132 A Brief Account of a Trial at Law, ^c. 



8 and 9. The great question therefore, in the case, was, 

 whether the raising of the dam in 1796 was the sine qua 

 non of the disease ? A variety of testimony was pro- 

 duced by the parties, tending to convince the court and 

 jury of the truth of the affirmative and negative of this 

 question. It was proved, that in each of the years above 

 mentioned, an unusual sickness had prevailed; — that 

 the whole number afflicted with the bilious fever was 

 about 300 ; — that this fever commonly began in July, 

 and ceased in October; — that the fever and ague had 

 also been prevalent in the period aforesaid, but was not 

 confined to place or season. It was also proved, that 

 there were upwards of fifty acres of low marshy ground, 

 on the west side of the river, opposite the town ; — that 

 there was, in July and August, much stagnant v/ater in 

 and about those marshes; and it was contended, (though 

 the fact was doubtful,) that the waters in and about those 

 sunken places, v/ere materially affected by the raising of 

 the dam. To prove that this state of the water, &c. 

 might, and probably would produce the fever, the opin- 

 ion of physicians, and the existence of similar facts in 

 other places, were resorted to. 



It was generally agreed by the medical gentlemen, 

 that the bilious remitting fever, and fever and ague, of 

 our country, are produced by marsh effluvia ; — that this 

 effluvia is caused by animal and vegetable putrefaction ;— 

 that the action of the sun on vegetables or animals, upon 

 the receding of waters from them, frequently causes this 

 putrefaction ; and that the months of July and August, 

 are seasons peculiarly favorable for the production of this 

 effluvia, and its operation upon the human constitution. 

 It was also agreed, that water, though stagnant, does not 

 become dangerous, till it is so fetid as to offend the 

 senses ; and that while vegetables and animals are co- 

 vered with running water, they are innoxious. Of the 

 physicians who had viewed this dam, and the mill-pond 

 made thereby, with the circumstances and situation of 

 the town, some were of the opinion that it was the cause 

 of the sickness, while others doubted or disbelieved it. 

 it was proved, that the raising of the waters by mill- 

 dams, in Salisbury, Colebrook, Roxbury, and in various 

 places in the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, New^ 



