372 Dr. ingenhousz on the Salubrity 
he could have no conception, was led to come and fee 
what 1 did. He had fcarce been a minute with me 
but I perceived he laboured under a fevere afthma He 
explained his cafe to me, knowing me to be a phyfician,. 
and tokl me, that he had puffed thefe two days very uncom- 
fortably, finding the air Jo uncommonly heavy that he could' 
Jearce draw his breath: which convinced me, that the 
element was in reality become of an inferior quality- 
December 4. Being at Amlferdam, I found the air of 
that place at 103 j the weather being rainy, windy, and 
cold. 
December 5 .. The air was at 102;. the weather nearly 
asyefterday. 
December 10. I returned to Rotterdam, and found 
the air at 101; the weather rainy. 
In the beginning of laft year they made an end of 
draining a large meer (about half the fize of the Haer- 
lemmer Meer) fituated in the neighbourhood of Rotter- 
dam, which was turfed out in former ages. It was now 
laid into arable land, and turned out to be very fruit- 
ful. When this land was quite cleared of the water, an 
uncommon epidemical difeafe broke out in all the places 
fituated upon the borders of this lake ; it began 
about Auguft, and abated when the winter feafon fet in. 
This diftemper broke out a-frefh laft fummer, and was 
3 
now 
