338 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



which are experimented with by those who as- 

 sert there is no value in muck. Muck of this 

 kind would not of course have near the value 

 of that surrounded by maple, oak, and other 

 hard wood timber with a rich loam for soil. 



Mr. Dana says, in his Muck Manual, in 

 speaking of good peat, that it has, chemically, 

 all the ingredients of the best barn manure, 

 with the exception of ammonia, to a small ex- 

 tent. But bear in mind that ammonia is con- 

 tained in the liquid excrement of all animals 

 to as large an amount as it is in the solids, 

 and that it is impossible to retain it all with- 

 out an absorbent. Now as muck is the best 

 absorbent known, there can be no reason why 

 muck composted with manure until it ceases 

 to throw off its most valuable gases, should 

 not increase its value to a large extent. 



If, as Mr. Upham asserts, there is no value 

 in muck, why is it that one- fourth the manure 

 applied to crops of any kind on a reclaimed 

 swamp show as good and better results, than 

 four times the quantity applied to upland? 

 This fact I will prove to Mr. Upham's satis- 

 faction if he will call on me. 



A neighbor of mine has a reclaimed swamp 

 of some fifteen acres, which cuts nearly four 

 tons of good English haj to the acre. This 

 meadow a few years since was a barren peat 

 bog. A slight top dressing of manure, once 

 in three years, is all that is now required. 



If you, Messrs. Editors, or the Messrs. Up- 

 hams, should ever chance to journey from 

 Easthampton to Florence, Mass., I will refer 

 you to what was once a peat bog, nearly mid- 

 way between the two towns, where you can 

 see as fine crops of tobacco, corn, and other 

 crops as grow m the Connecticut valley. 



Although I have not exhausted my subject, 

 I fear I have the patience of editors and read- 

 ers, and close for the present. 



LoRiN Bakrus. 



Ooshen, Mass., May 12, 1870. 



Jfor the New England Farmer, 

 MEDICAL TOPICS. 



BY A MEDICAL MAN. 



The Causes of Disease. 



Sickness does not, as a rule, come upon us 

 unbidden and uninvited. Whatever may be 

 said of the operations of "Him who worketh 

 all things after the counsel of his own will," 

 it is certain that a large majority, if not all of 

 the diseases which afflict humanity, are the re- 

 sults of the operation of natural laws — the 

 legitimate elfects of secondary causes. Some 

 of these causes are beyond our control, and if 

 we suffer, it is no fault of ours ; but many, 

 and, indeed, (juite the greatest number of these 

 causes may be avoided, either wholly or in 

 part, and if we suffer from their effects our 

 sickness is justly chargable to a disobedience 

 of the laws of health. 



The causes of disease are either predispos- 



ing or exciting. Predisposing causes are 

 such material agents, and such omissions and 

 commissions as induce a tendency to disease 

 in general, or to some disease in particular. 

 Exciting causes are such material agents, or, 

 what is far more common, such acts or such 

 neglect on our part as directly induce the 

 disease, determining both the time and the 

 manner of its occurrence. The errors which 

 induce a tendency to disease and which, there- 

 by, become predisposing causes, may be our 

 own, or they may be those of our parents or 

 of others ; but the errors which become the 

 exciting or direct causes of disease are, with 

 few exceptions, our own. The particular 

 kind and character of disease from which a 

 person may suffer, may be determined by 

 either the predisposing or by the exciting 

 cause, and the same agent may be a predis- 

 posing cause in one instance and an exciting 

 cause in another; or, some powerful agent 

 may so affect the system as to ioduce all the 

 phenomena of disease regardless of the opera- 

 tion of any antecedent cause, and, indeed, 

 when no such cause has existed. 



Of the various causes of disease, the follow- 

 ing are most noteworthy, viz : — 

 Miasms. 



By this term is meant the effluvia, exhala- 

 tions, &c., which emanate from vegetable 

 and animal matter while undergoing decompo- 

 sition, ane from the bodies and excretions of 

 sick persons. The exhalations which abound 

 in the vicinity of extensive marshes are called 

 Tnarsh miasma or malaria ; and the emana- 

 tions from decaying animal matter from sta- 

 bles, privies, crowded and unventilated apart- 

 ments, the bodies and excretions of sick per- 

 sons, «&;c., and which are propagated through 

 the medium of the atmosphere, are called in- 

 fections. Intermittent and remit tant fevers 

 are examples of malarious diseases. Typhus 

 and typhoid fevers, measles, small pox, &c., 

 are infectious diseases. 



Contagions. 



This word signifies such material substances 

 as propagate disease from one individual to 

 another, by contact of person or of clothing. 

 Itch and syphilis are contagious diseases, and 

 small pox and the plague are both contagious 

 and infectious. 



Atmospheric Changes, 

 Especially sudden changes from heat to cold, 

 and from cold to heat ; from dry to wet, and 

 from wet to dry ; these alwa\ s predispose to 

 disease, and not unfrequently excite it. Ca- 

 tarrhs pleurisy, pneumonia, bronchitis, &c., 

 are often produced by such causes. 

 Overwork. 



Fatigue of body by excessive physical labor 

 is both the predisposing and exciting cause of 

 many diseases ; and the same may be said, 

 and with much greater emphasis, of excessive 

 mental exertion — indeed, too much brain- work 



