, the diflferent vegetable 

 tonics should be employed, as quinine, which is the most power- 

 ful, or for w^ant of this, pulverised bitter barks, or infusions of 

 them, as the eupatorium, boneset, &c. Such a plan would at 

 least mitigate the effects of the effluvia. 



Great fatigue, hard labor favor also the influence of marsh 

 poison. Closing windows, keeping within doors, avoiding dews, 

 moderate labors, and a tonic regimen, may be set down as some 

 of the preventives to the influence of the poisonous exhalations 

 of marshes. 



We are indebted to our friend Robert W. Gibbs, of South Caro- 

 lina, for a copy of his valuable memoir on the fossil genus — Basi- 

 losaurus (Zeuglodon). It is well illustrated by lithographic plates. 

 It is in the folio form, and its execution is honorable to the taste 

 as well as the researches of the author. 



