HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                          43

eluded the finest chemical analysis, and no manipulation, however deli-
cate, has ever been able to detect its presence. We see vegetable matter
under the combined influence of heat and moisture, we smell an unpleas-
ant and offensive odor, we see, in those exposed to those influences,
intermittent and remittent diseases; we say malaria is the remote cause;
but little more is known of it than that, in certain localities emitting
offensive odors, certain diseases are prevalent. We call them malarious.
Experience proves that an excess of moisture suspends, to a great extent,
the generation of this agent; and, likewise, an entire want of moisture
stops the decay of vegetation. Therefore, malaria ceases to exist in
those very places where a short time before the most pestilential diseases
were prevailing. Timber, standing or fallen, divested of its foliage, can,
in no wise, contribute to the production of this agent. The decomposition
of the ligneous fiber can but restore itself into its original gases—carbon,
hydrogen and oxygen or into carbonic acid, hydrogen, or light car-
buretted hydrogen. When the cellulose connection of timber is destroyed,
and the succulency dissipated, the dry process commences; and, though
moisture may be externally applied; no malaria can be the result. If the
ligneous fiber resolve itself into its original gases, and they are those
mentioned, if they hold any connection whatever with miasmata, why
does not chemical analysis make the same manifest? In the most marshy
and pestilential portions of Italy, where no man has ever slept without
an attack, no more carbonic acid exists in the atmosphere than in the
most salubrious climes. If carbonic acid were generated by an excess
of moisture, a great portion of it would be absorbed by the water, while
the light, carburetted hydrogen, generated under these circumstances,
when free, would ascend into the higher regions, where no influence
could be exerted upon the hygiene of the surrounding country. Carbonic
acid, no doubt, may become an agent of disease when concentrated, but
not while slowly produced in the open air from the denudation of
ligneous fiber.
    “If the timber in falling should stop at or near the surface of the
water, footing would be given for the growth of moss and other aquatic
plants, none of which can, while living, contribute in the least as cause
of disease. They would be destroyed by the freezes of winter, and slowly
decomposed during the warmer periods of that portion of the year, but
little deleterious influence would be exerted.
    “There seems to be no source of malaria at this reservoir, except the
exposed edge from the lowering of the water, and this is but small in
comparison to the previous state of those grounds.
    “It is the opinion of this committee, that any body of fresh water,
receiving and discharging the same amount that this reservoir does, and
constantly kept in motion by the winds of that prairie country, could not
alone, under the most adverse circumstances, become a source of disease.
We are of the opinion, after carefully comparing and investigating the
present condition of this reservoir with its previous state, that there is
far less cause of disease at present than before these grounds were
permanently submerged.”
    This report was far from satisfactory to those whom it was intended
to pacify. The committee were charged with corruption. The Eel
River Propeller of September 10, 1853, published the following brief
editorial comment on the report:
    “We call the attention of the citizens of Clay county to the report