586 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



tomack River, over against his house, where it is 

 near nine miles over: I have ohserved it fi'eezes 

 there the hardest, when from a moist south-east, 

 on a sudden the wind passing by the nore. a 

 nitrous sharp nore-west blows ; not with high 

 gusts, but with a cutting brislc air, and those soils 

 then that seem to be shelter'd Irom the wind, and 

 lie warm, where the air is most stagnant and 

 moist, are frozen the hardest, and seized the soon- 

 est, and there the fruits are more subject to blast 

 than where the air has a iree notion. Snow falls 

 sometmies in pretty (juantity, but rarely continues 

 there above a day or two: Their spring is about a 

 month earlier than in U n gland ; in jfpril they 

 have frequent rains, sometimes several short and 

 suddain gusts. lllay and Jane the heat en- 

 creases, and it is much like our summer, being 

 mitigated with gentle breezes that rise about 9 of 

 the ciocif, and decrease and incline as the sun 

 rises and f dls. July and ^4 u gust those breezes 

 cease, and the air becomes stagnant, that the heat 

 is violent and troublesome. In September the 

 weather usually breaks, suddenly, and there falls 

 generally very considerable rains. When the 

 Aveather breaks, many fall sick, this being the time 

 of an endemical sickness, for seasonings, each- 

 exes, fluxes, scorbutical dropsies, gripes, or the 

 like, which I have attributed to this reason : 

 that by the extraordinary heat the ferment of the 

 blood being raised too high, and the tone of the 

 stomach relaxed, when the weather breaks the 

 blood palls, and like over-fermented liquors is de- 

 pauperated, or turns eager and sharp, and there's 

 a crude digeston, whence the named distem|)ers 

 may be supposed to ensue. And for confirma- 

 tion, I have observed the carminative seeds, such 

 as warm, and whose oil sheaths the acid humours 

 that ever result from crude digestions. But de- 

 coctions that retain the tone of the stomach, as I 

 suppose, by the making the little glands in thetuni- 

 cles of the stomach squeeze out their juice, (for 

 what is bitter may be as well offensive to the sto- 

 mach, as to the palate) and then chalibiates that 

 raise the decayed ferment, are no bad practice; after 

 which, I conceive, armoniack spirits might be very 

 beneficial. Eut their doctors are so learned, that I 

 never met with any of them that understood what 

 armoniack spirits were : Two or three of them one 

 time ran me clear down by consent, that they w&xc 

 vomitive, and that they neverused any thing fbrthat 

 purpose but crocus metallorum ; which indeed 

 every house keeps ; and if their finger, as the say- 

 ing is, ake but, they immediately give three or 

 lour spoonfuls thereof; if this fail, they give him 

 a second dose, then perhaps purge them with 15 

 or 20 grains of the rosin of jalap, afterwards 

 sweat them with Venice treacle, powder af snake- 

 root, or Gascoiii's powder; and when these fail 

 condamalum est.' But to return. 'Tis wonderful 

 what influence the air has over men's bodies, 

 whereof I had my self sad assurances ; for tho' I 

 was in a very close warm room, where was a fire 

 constantly ke|)t, yet there was not the least alter- 

 ation or cliange, whereof I was not sensible when 

 I wassick of the gripes, of which distemper 1 

 may give a farther account in its propter place. 

 When a very ingenious gentlewoman was visited 

 with the same distemper, I had the opportunity of 

 making very considerable observations. I stood 

 at the window, and could view the clouds arise : 

 For there small black fleeting clouds will anso, 



and be ^swifdy carry'd cross the whole element; 

 and as these clouds arose, and came nigher, her 

 torments were encreased, which were grievous as 

 a laboring woman's ; there was not the least cloud 

 but lamentably affected her, and that at a consid- 

 erable distance ; but by her shrielvs it seemed 

 more or less, according to the bigness and near- 

 ness of the clouds. The thunder there is attend- 

 ed often with fiital circumstances : I was with my 

 Lord Howard of Effingham, the governor, when 

 they brought Avord that one Dr. j1. was killed 

 therewith, after this manner: He was smoaking a 

 pipe of tobacco, and looking out at his window 

 when he was struck dead, and immediately be- 

 came so stiff, that he did not fall, but stood lean- 

 ing in the window, v/ith the pipe in his mouth, in 

 the same posture he was in when struck. But 

 this I only deliver as report, tho' I heard the same 

 account from several, without any contradicting it. 

 These things are remarkable, that it generally 

 breaks in at the gable end of the houses, and 

 often kills persons in. or near the chimneys range, 

 darting most fiercely down the funnel of the chim- 

 ney, more especially if there be a fire, (I speak 

 here confusedly of thunder and lightning for 

 when they do any mischief, the crash and light- 

 ning are at the same instant, which must be from 

 the nearness of the cloud.) One time when the 

 thunder split the mast of a boat at James Town, I 

 saw it break fi'om the cloud, which it divided in 

 two, and seein'd as if it had shot them immedi- 

 ately a mile asunder, to the eye: It is dangerous 

 when it thunders standing in a narrow passage, 

 where there's a thorough i)assage, or in a roo*i be- 

 twixt two windows ; tho' several have been kill'd in 

 the open fields. 'Tis incredible to tell how it will 

 strike large oaks, shatter and shiver them, some- 

 times twisting round a tree, sometimes as if it struck 

 the tree backwards and forwards. I had noted a 

 fine spreading oak in James I'oivn Island: in the 

 morning I saw it fair and flourishing, in the even- 

 ing: I observed all the bark of the body of the tree, 

 as if it had been artificially peel'd off^was order- 

 ly spread round the tree, in a ring, whose semi-di- 

 ameter was four yards, the tree in the centre : all 

 the body of the tree was shaken and split, but its 

 boughs had all their bark on ; few leaves were 

 fallen, and those on the boughs as fresh as in the 

 morning, but gradually afterwards withered, as on 

 a tree that is fallen. I have seen several vast oaks 

 and other timber trees twisted, as if it had been a 

 small willow that a man had twisted with his 

 hand, which I could suppose had been done by 

 nothing but the thunder. I have been told by 

 very serious planters, that 30 or 40 years since, 

 when the country was not so open, the thunder 

 was more fierce, and that sometimes after violent 

 thunder and rain, the roads would seem to have 

 perfect casts of brimstone; and 'tis frequent after 

 much thunder and lightning for the air to have a 

 perfect sulpliurious smell. Durst I oiiisr my weak 

 reasons when I write to so great masters thereof) 

 I should here consider the nature of thunder, and 

 compare it with some sul[)hurious spirits which I 

 have drawn from c-als, that I could no way con- 

 dense, yet were inflammable; nay, would" burn 

 afier they passed through water, and that seem- 

 ingly fiercer, if they were not over-power'd there- 

 with. I have kept of this sj)irit a considerable 

 time in bladders; and tho' It appeared as if they 

 were only blown with air, yet if I let it forth, and 



