826 NATURE OF MALARIA. 



burning charcoal, while cleaning plate in a small 

 room, the door and windows of which were closed, 

 was seized with shivering, drowsiness, stupor, 

 nausea, pains in the head, back, and limbs, fol- 

 lowed by thirst, dry skin, and fever, that con- 

 tinued for two days, when he gradually returned 

 to his former state of good health. It is therefore 

 impossible to deny, that carbonic acid alone is 

 capable of generating fever, which varies in its 

 character according to the time of exposure, the 

 amount inhaled in a given time, the constitution of 

 the patient, &c. that when greatly concentrated, 

 as in the black hole of Calcutta, crowded ships, 

 jails, barracks, and workhouses, it produces all 

 the symptoms of malignant typhus, such as coma, 

 delirium, subsultus tendinum, and a dissolved 

 condition of the blood, especially in persons al- 

 ready predisposed by the depressing passions, 

 want of suitable nourishment, clothing, and ex- 

 ercise. 



It is maintained by Dr. Bancroft, Caldwell, 

 and others, that if carbonic acid were the cause 

 of fever, it ought to be produced in cases of expo- 

 sure to the atmosphere of crowded assemblies, and 

 all places in which it is more abundant than in 

 the open air. To which I answer, that many 

 individuals of delicate constitution are actually 

 predisposed to catarrh, pneumonia, phthisis, rheu- 

 matism, and fever, by remaining for only two or 

 three hours in crowded and ill ventilated churches, 



