An inquiry into the nature and cause of miasmata, more particularly illustrated in the former and present state of the Campagna di Roma

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Clowes, 1825 - 157 pages
 

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Page 114 - Whatever fruits in different climes are found, That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground ; Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear, Whose bright succession decks the varied year ; Whatever sweets salute the northern sky With vernal lives, that blossom but to die ; These here disporting own the kindred soil, Nor ask luxuriance from the planter's toil; While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.
Page 70 - ... of the atmosphere, than the marsh miasmata. Contact of a diseased person is said to be necessary for the communication of plague ; and approach within two or three yards of him, for that of typhus. The Walcheren miasmata extended their pestilential influence to vessels riding at anchor, fully a quarter of a mile from the shore.
Page 61 - ... and all the phenomena may be explained, if 'falling stars be supposed to be small solid bodies moving round the earth in very eccentric orbits, which become ignited only when they pass with immense velocity through the upper regions of the atmosphere, and if the meteoric bodies which throw down stones with explosions be supposed to be similar bodies which contain either combustible or elastic matter.
Page 70 - The contagious virus of the plague, smallpox, measles, chincough, cynanche maligna, and scarlet fever, as well as of typhus and the jail fever, operates to a much more limited distance through the medium of the atmosphere than the marsh miasmata. Contact of a diseased person is said to be necessary for the communication of plague ; and approach witliin two or three yards of him for that of typhus.
Page 116 - In the tracts mentioned in the motto, the malaria has been established for many ages; but now it is advancing on the suburbs, and the city of Rome, while the checks opposed to its progress are either defective or absurd.
Page 41 - Roman empire a few centuries afterwards, transported their armies and waggons across the ice of these rivers. The Improvement that is continually taking place in the climate of America, proves, that the power of man extends to phenomena, which, from the magnitude and variety of their causes, seemed entirely beyond his control. At Guiana, in South America, within five degrees of the line, the inhabitant» living amid immense forests, a century ago, were obliged to alleviate the severity of the cold...
Page 65 - Dew, according to Aristotle, is a species of rain, formed in the lower atmosphere, in consequence of its moisture being condensed by the cold of the night into minute drops.
Page 60 - I. show that the luminous appearances of shooting stars and meteors cannot be owing to any inflammation of elastic fluids, but must depend upon the ignition of solid bodies. Dr. Halley calculated the height of a meteor at ninety miles, and the great American meteor, which threw down showers of stones, was estimated at seventeen miles high. The velocity of motion of these bodies must in all cases be immensely great, and the heat produced by the compression of the most rarefied air from the velocity...
Page 41 - At Guiana, in South America, within five degrees of the line, the inhabitants living amid immense forests, a century ago, were obliged to alleviate the severity of the cold, by evening fires. Even the duration of the rainy season 'has been shortened by the clearing of the country, and the warmth is so increased, that a fire now would be deemed an annoyance. It thunders continually in the woods, rarely in the cultivated parts.
Page 66 - Wells shows, that very little is ever deposited in opposite circumstances ; and thai little only when the clouds are very high. It is never seen on nights both cloudy and windy ; and if in the course of the night the weather, from being serene, should become dark and stormy, dew which had been deposited will disappear. In calm weather, if the sky be partially covered with clouds, more dew will appear than if it were entirely uncovered.

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