280 EFFECTS OF CALXING UN HEALTH. 



of every farm is left unmarlcd, and as free as ever to evolve the 

 agent of disease. So sure does this opinion seem to me, that I 

 have commenced acting on it, by marling the wood-land that is not 

 designed to be cleared for cultivation and shall continue, as more 

 necessary labours permit, to do so, until not an acre of the farm 

 is left without being changed in character by calcareous earth. 



It is proper to add, as an opinion founded on but limited expe- 

 rience as yet, that though the cases of sickness on Coggins Point 

 farm have cerfhinly diminished very greatly there not being one 

 case of late years of bilious disease, where there were twenty 

 formerly still that the diseases seem to have changed in kind, 

 and to have increased in severity and danger. Formerly, there 

 was almost no sickness except from ague and fever (or, very rarely, 

 a case of mild bilious fever), from which, though few persons 

 escaped through the autumn, and some suffered several relapses, 

 the attacks were rarely dangerous, and required little skill, and 

 but a few days to cure, for that time. Bad as was this state of 

 things, it seemed that the ague and fever acted as a safety-valve 

 to the system, and while it seldom permitted the enjoyment of long- 

 continued robust health, it prevented the occurrence of more 

 dangerous or fatal diseases, such as are the most common among 

 the fewer diseases of what are deemed healthy regions. The fewer 

 diseases of my adult negroes for the last twelve or thirteen years 

 have been of a more inflammatory kind, and are not confined to 

 autumn ; and there have been certainly more severe and fatal dis- 

 eases, and more that required medical aid, than formerly, when 

 there was so much more of sickness of one kind, and confined to 

 one season. In short, it seems that the diseases arc no longer (or 

 but in few cases) those of the low country and of a bilious climate, 

 but are more like those of the upper country, which, though 

 occurring but rarely, are generally of a more serious nature. The 

 facts on whick this particular opinion has been formed, are still too 

 few, and of too short continuance, to attach to them much import- 

 ance ; and even if they were less doubtful, I have not the medical 

 knowledge to trace these new effects back to their causes. Still, it 

 is deemed due to candour, and to the desire for a fair and full in- 

 vestigation of the subject, even if making against my own views, 

 that these opinions should be stated. There is no other subject, 

 than this, taken in general, which more deserves and requires in- 

 vestigation ; and in the present inchoate state of the discussion, 

 the expression of even erroneous opinions will not be useless, if it 

 should serve to elicit more full or correct ones from other sources. 



Nothing better than this one subject deserves investigation by 

 medical men, acting under the direction of government. ^ The ma- 

 terials for information are now abundant, in the experience and 

 observation of the numerous farmers who have marled or limed 



