242 THE ATMOSPHERE, AND 



was impossible. Scarcely was the door shut upon the 

 prisoners, when their sufferings, for want of fresh air, 

 commenced, and in six hours ninety-six of them were 

 dead. In the morning only twenty-three of them were 

 living, many of whom were subsequently cut off by pu- 

 trid fever, caused by the dreadful effluvia and the corrup- 

 tion of the air. Other cases are recorded of persons 

 dying, for want of fresh air, in small, close cabins ; and 

 numerous cases are annually recorded of deaths caused 

 by burning charcoal in close apartments, where the oxygen 

 is abstracted from the atmosphere, by the carbon of the 

 charcoal, to form carbonic acid. But it is not only where 

 death or severe sickness ensues, that the breathing of viti- 

 ated air is hurtful ; it is always prejudicial, more or less, 

 to health ; it impairs the constitution, and is often the 

 latent cause of diseases which ultimately prove fatal. 

 " The chief symptoms," says Orfila, " which follow the 

 breathing impure air, are great heaviness in the head, 

 tingling in the ears, troubled sight, a great inclination to 

 sleep, diminution of strength, and falling down." These 

 sensations are experienced in crowded, heated rooms, in 

 steam-boat and canal-boat cabins, &c. 



Decaying animal and vegetable matters are a prolific 

 source of disease, by vitiating the atmosphere we breathe, 

 particularly in cellars, close yards, or other places where 

 the effluvia they generate are not speedily dissipated by the 

 winds. Hence fevers are most prevalent where due re- 

 gard is not had to cleanliness, as in dwellings where there 

 are wet and dirty cellars, adjoining filthy yards and lanes, 

 and in houses in and about which animal and vegetable 

 matters are suffered to accumulate and putrefy. Hence 

 the sickness that pervades newly-cleared countries, from 

 the decay of vegetable matters, on the first exposure of 

 the soil to the full influence of solar heat. 



The deleterious influence of stagnant waters upon the 

 atmosphere is known to all, and when combined with 

 animal and vegetable putrefaction, the evil is greatly in- 

 creased. Hence the draining of marshes and wet lands 

 contributes essentially to the healthiness of a neighborhood. 



Combustion also vitiates the air in close rooms, par- 



