con the Effects of Ragnant Air. $43 
low underground rooms, or elfe in garrets, fo fituated as not to 
admit of a free circulation of air. The rooms were alfo confi- 
derably lefs in proportion to the number of men than ufual. 
Struck with thefe difcoveries, I concluded at once; thát the dif- 
eafe arofe from a confined ftagnant air ; deprived by this means. 
of its natural elafticity, and loaded with putrid. effluvia. from the 
. bodies of the unhappy people. who lived. in. it... Having com«- 
municated my difcoveries to the Colonel, I requefted. that. the 
men, (both fick and well) might be removed out of thofe rooms- 
into fuch as were more airy and. capacious.. This meafure was 
attended with the moft falutary confequences... Thofe who were 
fick recovered i in a fhort time, except one or two that died ; and. 
no more > being feized, with the difeafe, ina few, Tegl- 
ment rely | ere was: nothing pocelinesi ix 
the fymptoms. which. da the:difeafe, except,,as is-ufuabim 
vernal diftempers, , that there wasa greater degree of inflamation. 
than commonly | attends autumnal. diforders., of the fame. genus. 
The difcovery. of this fingular inftance of the. pernicious effects: 
of confined flagnant air, was: of great ufe to-me inthe courfe of 
the campaign... In.the months of July and. Auguft, the dyfen- 
tery, bilious and. other fevers-of the putrid kind, became very rife” 
both i in: the:army.and country... Great pains -were taken to pro+ 
eure for our men who: were fick, with: any) of thofe diforders, 
large rooms, and to have them well ventilated... Yet, under thefe 
E cwn I frequently obferved, that ((cesiris paribus) the . 
fick who hay, i inand near the.corners»of the rooms, were handled 
much more fevercly than thofe whichiayim the middieo* them. ` / 
I do not remember. to:have met with-this' obfervauion befores” 
but it is-undoubtedly of great importance im the gen 
b ia and other putrid difeafes. ' 
NGF 
