Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

cause. A rank vegetation, dependant on a hot | cesses of life, but more particularly cold in some sun, and moist soil, could not but be early form, excites disease, recognised as of miasmatic noticed as a prolific one; and the idea of a origin, into action. Taking this view, it becomes peculiar exhalation from the earth, mingling an easy matter to account for the seeming anomawith, and poisoning the atmosphere, was but a lies mentioned; and we no longer wonder why in natural conclusion; and which continued obser- low and flat grounds, where the nightly radiation vation has gone far to establish, notwithstanding of heat from the earth's surface lowers the temthe most careful analyses has failed to detect it. perature of the contiguous atmosphere, with It must therefore exist in such a peculiar and resulting condensation of its moisture, that the attenuated form, as yet to be beyond the chilling effects from fogs and copious falling chemist's test. The Italians called it malaria, dews are experienced by the sufferer. Or why or bad air. At the present day it is often called the rainy season following the dry, in many miasma, a Greek work expressive of impurity, tropical countries, is so prolific in miasmatic or marsh miasma, indicating its source. disease; or in temperate latitudes, it should seem to be dissipated by rain storms, when the dry bracing westerly winds prevail so generally afterwards; at least in our country.

Later observations go to show, however, that it is not confined to the marsh. In the rapid settlement of this country, by an agricultural population, it was but too evident, that, in the upturning of the virgin soil to the sun and air, sickness often to an alarming extent followed. The vicinity of brick yards, and numerous cellar excavations, in the out-skirts of our rapidly growing cities, and the construction of our public works, in their traverse of the country, were likewise frequently attended by very unhealthy effects when far removed from any marsh. Hence the term marsh miasma is evidently a misnomer; and yet so wedded do we become to the old ideas that the presence of moisture is necessary to its production, that wherever miasmatic fever prevails, the vicinity of some stagnant pool is apt to be hunted up for a cause; notwithstanding the time of greatest sickness is mostly during the driest season of the year, when pools mostly disappear.

The Italians early investigated the subject; and noticing in many instances its seemingly anomalous morbid effects, in certain places of their country, gave to it a character too fanciful to be recognised by a rigid philosophy. They taught that it attached itself to particles of floating moisture in the atmosphere; lurked in ditches, and invaded often the lower rooms only of houses; was arrested in its progress by trees, and beaten to the earth by storms of rain; with other properties often involving a good deal of inconsistency. These ideas were received, and with too little examination promulgated by the learned of other nations, so that even in our latest medical works we have but little more than a reprint of Italian fancies.

In the progressive settlement of this country, and intelligence of the age, an excellent chance was afforded for observation and inquiry; and from accumulated facts, we should consider it as a predisposing cause, and not exciting, as heretofore; that is, the human system is so far debilitated in its vital functions, by this deleterious agent in the atmosphere, that any of the exciting causes of disease, as cold from sudden changes of temperature, exposure to damp night air, excesses, and interference with the regular pro

The diseases caused by malaria are mostly peculiar in a distinguishing feature of alternate remissions, and exacerbations often very distinct. Intermittent fever, or fever and ague, is by far the most common form, and the most difficult entirely to get rid of. Bilious remittent fever and dysentery, if less common, are more fatal. Bilious diarrahoa, and some forms of neuralgia, are traceable to the same source.

In the exhalation of malaria from so many sources, it becomes widely diffused, and most of us become subject to its influence, and measurably liable to an attack. It remains with me, therefore, to indicate the preventive; which, if carried out, will go far to lessen this liability. The following precautions are therefore recommended.

First and most important.-As at this season of the year we are much effected by the sweltering heats of the summer's sun, it should be our constant endeavor to avoid as much as in our power lies exposure to the chilly air of the night; never, therefore, sit out of an evening, whilst the dew is falling, or even saunter about; or if necessarily exposed, put on your coat or shawl of woolen; otherwise, the sudden check to the perspiratory flow of the previous day, may be followed the next by an attack of ague, or the premonitory symptons of bilious remittent, or dysentery. This. precaution is very neeessary in all low districts, or newly settled countries. I knew an instance of a large boarding school entirely exempt, by being thus particular, when chills and fever prevailed in every family around. If by any chance you should be exposed to the damp and cool night air, let sufficient exercise be taken to keep off a chilly feeling; for be it known that when the chilly sensation is once felt, the mischief is often then done. In a word, adopt every precautionary measure which an intelligent mind may suggest, to shield yourself from sudden cold.

Second.-Avoid excess of diet, indigestible food, be regular at meals, and temperate in drink; cold water in excess may be hurtful.

[blocks in formation]

The longer the beam of a plow, the less power is required to draw the plow; because the beam is a lever, through which the power is exerted, and, by extending the beam, the long arm of the lever is lengthened, and the leverage is thereby increased. The same is true of many other implements and tools-such as spades, pitchforks, wheelbarrows, planes, screwdrivers, augurs, gimlets, &c.

The greater the diameter of the wheels of a carriage, the less power it requires to overcome the inequalities of a road; both because the leverage is increased by lengthening the spokes, or radii of the wheels, which are the long arms of the levers, whereby the power is exerted, and because the steepness or abruptness of the obstructions presented to the wheels is lessened by the greater circumference of the wheels. But there is a near limit to the size of the wheels, beyond which no advantage is gained by increasing. For when the axles of the wheels become higher than the point of draught on the animal, a portion of the power exerted merely adds to the weight, or pressure, of the carriage upon the ground; and the portion thus lost increases with the increased height of the axle above the horizontal line of draught. Besides, the increasing weight of enlarged wheels soon more than counteracts the advantages gained by increasing their diameter.

More carriages meet than overtake a pedestrian, on a road; simply because the length of road offering the opportunity to meet, is the sum of the distances passed over by the opposite travellers, while the length of road offering the opportunity to overtake, is only the difference of the distances passed over by the pedestrian and the drivers. The chances in the one case are reckoned by the sum, and in the other case by the difference of the speed of the walker and the

rider.

The breezes in the groves, on a still day, are explained by the trunks, branches, and leaves of

the trees offering the obstruction of their oppo. sing surfaces to whatever motion the air may have, thereby simply causing a greater velocity through the spaces between them.

Winds produce cold in several ways. The act of blowing implies the descent upon, and motion over the earth, of colder air, to occupy the room of that which it displaces. It also increases the evaporation of moisture from the earth, and thus conveys away considerable heat. This increased evaporation, and the mixture of warm and cold air, usually produce a condensation of vapors in the atmosphere; hence the formation of clouds, and the consequent detention of the heat brought by the rays of the sun. And whenever air in motion is colder than the earth, or any bodies with which it comes in contact, a portion of their heat is imparted to the air.

"All signs of rain fail in a dry time;" "wet begets more wet." There is real philosophy in these proverbs. In a dry time, comparatively little evaporation can take place from the parched earth, and the atmosphere becomes but slowly charged with moisture-the source of rain. In a wet time evaporation goes on rapidly from the saturated earth, and soon overcharges the atmosphere with moisture.

The cold moderates immediately preceding a fall of snow; because the vapor in the atmosphere, in the act of congealing into snow, parts with many degrees of heat, which before were latent, and which are at once imparted to the surrounding atmosphere.

The same is true in respect to the condensation of vapor in a rain; but the amount of latent heat thereby made sensible, is much less than in the act of freezing, and it is generally compensated by the loss of heat in the evaporation taking place from the earth after the rain falls. During the fall both of rain and snow, the atmosphere usually becomes gradually colder; because the source of heat derived from the sunshine is, for the time, cut off, and therefore does not supply the loss by evaporation and radiation from the earth. Rain and snow are also usually accompanied by wind, a consumer of heat.

It is less tiresome to walk than to stand still a given length of time; for in walking, each set of muscles is resting half of the time, but when standing still, the muscles are continually exerted. The exertion of the muscles in the effort of walking, is not twice as great as in standing still; hence, the former is not equal to the double continuation of the latter.

A considerable quantity of food, taken at one time, into the stomach, is more readily digested than a very small quantity; because, in the former case, the food coming into contact with the entire inner surface of the stomach, excites the action of the organ, and occasions the secretion of gastric fluid ordinarily sufficient for digesting; but in the latter case, there is not enough food

in the stomach to excite its action. This accounts for the fact often affording a matter of surprise, that persons are frequently made very ill by taking into the stomach a very small quantity of food, when it is remarked that the same persons have previously taken much larger quantities of the same kinds of food with impunity.

The fur or hair of an animal effectually protects it from cold, not so much by covering the body and shutting in the heat, as by preventing the circulation of air around it, so that the heat cannot be rapidly conveyed away. And the arrangement of hairs perpendicularly, or nearly so, ⚫ on the surface of the body, by the law of reflection, permits the radiation of but very little heat from the body.

The human system, in its vital or muscular power, is very analogous to an electric machine. Dampness dispels the force of both, apparently in the same way. Hence the debilitating effect of hot weather, caused principally by excessive perspiration. The quantity of perspiration can be greatly lessened by refraining from unnecessary drinking. Any one can soon school himself to the requirement of several times less of liquid than he is usually accustomed to drink, by taking only a small quantity at once, and repeating it only as often as thirst is felt.-The Pen and the Lever.

[blocks in formation]

They all are to my bosom dear,
They all God's messengers appear!
Preludes to songs that spirits hear!
Mute prophecies!

Faint types of a resplendent sphere
Beyond the skies!

The clouds-the mist-the sunny air-
All that is beautiful and fair,
Beneath, around, and every where,
Were sent in love,

And some eternal truth declare
From heaven above!

EVENING HOUR.
This is the hour when memory wakes
Visions of joy that could not last;
This is the hour when fancy takes
A survey of the past!

She brings before the pensive mind

The hallowed scenes of earlier years, And friends who long have been consign'd To silence and to tears!

The few we liked-the one we loved-
A sacred band!-come stealing on;
And many a form far hence remov'd,
And many a pleasure gone!
Friendships that now in death are hush'd,
And young affection's broken chain;
And hopes that fate too quickly crush'd,
In memory live again!

Few watch the fading gleam of day,
But muse on hopes, as quickly flown,
Tint after tint they died away,

Till all at last were gone!

This is the hour when fancy wreathes
Her spells round joys that could not last;
This is the hour when memory breathes
A sigh to pleasures past.

INFLUENCE OF CHARACTER.

There is much in the following suggestions. of Bishop Potter, of New York, as profitable for the meditation of parents as of teachers, to whom, as a class, they were specially addressed. We quote from an address delivered before the State Normal School at Albany:

"The teacher cannot impart to others what he does not possess himself. If he be coarse and clownish, he will not do much to refine and humanise his pupils. If he be void of feeling and sentiment, dead to the beauties of nature, and to the beauties of thought and language, there will be nothing suggestive in his glances at nature and life; no repetition of beautiful stories, or of beautiful scraps of simple poetry, to kindle the feeling and imagination of his pupils, and to teach them to recognise and admire what is admirable in sentiment and language.

"Speaking, then, of things which are over and above the elementary instruction you have to limpart, I would say to you emphatically, that

just in proportion as you improve yourselves in all the respects to which I have now referred, in just such proportion will you contribute to the improvement of your pupils. Of all the daily lessons you can set before them, the best and most valuable is the presence of a beautiful character. O, it is character-character in the parent, character in the teacher-which works upon the young, drawing them into a resemblance to itself, and doing more to improve their minds, their hearts, and their manners, than can be effected by the most diligent instruction in mere book knowledge.

COMETS.

In ancient times, the visits of comets were supposed to portend pestilence and war; and in the reign of Justinian, when two immense "blazing stars" appeared, the direful expectations were abundantly fulfilled-not, however, that those calamities, which desolated large portions of the Eastern Roman Empire, had any connection with the comets. The first alarmed mankind in the month of September, A. D. 531, and was seen for twenty days in the western quarter of the heavens, shooting its rays into the north. The second appeared A. D. 539, and increased to so large a size, that the head was in the east, and the tail reached the west. It was visible for forty days, the sun at the time exhibiting unusual paleness. Varro records a

"Take the children and youth who are often collected together in a rural school, and not one of whom, perhaps, has ever enjoyed the privilege of familiar communication with a person of real refinement and cultivation; and what a tradition, that in the time of Ogyges, the wonder it must be to them, and what a blessing, father of Grecian antiquity, the planet Venus to find themselves daily looking upon, listening changed her color, size, figure, and course; a to, conversing with a teacher who seems a prodigy without example, either in past or sucsuperior being; a being invested with a won- ceeding ages. This refers to 1767 years before derful charm, from the gentleness and dignity Christ. Tremendous comets appeared in the of his or her manners; the elevation of his sen- west, two generations prior to the reign of timents; the sweetness and gravity of his speech; Cyrus ; but one of the most splendid comets was and the wide range of his thoughts. seen forty-four years before the birth of Christ. After the death of Julius Cæsar, a "long-haired star" was conspicuous to Rome and to the nations, during the games that were exhibited by young Octavian, in honor of Venus and his uncle Julius Cæsar; and the vulgar believed that it conveyed the divine soul of the latter to heaven. The superstition was universal among the ancients, that a comet, "from its horrid hair shakes pestilence and war!" But modern philosophy and research have successfully dispelled such vain and idle apprehensions, in all civilized nations. At the birth of the great Mithridates, King of Pontus, two large comets appeared, whose splendor is fabulously said to have equalled that of the sun. They were seen for seventytwo days together, and occupied forty-five degrees, or the fourth part of the visible heavens. Seneca, the Roman philosopher, who lived in the first century of the Christian era, wrote: "The time will come, when the nature of comets and their magnitude will be demonstrated, and the courses they take, so different from those of the planets; and posterity will wonder that the preceding ages should have been ignorant in matters so plain and easy to be known." Arago thought that not less than seven thousand comets revolved in our system. Comets sometimes pass unobserved by the inhabitants of the earth, in consequence of the part of the heavens in which they move being then under daylight. During a total eclipse of the sun, sixty years before Christ, a large comet, not previously seen, became visible near the body of the obscured luminary. Halley's comet, A. D. 1456, covered a sixth part of the visible heavens, and was likened to a Turkish scymitar. That observed by Newton, A. D. 1680, had a

"They behold human character in a more engaging form than ever before; and while they admire, they learn to imitate. They perceive that there is something more excellent than their coarse manners and slovenly speech; and they become chastened and refined under the daily example, almost without thinking of it. The teacher reasons with caution and discrimination in their presence; kindles into admiration of some lofty trait of virtue; or expresses horror at some instance of meannesss, cruelty, or depravity; or exercises patience and tenderness toward some infirm and wayward pupil; or points out something exquisitely beautiful in thought and sentiment and character; and as they look on and listen, they begin to feel more deeply what is noble and what is mean; they begin to perceive what it is to reason accurately. "The character and demeanor of the teacher is a new revelation of goodness and wisdom, and they are glad to become disciples; their intellectual and moral nature catches a glow, is put into healthful exercise, and they gain more by a kind of infection and transfusion from the one superior character than they could acquire from the greatest amount of mere cold and barren lessons. Accurate and vigorous instruction there must of course be without that, it is mere folly and impertinence to pretend to the higher influences of which I have been speaking. But the higher the culture of the teacher, the better he will know how to make that instruction pleasant and effective; and how to throw over it and around it beautiful and touching lessons for the heart, the fancy, and the taste.

Germantown Telegraph.

tail 123,000,000 of miles in length. A comet,

For Friends' Intelligencer.

A. D. 1744, had six tails, spread out like a fan, Review of the Weather, &c., for SEVENTH across a large space in the sky.-Pennsylvania

Inquirer.

WHAT A WOMAN CAN DO.

As a wife and mother, woman can make the fortune and happiness of her husband and children; and even if she did nothing else, surely this would be sufficient destiny. By her thrift, prudence and tact, she can secure to her partner and herself a competence in old age, no matter how small their beginning, or how adverse a fate occasionally be theirs. By her cheerfulness she can restore her husband's spirit, shaken by the anxieties of business. By her tender care she can often restore him to health, if disease has seized upon his overtasked powers. By her counsel and her love, she can win him from bad company, if temptation in an evil hour has led him astray. By her example, her precepts, and her sex's insight into character, she can mould her children, however diverse their dispositions, into good and noble men and women. And by leading in all things a true and beautiful life, she can refine, elevate and spiritualize all who come within reach, so that with others of her sex emulating and assisting her, she can do more to regenerate the world than all the statesmen or reformers that ever legislated. She can do as much, alas! perhaps even more, to degrade man, if she chooses to do it.

month.

[blocks in formation]

Cloudy without storms,

Ordinary clear,.

[ocr errors]

0

1 "

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

79.68° 75°

[ocr errors]

1.50in 3.91 in

Mean temperature of the month, per
Pennsylvania Hospital,
Amount of rain falling during do.

The average Mean Temperature of this month for the past sixty-eight years is 75.56 degrees; the highest ditto during that entire period (1793 and 1838) was 81 degrees, and the lowest, (the memorable 1816,) 68 degrees.

In reference to rain, although during the fore part of the month quite a number of days were chronicled on which rain fell, we learn from the record at the Pennsylvania Hospital, that, up to the 22d inclusive, only 0.32 inches, (about one third of an inch) had fallen, while on the 23d, 1.56 inches fell."

Hail, accompanied the rain on several occasions during the latter part of the month, while in many sections of the United States, most terrific and destructive hail storms have prevailed, blasting the fond hopes of the husband

man.

[blocks in formation]

ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF PLACES.

Names have all some meaning when first im

Who can estimate the evil that woman has the power to do? As a wife, she can ruin her husband by extravagance, folly, or want of affection. She can make a devil and an outcast of a man, who might otherwise have become a good mem-posed; and when a place is inhabited for the first ber of society. She can bring bickerings, strife time by any people, they apply to it some term, and perpetual discord into what has been a in early times generally descriptive of its natural happy home. She can change the innocent peculiarities, or something else on account of babes whom God has entrusted to her charge, which it is remarkable, from their own language. into vile men, and even viler women. She can When we find, therefore, that the old names of lower the moral tone of society itself, and thus natural objects and localities in a country bepollute legislation at the spring head. She can, long, for the most part, to a particular language, in fine, become an instrument of evil instead of we may conclude with certainty that a people an angel of good. Instead of making flowers of speaking that language formerly occupied the truth, purity, beauty and spirituality spring up country. Of this the names they have so imin her footsteps, till the whole earth smiles with pressed are as sure a proof as if they had left a loveliness that is almost celestial, she can trans- distinct record of their existence in words engra form it to a black and blasted desert, covered ven on the rocks. Such old names of places with the scorn of all evil passions, and swept by often long outlive both the people that bestowed the bitter blasts of everlasting death. This is them, and nearly all the material monuments of what a woman can do for the wrong as well as their occupancy. The language, as a vehicle of for the right. Is her mission a little one? Has oral communication, may gradually be forgotten, she no "worthy work," as has become the cry and be heard no more where it was once in uniof late? Man may have a hardier task to per-versal use; and the old topographical nomenclaform, a rougher path to travel, but he has none ture may still remain unchanged. Were the loftier or more influential than woman's.- Wo-Irish tongue, for instance, utterly to pass away man's Advocate. and perish in Ireland, as the speech of any por

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »